Skip to main content
Title
Build Challenge
Subtitle
2011
Location
Washington, D.C.
Date Start
September 23
Date End
 - October 2, 2011
The U.S. Department of Energy will not hold a BuildingsNEXT competition for the 2025–2026 academic year.
Future programming updates will be posted at www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/building-technologies-office as they become available.

Engineering Contest

Solar Decathlon 2011

(100 points)

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 houses represent the best of modern engineering. For the Engineering Contest, a jury of professional engineers evaluated each house for:

  • Functionality
    Did the house's energy and HVAC systems function as intended?

  • Efficiency
    How much energy would the house's systems save over the course of a year relative to conventional systems? Would the system controls facilitate a reduction in energy consumption during a year of operation?

  • Innovation
    Were unique approaches used to solve design challenges? Did the innovations have true market potential?

  • Reliability
    How long are the systems expected to operate at a high level of performance? How much maintenance is required to keep them operating at a high level?

  • Documentation
    Did the construction drawings, project manual, and audiovisual engineering presentation accurately reflect the constructed project as assembled on the competition site?

See the jury feedback for all teams.