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| 8/19/2009 9:57:00 AM Email this article • Print this article |
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Cornell solar house team leader Chris Werner explains features of the house during a recent tour. (Photo by Taryn Thompson) |
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Cornell's solar house team hoping third time the charm
Taryn Thompson
Reporter
On Monday, a team of students from Cornell University traveled to Syracuse for the State Fair with three trucks, carrying what looked like a grain silo cut into thirds. It was a student-built house - albeit dismantled threefold - to be displayed at the fair in preparation for the Solar Decathlon, a national contest organized by the federal Department of Energy in October.
This Solar House is Cornell's third attempt at the biannual competition that takes place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and decides which team can design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. In 2005, Cornell finished second out of 20, and in 2007, there were some technical difficulties that are now under-rug swept.
This time, Cornell is up against universities from all over the world, even cross-Atlantic countries like Spain, Portugal, and Germany, who's delegates will transport their finished products via ship.
The main ideas are modularity, sustainability, and solar energy, though teams are also graded based on regular domestic criteria, like comfort level and accessibility.
"We have to keep in mind how people are going to circulate around the house," said Chris Werner, the team leader.
"The idea is to let people walk around and imagine that they could live in something like this, or at least find it a very enjoyable novelty," said Werner, who will finish his M.A. in architecture at the end of this year.
"Solar energy is why people are interested in the competition and for sustainable practice, but probably the biggest challenge of building a house like this is making it look like a nice house but also making it able to be transported down the road and then reassembled back on site," he said.
The DOE grants $100,000 to each team at the start, and with no expense limitations, Cornell's team wrapped up its one-bedroom, one-bathroom, one-story house in just under $800,000.
"There are no restrictions in terms of who you can have participating," Werner said. "Many other teams have had professionals from day one help with the design and building, [but] this is entirely student-led and almost entirely student-built."
Cornell's team enlisted assistance with electrical work, plumbing, controls, and general carpentry, but for the most part, it was a student project.
Blaine Friedlander, the assistant director of the press relations office at Cornell, said all of the houses in the competition will be for sale, a legitimate listing in real estate. Friedlander estimated the market price of the house to be tagged upwards of $200,000.
"When you see the house on the mall and in Syracuse, it will be entirely covered in landscape," Werner said, adding that tall grasses will cover the foundation and plants will decorate the interior.
"We're going for the agricultural, industrial aesthetic and we want to overemphasize the plant life," he said.
The solar grain silo house, with 450 square feet of conditioned, indoor space and 350 square feet of porch-like courtyard, will be fully furnished upon completion and features 40 GE solar panels at 200 watts each that are erected from the roof.
The house boasts several other sustainable features as well.
"Steel is very good at conducting heat and cold, so one of the things you want to do is seal the exterior weather from coming into the house," Werner said.
"So, on every single plate where we have exposed steel coming through the building, we've introduced a thermal break," he said. "You don't want that steel to steel connection. We've taken a lot of care to try to insulate and isolate all the steel in the house."
All of the doors and windows are double paned, argon-filled, and tightly sealed around the frame for a high insulation value. One of the grading components is temperature and humidity control.
"The house has to remain within four degrees and a certain humidity percentage throughout the entire competition," which lasts from October 9 to October 18, Werner said. "Anytime you leave that range you get docked points."
The ADA-compliant house is made entirely from locally harvested black locust and ash wood, and the interior is finished with low-VOC paints and tongue and linseed oils. It will be transported with temporary water tanks, since it won't be able to hook up to any kind of plumbing system.
During the competition, judges will rate teams on overall ambiance, checking up on the required meal that each team must cook for a party of eight, and the required showing of a movie in the living room's state-of-the-art entertainment system.
"Our goal is to construct a house that's unique and full of features that can be implemented in an every-day setting," said Myra Wong, a rising senior studying mechanical engineering, and the team's general engineering go-to woman.
"We're going for a lot more cohesiveness and a well-thought out product," she said. "We've learned to work efficiently, collaborate, and integrate out sub teams."
Friedlander said that almost every college at the university is represented by the students on the Solar House team.
"We've got students [in] English, architecture, from the hotel school," he said. "These students worked so hard."
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Suicide has recently come to Ithaca in a very public, and at times controversial, way. This past academic year, after three years with no suicides, Cornell experienced what is known in the scientific community as a "suicide cluster." OK, so maybe you're like me and you thought this whole JetBlue flight attendant story was good for maybe one news cycle.  |
