Solar Decathlon Feature Story
Students shine in solar house competition
Solar Decathlon
Created in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon is a biennial competition designed to educate college students—and the public—about the benefits of energy-efficient homes and green building technologies.
Each competition culminates in a three-week showcase on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in which 20 teams operate the home they designed, built, and transported to the capital. During the decathlon’s showcase, university teams receive points for their home’s performance in 10 categories and open their homes to the public. Prior to the final competition phase, the interdisciplinary teams spend nearly two years planning and building.
The University of Minnesota was honored to be accepted into the 2009 competition. For the last two years, it provided an amazing opportunity for close to 200 students across the university, according to U of M Solar Decathlon project manager Ann Johnson. This October, their hard work paid off when the U’s first Solar Decathlon house took fifth place.
It all began when they set out to create a home that was approximately 800 square-feet, full of modern conveniences, aesthetically pleasing, and entirely solar powered. Each team’s home also needed to use its energy systems to maintain the house’s temperature, provide lighting, run appliances, and carry out other daily functions. In addition, the homes needed to be marketable and practical – using mainly commercially available products.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
The U of M home faced some of its own unique challenges, including the Minnesota climate, as well as design considerations for this market. “A lot of people may think, ‘Minnesota? Really?’ when it comes to solar power,” says Johnson, who is also faculty director of the College of Continuing Education’s Construction Management degree program. “I hope this house helps dispel that. Photovoltaic solar power is quite efficient in this area of the country—more so, in fact, than somewhere like Arizona where it can actually get TOO hot.”
She goes on to say that the house was designed to appeal to a Midwestern aesthetic. “The house is called ICON, because we hope that’s what it feels like to people—an iconic home design. It’s attractive and efficient…but not a ‘Jetsons’’ house. We wanted to design something that folks around here would look at and say, ‘Yeah. I could see that in my neighborhood.’
“Everything in the house is available right now, and many of the things we used showcase Minnesota technologies and companies, including special glass from Marvin Windows, as well as low VO2 paints from Valspar.”
Labor of Love
As some students devoted nearly two years to the project, it became a labor of love. Says College of Continuing Education Construction Management degree graduate and ICON house construction manager Craig Hohensee, “I came on board when they were looking for concepts and ideas, and served as construction manager. I graduated and was still working as construction manager… it was definitely more than a full-time job.” he says. (Solar Decathlon rules state participants may remain in the team for one full year following graduation).
Team members dealt not only with long hours, but also with figuring out how to work effectively in an interdisciplinary group. “They were working in a real environment, a real workplace,” says Peter Hilger, Construction Management program faculty member and student adviser. “They got to discover, for example, what life is like for a construction manager on the job with a firm. They got to learn how an architect or designer may come up with a beautiful idea that is completely unrealistic, engineering-wise. Then they have to figure out how to compromise and make something that works.”
Hohensee concurs, “In a standard classroom experience, many of your fellow students are in the same degree program and have the same vision and thought processes. In this project, with [students from] so many disciplines involved, you had to take a step back to understand where they are coming from. Challenges included communicating with people who did not understand things the way I do as far as the construction process and being patient in finding ways to work together.”
Networked House
Equally important, especially to the 40-plus construction management students who worked on ICON house, were the connections they made in the working community. “Green building and more environmentally friendly construction methods are going to be huge. A lot of us ‘old dogs’ in the industry aren’t all that familiar with it. But students are soaking it up,” says Hilger. “The advantage these students will have when they go out into the job market and can say ‘I’ve done Solar Decathlon and have hands-on experience working on sustainable design projects’ – that’s huge, especially in today’s job market.”
Adds Johnson, “We’ve had a lot of community members and businesses working with us on this project, including volunteers from various construction firms, to the electricians’ union, to union carpenters. That kind of networking opens a lot of doors for our students—and shows companies that our students are go-getters. They’ve done an amazing job.”
She concludes, “Between the hundreds of students, the various faculty, staff, and University departments, and the businesses and volunteers from all over…the ICON house has truly become a state project.”
