Comments on: SOLAR DECATHLON: Solar house design competition

By: John Ireland

John Ireland — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:48:49 +0000

I just came across this web site recently and was very impressed with the Cornell solar model home. I’m looking forward to the next solar decathalon on the mall and plan to attend the event. Well done!

By: [Pa2+] Arquitectura, Arte, Diseño, Música y Pensamiento… » “DECATLON SOLAR:POLITECNICO DE MADRID”

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:44:05 +0000

[...] [Via InHabitat] [...]

By: Inhabitat » SOLAR DECATHLON 2007: University of Cincinnati

Inhabitat » SOLAR DECATHLON 2007: University of Cincinnati — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 09:45:23 +0000

[...] and green all over? The University of Cincinnati’s zero energy home at this year’s Solar Decathlon. The student team’s solution is not only a stylish-looking residence (the multi-colored [...]

By: djfred

djfred — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:57:38 +0000

I’m there. I’m still trying to decide whether it’s better to get there for the kick-off or after they announce the winners.

By: Inhabitat » SOLAR DECATHLON STARTS TOMORROW!

Inhabitat » SOLAR DECATHLON STARTS TOMORROW! — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:45:32 +0000

[...] year’s Solar Decathlon is just hours away- the festivities start TOMORROW in Washington DC with 20 college teams from [...]

By: Inhabitat » SOLAR DECATHLON KICKS OFF THIS FRIDAY!

Inhabitat » SOLAR DECATHLON KICKS OFF THIS FRIDAY! — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:43:41 +0000

[...] been anxiously awaiting this year’s Solar Decathlon event, and this Friday, October 12th, the festivities start in Washington DC with 20 college teams [...]

By: advoc8 » Inhabitat

advoc8 » Inhabitat — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:19:33 +0000

[...] have a post on Solar House Design I thought I’d point it out as some others out there thinking ‘green’ quite [...]

By: Decathlon » Blog Archive » Dynaflite Super Decathlon - 1.08

Decathlon » Blog Archive » Dynaflite Super Decathlon - 1.08 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:16:01 +0000

[...] To do this, they have staged, once again, the Solar decathlon, a competition challenging 20 college teams from around the globe to design, build, and operate an energy-efficient, fully solar-powered house that will be able to satisfy … …more [...]

By: Christopher P.

Christopher P. — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:08:47 +0000

Great concepts, to be broadly integrated into housing. Stand-alone hi-tech homes are not capable of being made “affordable”, if the measure of affordability is the annual incomes of those who need housing most. It would be interesting if the schools were asked to do an integrated “neighborhood plan” to augment each other. This would be a model for more affordable “village” infrastructural re-development. Also, I am concerned that wind-power is not mentioned in the competition — wind is the biggest solar heat-engine of all, after deep ocean currents!

By: Walt Barrett

Walt Barrett — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:36:15 +0000

These homes have to be made more affordable and much more attractive. Some of those roof mounts and designs will never survive even a small wind storm. We need better and more marketable designs and people have to be able to afford them.

By: Ebonie

Ebonie — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:11:39 +0000

Here is the Cornell runner-up team’s webstie:

http://cusd.cornell.edu/Landscape

There design is awesome, and a greywater system can be integrated into it.

By: Walt Barrett

Walt Barrett — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:53:28 +0000

The solar ideas are great, but the homes are not very attractive. It’s difficult to market a home whose appearance is off the norm. Also, we can’t lose sight of the affordability. The people that need homes the most these days have the least amount of money. We need more attractive, simple, low cost designs for solar homes.
There is no need for them to look like ugly patchwork quilts.
Walt

By: Will

Will — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:07:32 +0000

this is such a good idea. thanks for once, government of the united states

By: Walt Barrett

Walt Barrett — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:30:51 +0000

Solar homes are great, but they need to be more attractive, and they have to be more affordable. These are the real challanges of solar home design.
Walt

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:38:34 +0000

This looks great. I’m going to try and make it out for it in October.

By: Happy Solar panel user Jim

Happy Solar panel user Jim — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:59:16 +0000

Todays Solar panels are highly efficient and do work the whole year around. Even at cloudy days ,the new solar sytems give us a huge amount of energy. The best thing you can do is, to talk to people who own Solar panels. Ask them how about the costs,energysavings,purposes. Solar panels simply are a great way to help you saving energy,without any bad polution. There are also a lot of good second hand used panels,less expensive…I also have 4 panels (16 years old) and i know they will contnue working for at least 16 more years.

By: Walt Barrett

Walt Barrett — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:06:56 +0000

The ideas are great, but the biggest complaint I keep hearing is that most solar homes are not attractive looking. I think we need more traditional attractive designs. Some of the homes look like patchwork quilts.
In order to be saleable a product must be attractive as well as functional. We have the same problem with some of the Hybrid cars. Where is it written that they have to be ugly?
Walt

By: devo

devo — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:33:09 +0000

i LOVE the runner-up house with all that vegetation. just blends in to environment. it would really be great if plants are fed with greywater from sinks, washer, etc. is that natural ventilation and light? would it work down here in texas? is this considered pre-fab? BEAUTIFUL!!!!!