Solar-powered innovation is the name of the game at the first Solar Decathlon -- sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Fourteen collegiate teams -- all engineering students -- met on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to design, build and operate solar-powered homes. The homes must accommodate and fuel a contemporary lifestyle -- using only the power of the sun. The teams are then judged in ten different categories, including: architecture; engineering (heating of water, lighting); provision of enough power to support a home office and power an electric car; and overall energy balance. Each category is assigned a point value (for a maximum of 1100 points), and the team with the highest score has their day in the sun -- and walks off with the prestigious honor. The students arrive at the mall and begin re-constructing their home designs. At the Solar Decathlon, innovation is encouraged. To make their homes more energy efficient -- and with an eye toward environmental conservation -- many teams are using reclaimed or recycled materials. Some teams are building with Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), comprised of several inches of polystyrene sandwiched between oriented strandboard. These thick walls (figure A) are key to keeping heat inside the home once collected by the solar panels. The Carnegie-Mellon University team is building a traditional frame house, but is insulating with a unusual material made from blue jean scraps that have been ground, then woven into bats of insulation (figure B). Meanwhile, the students from the University of Delaware is constructing its walls from steel and polystyrene panels (figure C) -- with solid polystyrene panels compressed between steel columns that run from the front to back surfaces (creating a thermal bridge and keeping the R-value high). Whatever the means, increasing the R-value is key -- this is one of the main objectives of each team. The quality of insulation increases the R-value, and that preserves the solar energy collected and could potentially lower bills for solar home owners.
RESOURCES :
Energy-Efficient Building: The Best of Fine Homebuilding
ISBN: 1561583405
From The Best of Fine Homebuilding book series.
The Taunton Press Inc.
Website: www.taunton.com
Solar Living Source Book: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Technologies and Sustainable Living
Model: 0916571041
Author: John Schaeffer (Editor), Doug Pratt (Editor)
(Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook, 11th Ed)
Real Goods
Website: www.realgoods.com
The Solar Electric House: Energy for the Environmentally-Responsive, Energy-Independent Home
ISBN: 0963738321
Author: Steven J. Strong, William G. Scheller
Chelsea Green Publiishing Company
Efficient Windows
Efficient Windows
Website: www.efficientwindows.org
Solar Decathlon
U.S. Department of Energy
Website: www.solardecathlon.org
Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Website: www.eere.energy.gov
Energy Star®
Website: www.energystar.gov
Energy Star
Website: www.energystar.gov
Photovoltaics
An introduction to photovoltaics, also called PV electricity.
Photovoltaics
Website: www.flasolar.com/photovol_main.php
Solar Buildings
Covers zero-energy building and other solar technologies.
Solar Buildings
Website: www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/
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