10-21-2007, 06:58 PM
The last week, teams from 20 universities competed in a solar house competiton on the National Mall in Washington DC.
The teams spent the last two years building a 800 square foot house powered by the suns rays. During the 10-day competition in 2007, students test their homes in contests encompassing all the ways we use energy in our daily lives. Contests range from architecture, livability, and comfort to how well the homes perform tasks such as heating water and powering appliances. Each team must also provide enough solar electricity to power an electric car.
The competition places demands on their buildings' energy systems to maintain the house within a certain temperature range, to provide lighting and run appliances, to charge an electric car, and much more. The teams will generate that energy with photovoltaic (also called solar electric) systems to directly produce electricity and with solar thermal systems for space heating and cooling and water heating.
What are the 10 contests?
Architecture
The teams spent the last two years building a 800 square foot house powered by the suns rays. During the 10-day competition in 2007, students test their homes in contests encompassing all the ways we use energy in our daily lives. Contests range from architecture, livability, and comfort to how well the homes perform tasks such as heating water and powering appliances. Each team must also provide enough solar electricity to power an electric car.
The competition places demands on their buildings' energy systems to maintain the house within a certain temperature range, to provide lighting and run appliances, to charge an electric car, and much more. The teams will generate that energy with photovoltaic (also called solar electric) systems to directly produce electricity and with solar thermal systems for space heating and cooling and water heating.
What are the 10 contests?
Architecture