Heat Resilience Challenge for Mobile Homes

Meeting time

Wednesday 6pm

Project description

The goal of the Heat Resilience Challenge is to alleviate the negative health and socio-economic impacts of extreme heat upon residents of mobile homes. Every year in Arizona, several hundred fatalities are reported due to extreme heat, with a disproportionate number of these occurring among mobile home residents. Moreover, extreme heat also causes a number of nonfatal health issues among mobile home residents, many of which go unaddressed. Reasons for these adverse outcomes include the high cost of air conditioning in the summer, socio-economic issues among residents, and the poor state of infrastructure in mobile home parks, among others.                  ​

​Several solutions have been proposed to address this problem, including solar shades to provide cooling, skirting to provide insulation, and photovoltaic panels to provide additional cheap electricity. The goal of this project is to determine which existing solutions should be applied to different real-world examples of mobile home parks based on differing conditions. To date we have generated a AHP table and decision matrix to weigh our possible solutions as well as a basic website prototype and a early prototype of our early warning detection system. This semester we will be working to improve our website prototype that allows park residents and managers to find what solutions best fit their needs. We are also working to develop an early warning detection system that uses temperature and humidity sensors as well as a wifi module to send text alert notifications if a mobile home becomes an unsafe environment.

Location

Arizona