Alfred University senior designs solar power system for ‘tiny house’

ALFRED, NY – “Tiny houses,” those usually consisting of less than 500 square feet of living space, have increased in popularity over the last decade, as affordability and concerns over the environment and energy consumption prompted a portion of the American population to downsize their homes. At Alfred University, senior Jackson Norwood has taken his long-held interest in solar energy and applied it to “tiny living,” developing a system that uses the sun to power a small, environmentally-friendly home.
Norwood, a resident of Livonia, MI, who is set to graduate this month with a bachelor’s degree in renewable energy engineering, chose as his senior design project a solar photovoltaic (PV) system for a tiny house. The house was designed during the 2016-017 academic year by a group of about a dozen Alfred University mechanical and renewable energy engineering students as their senior design projects. Construction of the tiny house is being done by students in the building trades program at nearby Alfred State College.
“Our students have been involved in the tiny house design from its initial conception,” explained Xingwu Wang, professor of electrical engineering and renewable energy engineering in Alfred University’s Inamori School of Engineering. “Energy requirements are lower than they used to be; much less electricity is needed. Engineering students know energy limitations. Jackson was looking for the minimum requirement (of power needed for the tiny house).”
For Norwood, the choice for his senior design project was an easy one. “I came here as a renewable energy engineering major because of my love of solar energy,” he said. “I learned about it in high school and looked at it as the wave of the future.”
Over the last two semesters, Norwood has researched and designed a solar PV system that will provide an “essential power load” to the tiny house. He explained that his system will provide solar-generated power for the entire house, with the exception of the heating and cooling systems. His system will power indoor and outdoor lighting, a refrigerator and other appliances, wall outlets (which power “plug-in” items like a computer and internet router), and water pumps.
Norwood’s solar PV system is made up of four “subsystems”: an array of eight solar panels; a lithium ion battery bank for power storage; a “smart inverter” which switches 48-volt DC from the batteries and solar array to 120-volt AC power for the house; and a “grid tie” which connected to the smart inverter, allowing a switch to on-grid power, required when battery-stored power runs low. 
The system was designed to accommodate the weather and temperatures in the Alfred area. Based on the average number of days with rain or no sunshine, the system was designed so that batteries would power the house one-third of the time. The system cannot provide enough solar energy to power the heating and cooling systems; that power would come from the grid or another power source.
Norwood said his project only involved designing the system, which when completed will utilize solar panels and batteries purchased from an outside vendor. Other Alfred University engineering students will undertake the task of designing the system that provides energy to the inside of the house.
When he came to Alfred, Norwood aspired to pursue a career in research, but now hopes to someday work in system design and installation.
“That really fascinates me. Designing those systems would be cool,” said Norwood, who has accepted a position with Naval Nuclear Laboratory in Schenectady. He will be working in an electrical engineering group at Naval Nuclear Laboratory, a U.S. government contractor which developing and provides technical support for advanced naval nuclear propulsion technology used by the Navy.