The assembly of 20 solar homes on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is rapidly approaching completion, as the 2009 Solar Decathlon prepares to open, free to the public, on October 9th. The Solar Decathlon is an international event in which DOE challenges university teams to design and build homes that run entirely on solar energy.

The teams ship their partially constructed homes to the National Mall, assemble them, and then compete in ten contests. This year, the 20 teams came from universities in Arizona, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, and Spain. Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy 

 

What are the 10 contests?

•     Architecture (100 points): Teams are required to integrate solar and

energy-efficiency technologies seamlessly into their house designs. A jury

of professional architects assesses team construction documents and tours

the houses. It evaluates three main factors: architectural elements, holistic

design, and inspiration.

•     Market Viability (100 points): Teams build their houses for a target

market of their choosing. Teams are then asked to demonstrate the

potential of their houses to keep costs affordable within that market. A jury

of professionals from the homebuilding industry determines each house’s

market viability, including livability, buildability, and marketability.  

•     Engineering (100 points): The Solar Decathlon Engineering contest

rewards teams for their engineering excellence. A jury of professional

engineers evaluates each house for functionality, efficiency, innovation,

and reliability.

•     Lighting Design (75 points): A jury of lighting designers and industry

experts evaluates each house’s lighting selections. Teams earn points in

this contest by designing functional, energy-efficient, and aesthetically

pleasing lighting systems. The jury evaluates the following in each house:

electric lighting quality, daylighting quality, ease of operation, flexibility,

energy efficiency, and building integration.

•     Communications (75 points): Teams are challenged to communicate

about the technical aspects of their houses, as well as their experiences, to a

wide audience through Web sites and public open houses. The

Communications contest awards points to teams based on their success in

delivering clear and consistent messages and images that represent the

vision, innovative ideas, and results of their projects. A jury of Web site

development and public relations experts evaluates the team Web sites,

communications plans, and student-led house tours for effectiveness. In

addition, the jurors assess each team’s delivery of team messages to target

audiences as well as the ability to engage visitors on the National Mall.

•     Comfort Zone (100 points): Teams design their houses to maintain

comfortable, steady, and uniform indoor environmental conditions

throughout. For the Comfort Zone contest, teams receive full points for

maintaining narrow ranges of temperature (72°F/22.2°C–76°F/24.4°C) and

relative humidity (40%–55%) inside the houses.

•     Hot Water (100 points): The Hot Water contest demonstrates that solar

hot water systems can supply all the hot water that households use daily.

Teams score points in this contest by successfully completing several daily

15-gallon “hot water draws.”  

•     Appliances (100 points): The Appliances contest is designed to mimic the

appliance use of the average U.S. home while using less energy. To earn

points, student teams must maintain refrigerator and freezer temperatures

within typical ranges (34°–40°F for refrigerator; -20°– -5°F for freezer),

wash and dry 10 loads of laundry, and run the dishwasher five times during

the contest.

•     Home Entertainment (100 points): The Home Entertainment contest is

designed to demonstrate that houses powered solely by the sun can deliver

more than just basic household functionality. They can also provide a

comfortable setting with power for electronics, appliances, and modern

conveniences.

 

 •     Net Metering (150 points): In an effort to reflect how most residential

solar electric systems operate when connected to the power grid, Solar

Decathlon 2009 features a new Net Metering contest. Each team house is

equipped with a utility meter that enables competition organizers to

measure how much net energy the house produces or consumes over the

course of the competition. Teams score points for producing as much or

more energy than they consume.

What is net metering?

Net metering is an electricity policy that encourages people to generate their own

power. A single meter tracks when electricity is drawn from the grid and when

electricity is fed back into the grid. That way, electricity producers are

compensated at the retail rate for the electricity they supply to the grid (as long as it

is less than the electricity they consume). Without net metering, self-generators are

typically compensated at a lower wholesale rate for the electricity they produce. Website link: http://www.solardecathlon.org/ Screen casts from Solar Decathlon Teams:http://www.solardecathlon.org/virtual_tours/#app=f692&371a-selectedIndex=0&985-selectedIndex=2 

ENERGY FACTS AND FIGURES

Energy Consumption

•     The world consumes about 472 quadrillion (quad or 1015) British thermal

    units (Btu) of energy each year.

o     Approximately 86% of that use comes from burning fossil fuels —

    petroleum, coal, and natural gas.

•     The United States consumes about 100 quads of energy per year.

o     Approximately 84% of U.S. energy consumption is fossil fuel use.

o     The United States uses nearly $1 million worth of energy each

    minute, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

o     With less than 5% of the world’s population, the United States

    consumes about one-fourth of the world’s energy resources.

o     The United States uses about 334 million Btu/person in a year,

    while the world on average uses 72 million Btu/person in a year.

  

Some amazing concepts here I like the red gable the best.

Gav--> There is some really good cutting edge info on energy efficient house design and integrating renewable energy on the Teams websites.

for his endorsement of alternative energy Obama should get a Nobel. Repos would have done nothing but maybe corn squeezings...