Going Solar

By Bill PetersIt was a bright cold day in October and the National Mall had been homesteaded overnight by what appeared at first glance to be a solar power plant but on closer inspection turned out to be twenty houses built by twenty-five colleges from four countries, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and thirteen states. A riot of modern architecture was planted in two rows of ten each amongst the stately classical Capitol building, the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Castle, the Smithonian Museum of Natural History and other classical errata the Mall and its environ has picked up since its inception in the 1790’s (though, to be fair, the National Gallery of Art (the Eastern wing), the Hirshhorn, and the newly minted Museum of the American Indian have staked out Modern architecture’s place on the Mall well before these twenty crashed the old guard’s party).The invasion of twenty 800 square-foot homes onto the mall wasn’t the result of sky-rocketing DC land prices, but of the Solar Decathlon, a competition held by the Department of Energy for colleges here and abroad to design a house that derives all of it’s power from the sun. Furthermore, the house has to be as livable (and is often more) as any other house on the market, including those getting their power from the grid.The schools came from as far away as Darmstadt, Germany (4,000 miles and change, or, as they would prefer, 6,500 kilometers and change) and as close as College Park, Maryland (about 8.3 miles, or 13.36 kilometers, or less than one Manhattan in length. For those interested, the Darmstadt/DC distance is 300 plus Manhattans).For the team from Darmstadt travelling that distance was worth it, as they finished first, with as Maryland’s team coming in second place. NYIT’s entry, OPEN house, came in 12th place, finishing one ahead of MIT, and two ahead of Carnegie-Melon.The competition judged houses on various areas of livability, such as the house’s architecture (200 points), it’s ability to constantly provide hot water (100 points), how comfortable it is in terms of temperature and humidity (100 points), and various other areas, including market viability (150 points) and engineering (150 points.)Matthew Methosian described Open House as made up of three parts, the roof (which is literally covered in photovoltaic panels and evacuation tubes, which are used to heat water), the Core (which contains all of the mechanical workings of the house, including the bathroom and kitchen) and Open Space (the main living space which neatly incorporates a dining room, bedroom, and lounge area into a single space). The roof is the power plant of the house and provides a pond which creates a miniature model of a geothermal energy source, necessary as they are not allowed to drill into the National Mall in order to tap the constant temperatures beneath the surface for thermal energy.Barbara Schoenenberger, the Interior Design student leader, worked on “devising multifunctional furniture” that was “easy to use and pleasing to the eye” such as the house’s couch, which, apart from fulfilling it’s couchly duties, also served as a communications center with a magnetic blackboard built into the back. She also pointed out with pride the sliding doors which were adorned with graphic prints and especially the sliding doors for the kitchen, which had textiles sandwiched together to provide a semi-transparent barrier between the open space and kitchen.The team has two main contingents — Architecture majors and Engineering majors, though a few other majors also participated. Dan Rapka, NYIT’s Lead Engineer, said of working with the architecture students that, “[NYIT’s] team really pulled it together, and they proved that you can mix oil and water if you shake it hard enough.”For one of the architects, Michael Finch, the Solar Decathlon was “a great experience , learning about the whole process [of putting the house together].”