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Photo of the glowing translucent walls of the Georgia Tech house with the Washington Monument lit up in the background.

The Georgia Tech house's translucent walls glow from internal lighting as night falls on the 2007 Solar Decathlon Village.

Solar Decathlon 2007

Lighting

(100 points)

Teams earn points in this contest by designing functional, energy-efficient, and aesthetically pleasing lighting systems. The teams choose lighting not only for energy efficiency and style, but also based on how well it meets the needs of a particular space (e.g., task lighting or ambient lighting). Ideally, the lighting design incorporates ambient and task lighting, electric and natural "daylighting" for energy efficiency and occupant comfort.

The jurors rely mostly on their experience to evaluate a team's lighting selections throughout the house. However, the Solar Decathlon organizers assist the jurors by making objective illuminance measurements at several key locations. These objective measurements help the jurors calibrate their subjective evaluations of illuminance at these and other locations throughout the house.