Solar Decathlon 2007

Podcasts: University of Cincinnati (Text Version)

Below is the text version of the podcast recorded by the University of Cincinnati. Visit the Solar Decathlon Podcasts section to subscribe to the podcast or download individual audio files.

ANNOUNCER:

This is a special 2007 Solar Decathlon edition of Energy Buzz, the podcast series produced by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. Energy Buzz brings you expert information about renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Female Speaker (FS):

Hello. This is the University of Cincinnati's podcast for the 2007 Solar Decathlon. The UC team consists of over 200 students, faculty, and administrators from various colleges and the university. At the center of the project is the house itself which the team has dubbed reform.

Male Speaker (MS):

Reform basically means innovation and design. The "re" is an alternative form of rod (ph.) the Egyptian sun god so it's sort of like we're saying some form. It relates to the idea that the house is solar powered, highlighting innovation and design at the same time, the two things that stand out in our project.

FS:

I'm Emily Snyder, a journalism student at the University of Cincinnati covering the team's progress and I'm here with Christopher Davis, a team leader for the project. Today we're going to tell you a little bit about our team and also take a brief look at the house's technology, economics, and design.

MS:

So as you said over 200 students from four different colleges and the university are working on our project. That's included the College of Design, Architectural Art and Planning, the College of Engineering, the College of Business, and the McMickin College of Arts and Sciences.

FS:

So from what you've told me Christopher, from the very beginning the team has been led primarily by students with a great deal of support from a number of faculty and administrators.

MS:

Yeah. And it's been really fascinating to see the incredible collaboration among all the different disciplines from architecture, interior design and industrial design to mechanical and electrical engineering, to accounting and finance and journalism. Everyone involved is looking at the project from a different perspective but we're all pursuing the same goals of innovative technology and environmental sustainability. We're all really excited to be participating in the Decathlon because of the great collaborative educational benefits that it's provided.

FS:

So the team has been working on this project for a long time. What are they most excited about? What's the most innovative aspect of this house?

MS:

The coolest thing about our house in particular is that while the competition is usually most interested in (unint.) systems that produce electricity, we focused more on thermal energy and on using hot water produced by the sun to cool the house. Jeremy Smith, one of our engineering student leaders, will explain how that works.

MS:

Water runs through the evacuated tubes that we're using and is heated up by the cooper fin and the cooper tubing inside of them and when it exits the tubes, it's at about 190°F. We're using these tubes as a fence on the south side of the house. This will create enough hot water to heat our house in the winter and to run through the absorption chiller and cool the house in the summer. We are using an absorption chiller that takes hot water and a little bit of electricity and from that, it turns out water at 40°, which is plenty cold enough to do what we normally use in air conditioner form.

MS:

We actually have 120 of those evacuated tubes that Jeremy mentioned and that's quite substantial for a house of this size.

FS:

All that technology may sound expensive and currently a lot of it is. But the team has considered many economic factors in planning for and building the house. BJ Zirger, a UC business professor who has offered her expertise to the team will talk about some of them.

FS:

What is really remarkable about the reform home is that we're using not only PV power but also evacuated tube. We expect to be able to get the evacuated tube technology cost down very, very quickly because retardical (ph.) units will go down in cost within the next two to three years as the company recognizes the market opportunity. Given thermal needs for a home are 50% of their energy requirements, we expect this evacuated tube technology to really be very viable in your near term for the average consumer. Who we're seeking to market this particular home to is a target niche called the lowhos (ph.) consumer. They really appreciate green building supplies, they are socially responsible. They invest in green stocks.

It's estimated that the size of this market is 35 million people in the U.S. and that's roughly 16% of the adults in the U.S. and that really represents a very viable market for solar technology.

FS:

And now we'll hear from Anton Harfmann a faculty advisor as he describes the layout and some architectural features of the house.

MS:

The house is organized on an east-west axis. Running along that axis is a large gutter. The gutter is basically the collection mechanism for water as well as electricity. It also serves as a threshold between the living spaces of the house: the living, dining, kitchen, and the more private parts of the house—the bedroom and bathroom—and an outdoor deck. One of the things we were trying to avoid in this particular layout was the appearance of a long mobile home trailer so we've combined the living areas, the living, dining and kitchen into one large open space and we've made that significantly wider than your typical mobile home or pre-manufactured house that would be able to be transported on a regular trailer.

As a consequence our house is considerably wider, but in order to manufacture that, we've had to actually break it into four sections that are perpendicular to that flow of space. We've consolidated all the natural lighting and day lighting primarily to the top above a certain height as a clerestory window between the top of the walls and the underside of the roof. That clerestory, which runs all the way around the perimeter of the house and is as large as we can possibly make it in order to fit underneath the bridge, allows a tremendous amount of day light in and the only place that we have large open windows that provide view is at the main entry and the main deck of the house where we have two very large sliding glass doors.

MS:

So a lot of innovative strategies have been used in the design of the house over all. We've also spent a lot of time choosing environmentally friendly materials. We called Henry, an interior design student working on the project, who'll describe some of the materials that we've chosen.

FS:

The (unint.) screen, which is the exterior sheeting of the house, is made out of donated reclaimed scrap metal we've bent into shape and then walked in the place and put on the exterior of the house. The flooring is recycled rubber. This is used inside and then extends out onto the terrace where it's inlaid into the decking. The decking is made from recycled plastic bags. Our countertops are made from a recycled paper product and the manufacturing process takes less energy than a typical countertop. The three form panels that we are using for the fronts of our cabinets are 40% post-industrial recycled resin material and the entire company of three form believes in sustainability and have a zero waste policy.

MS:

In the same way that the house itself has been designed for maximum efficiency and energy savings, the materials in the house we also chosen for their environmental benefits. So what you've heard is that every step of the process has been guided by the goal of integrating both technology and design and in so doing making the house even more environmentally friendly and it's definitely been a great learning experience for everyone involved.

FS:

Well, thank you Christopher and all of our guests. We look forward to seeing everyone in Washington, D.C. and from all of us at the University of Cincinnati, thank you for listening to our podcast.

ANNOUNCER:

This has been a special addition of Energy Buzz. To learn more about the Solar Decathlon, go to www.solardecathlon.org. For more about the world of energy efficiency and renewable energy, log on to the Department of Energy's energy efficiency and renewable energy website at www.eere.energy.gov. Thank you for listening.

(END OF TAPE)