Saturday, September 24, 2011

22 Ways to Build the Home of the Future: Solar Decathlon 2011

Friday, Sept. 23, the National Mall in Washington, D.C., becomes a entire neighborhood brimming with bright ideas as the houses of the 2011 Solar Decathlon open to the public. Teams of students build these homes to produce as much or more energy as they consume. Here, we count 22 brilliant design ideas that the students dreamed up to meet that goal. By Harry Sawyers

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The Solar Decathlon, a biennial contest in which 20 teams of college ?students build houses that produce as much energy as they consume, was in the ironic position of homelessness in January 2011: The competition had lost its spot on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The news broke during the International Builders' Show, where teams had met to show off models of their projects. The students were bummed. So they got organized and lobbied Congress, and Team California's Elisabeth Neigert (left) pleaded their case in The Huffington Post. In the end, the students won. The competition, organized by the Department of Energy, will be held on the Mall Sept. 23 to Oct. 2. During that time, the public can tour the homes and see students testing brilliant ideas?like these 22?in real-world conditions, one watt at a time.

The appeal of the Solar Decathlon? "These are homes you can actually walk through, with systems you can see," Team California project manager Elisabeth Neigert says, standing in the partially built CHIP house on the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) campus. "We come together from all over the world to tackle the problems of tomorrow's housing?to show what's possible today."

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Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/solar-wind/22-ways-to-build-the-home-of-the-future-solar-decathlon-2011?src=rss

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