Thursday, March 01, 2007

Solar Decathlon update

This is an update for the 17 August 2006 post Solar Decathlon

The Solar Decathlon is a competition between universities all over the world to build the best solar powered house. The houses are brought to Washington, DC and setup on the National Mall for nine days. They're opened for tours every day except Wednesday when they're sealed for judging.

It looks like the schools are just starting to get into the construction phase.

The University of Maryland has started a webcam so you can watch them work.
http://www.solarteam.org/page.php?id=442
Right now it's just 6 pillars in a lot.

Santa Clara University has an initial drawing of their house.

It's the standard mobile home shape with solar panels on the roof. And I'll bet you a Coke those wooden slats can slide over the glass doors.

Team Montreal has a video that I haven't seen yet.


Some university in Spain has a nice frame for the house.

Dunno what's inside yet. I'll have to take the Virtual Tour when I get home.
Having the solar panels separated from the roof like they do allows air to flow behind them and keep them cool and more efficient.

The University of Cincinnati has a drawing.


For the New York Institute of Technology has several pictures that are best viewed by going to http://iris.nyit.edu/solardecathlon2007/the_open_house_design.htm.

The Univerity of Texas at Austin has a nice Flash presentation.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi. I'm with the Univ. of MD solar team. Thanks for the blog about us!! Wanna join the team or blog about us? Email us if you're interested!

Dan F.