How do you identify the measured contest captain on each U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon team? Listen for words such as datalogger, monitored performance subcontest, and database-driven scoring application.

These students focus on maximizing the points their teams earn in the five measured contests:

• Comfort Zone
• Hot Water
• Appliances
• Home Entertainment
• Energy Balance.

To be successful in measured contests, the decathletes must strategize. For some measured contests, they must complete tasks such as washing a load of towels and operating a home entertainment system for a set time. A group of observers keeps detailed logs on their task performance that are later translated into scores. For other measured contests, the competition houses are equipped with sensors that measure factors such as humidity and temperature. An instrument called a datalogger keeps track of the data points and sends this information to a central database every 15 minutes.

The datalogger in Team New Zealand’s house is competition-ready. (Credit: Alexis Powers/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

“The equations in the rules define how we take information from the dataloggers and observer logs and calculate a score,” says Mike Wassmer, the scorekeeper and assistant competition manager of Solar Decathlon 2011. These algorithms translate a sea of data into a final score for each measured contest.

To follow your favorite team’s progress in the measured contests, visit the scoring pages on the Solar Decathlon website. Then tell all friends about it—and make sure to spice up your conversation with words such as observer logs and central scoring database.

Alexis Powers is a member of the Solar Decathlon communications team.

Before a packed auditorium today at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, the University of Maryland took first place in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Architecture Contest.

“WaterShed achieves an elegant mix of inspiration, function, and simplicity. It takes our current greatest challenges in the built environment—energy and water—and transforms them into opportunities for spatial beauty and poetry while maintaining livability in every square inch,” said Architecture Contest Juror Michelle Kaufmann.

New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington) claimed second place for First Light, its modern interpretation of the traditional New Zealand holiday home, the Kiwi bach.

Appalachian State University received third place for its Solar Homestead, which features outdoor living spaces.

“This year’s teams have managed to raise the bar even higher and have made the job of judging the Architecture Contest extremely difficult for the jury, which tried to find the subtle distinction that separates first from second, and second from third,” Kaufmann said. “The top three projects span the globe; each celebrating its unique regional influences and climatic differences.”

For the Architecture Contest, the jury evaluated the houses on:

• Architectural elements that include the scale and proportion of room and facade features, indoor/outdoor connections, composition and linking of various house elements
• Holistic design, meaning an architectural design that will be comfortable for occupants and compatible with the surrounding environment
• Lighting, assessing the integration and energy efficiency of electrical and natural light
• Inspiration as reflected in a design that inspires and delights Solar Decathlon visitors
• Documentation that includes drawings, a project manual, and an audiovisual architecture presentation that accurately reflect the constructed project on the competition site.

For full scoring details, visit the Architecture Contest scores page.

Carol Anna is the communications manager of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

It may seem like all work all the time for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon’s student decathletes, but one contest brings teams together to earn points while relaxing and interacting with one another.

The Home Entertainment Contest includes the following five subcontests:

• Lighting
• Cooking
• Home Electronics
• Dinner Party
• Movie Night.

The first three are task-based subcontests that require the teams to keep interior and exterior lights on at night, perform four cooking tasks during contest week, and operate a TV and computer during specified hours. The last two are juried subcontests, but they are not like other juried contests in the competition. In these cases, the teams’ neighbors become jurors.

During the Solar Decathlon, teams host two dinner parties for up to eight guests in their houses. Six of these guests are members of neighboring teams. The visiting team members score the host team on the quality of the meal, ambiance, and overall experience.

Middlebury College student Melissa Segil prepares a dish for a competition dinner party while teammate Erik Fendik, background, catches up on some sleep. (Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

On Monday night, the decathletes shared regionally inspired meals, conversation, and compliments with one another. The final dinner party will take place tonight.

“We’ve been doing practice dinners for team bonding since last fall,” says Melissa Segil, team manager for Middlebury College. “It was so fun to use the kitchen, which is one of our favorite parts of the house.”

Last night, the teams also invited their neighbors over for movie night. Many teams have elaborate, yet highly energy-efficient, home entertainment systems for this contest. The visiting teams evaluated the quality and design of the home theater system, ambiance, and overall experience in their fellow competitors’ houses.

To get a taste of the Home Entertainment Contest at home, try making some of the team recipes, which are available on our team pages.

Alexis Powers is a member of the Solar Decathlon communications team.

Note: Corrections to the Affordability Contest results were announced Sept. 30, 2011.

Proving that the cost of “going green” is decreasing, two teams tied for first place in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 Affordability Contest. Parsons The New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology (which includes Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School) built Empowerhouse for less than $230,000. Purdue University’s INhome came in at just less than $250,000. These teams earned 100 points for achieving a target construction cost of $250,000 or less, as evaluated by a professional cost estimator.

Results of the Affordability Contest were announced today in the solar village. Team Belgium (Ghent University) received second place in the contest, with its E-Cube, which was priced at $251,147. In third place was The Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology’s CHIP, which was estimated to cost $262,495.

“These 2011 teams have shown that solar houses can be affordable while still being innovative,” said Matt Hansen, Affordability Contest juror.

The Affordability Contest has had an impact on the design of Solar Decathlon competition houses. Compared to Solar Decathlon 2009 houses, the Solar Decathlon 2011 houses are estimated to cost 33% less. 

Carol Anna is the communications manager of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

The big buzz word in Washington, D.C., these days is budget. In the solar village at West Potomac Park, cost savings are top of mind for the decathletes as well.

This year, the Affordability Contest was added as one of the 10 contests that make up the Solar Decathlon. It replaced the Lighting Design Contest, which is now evaluated as part of other contests.

Teams can earn the 100 possible points in the Affordability Contest by achieving an estimated construction cost of $250,000 or less. A sliding point scale is applied to houses that cost between $250,000 and $600,000. Houses that receive a cost estimate of more than $600,000 receive zero points.

Matt Hansen reviews each team’s design drawings and construction specifications to estimate the total construction cost of its house. (Credit: Alexis Powers/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

Matt Hansen, a professional cost estimator (affectionately known as “The Costimator” around the village), has been working with teams since March 2010 to put a price on every nut, bolt, fixture, and appliance used in the houses. Matt and his team used RSMeans to find exact or close matches to the materials and methods indicated by the teams’ construction documents. The final cost estimate includes labor as well as any heavy equipment—such as cranes, lifts, or loaders—used to build the houses on the competition site.

Tomorrow, the results of the Affordability Contest will be announced in the main tent at 2:30 p.m. Have the 2011 teams risen to the challenge? Stay tuned to find out.

Alexis Powers is a member of the Solar Decathlon communications team.