IHS physics students' innovation helps conservation effort

Conservation is so hot right now (ask Al Gore)! Good thing Issaquah High physics students are capturing some of that heat and putting it to good use.

Students in science teacher Tom Haff's class have designed a system to use the energy from hot water running through showers, dishwashers, and clothes washers to heat a house. First, they polled their peers to get statistics about how long each spent showering—the most squeaky-clean of the group averaged about 40 minutes. That's a lot of waste considering a drop of hot water lasts only about 10 seconds between the shower head and drain!

Without a recapture system, all of the energy needed to heat that water—and, hence, the money spent on utility bills—is literally flushed down the drain. So the Issaquah students' system uses a retention tank tucked inside a wall to capture the used hot water and send its heat throughout a house.

The students built an actual model of the tank in their classroom. In fact, they were so excited about the project that they formed a conservation club to raise funds for the equipment. They stayed after the final bell on the last day of school to work on the construction. And they shot a one-minute video showcasing the concept that they submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in hopes of winning a contest to have the footage posted on its website or shown at a film festival—it could catch on worldwide!

Watch for this good-sense system soon in a theater—er... home—near you.

• Above right: Issaquah High physics students Elyssa Dixon and Kyle Corbitt put together the framework of their heat recapturing system.
   
• Above left: Teacher Tom Haff hammers in some finishing touches.

Read the Seattle Times article