Imagine building a single-family house with only hand-powered tools. Sounds crazy, right? Well, students from Clemson University built not just one such house, but two. They built a local version to stay in South Carolina and a traveling version to demonstrate this concept at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015 competition. Their Sim[PLY] construction method allows an average person to assemble pre-cut, numbered components with just stainless steel zip ties. It’s like a three-dimensional puzzle of a 1,000-square-foot home…that’s also a totally livable home.

Temperature control, whether heating water for a bath in winter or cooling a bedroom on a blazing summer day, is essential to a comfortable home.

The people have spoken. Today, UrbanEden, the solar-powered house from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 People’s Choice Award.

Team Austria from the Vienna University of Technology has won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013.

Editor’s Note: This entry has been cross-posted from DOE’s Energy Blog.

For the teams competing in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, every cent counts. From researching design options and building supplies to transporting houses and communications materials, the costs of developing a competition house can add up. But before the teams even start on the building process, they must first master the art of fundraising.