SOLAR TODAY - September/October 2009

inside ases | chair’s corner
Revisiting the Solar Decathlon
Are there better ways to do this? These experts have some good ideas.

By JOHN REYNOLDS, FAIA

John Reynolds, FAIA, is chair of the American Solar Energy Society Board. Contact him at chair@ases.org.

The Solar Decathlon 2009 will debut in a burst of publicity in early October. I roundly criticized this event two years ago (SOLAR TODAY, September/ October 2007) because it cost a lot in both money and energy to ship the houses round-trip, it does not exhibit or test the houses in truly hot and truly cold months, and it emphasizes photovoltaic (PV) technology over passive solar design. At that time, it also required large battery banks, because the houses were not tied to the District of Columbia’s electrical grid. The critical column ignited a spirited exchange between professors of architecture who are members of the Society of Building Science Educators. Here are excerpts from that debate.

Professor Jeff Haberl, Texas A&M University: “I can say [the Solar Decathlon] was the best experience that I’ve had in 28 years of teaching, period. Every student that worked on the house came away with an amazing experience that will motivate them the rest of their life. Nothing else we currently do in the college comes anywhere close to this. But it took a huge effort, commitment from the dean’s office and lots and lots of money.

“It was difficult for me to be the coach since it meant that I had to relearn and then teach solar PV, HVAC, solar thermal ‘on the fly’ so to speak. We had to create the construction documents, purchase/donate the materials and construct the house, then deconstruct it, move it and reconstruct it and operate it under pressure — a once-in-a-lifetime experience!”

Professor John Quale, University of Virginia: “As a recovering Solar Decathlete, I thought I’d share my thoughts. I completely agree with the concern about PV’s [use] over passive. Read the guidelines carefully, and you can see it quite clearly — innovative engineering and architecture are mostly discouraged in favor of ‘off-the-shelf’ technology and homes with that ambiguous quality, ‘curb appeal.’ There are no direct points for using passive strategies — only indirectly through having a smaller load on your building. But you’ll note that when the buildings are monitored at the event, everyone seals up tight and closes all the shades and expensive shutters, because those pesky natural forces can be so unpredictable when you have spent half a million [dollars] to win a competition. The required comfort zone is incredibly narrow for a ‘sustainable’ house competition, and the required loads are crazy — washing lots of towels, having the TV on for hours, driving an electric golf cart on the busy streets of Washington, D.C., when you are only steps away from the Metro.

“Despite my statements above, [the Solar Decathlon] was the best experience ever — amazing for me and the

students. I only wish I had a team of several faculty. So in my opinion, it comes down to this: Amazing experience, but I’d never do it again.”

Professor Tang Lee, University of Calgary: “We are one of two Canadian teams participating in the Solar Decathlon. Our challenge is to design a house for Washington, D.C., but we quickly realized that it would not be appropriate for the cold climate of Canada. Thus a net-zero-energy house for benign climates such as Hawaii is considerably cheaper, simpler and easier to achieve than those with extreme hot and/or cold climates.

“Sustainable design must be indigenous, i.e. local materials, culture, climate, codes, etc. The award must recognize these differences and have separate categories.

“The single-family house on a suburban lot is not sustainable. So why are we still promoting single-family houses in these so-called sustainable design competitions?”

“Rather than raising $1 million
to build a short-duration mock-up,
we are considering raising money
to build a sustainable house of
the future right here in our own
region — a house that someone
will actually end up living in.”

— Professor Scott Johnston, Miami University

Naomi Miller, Naomi Miller Lighting Design LLC: “I was a judge for lighting and daylighting in the 2007 Solar Decathlon. Arriving with no expectations, I stumbled into this excited group of students and professors and staff and the public, all learning about and experiencing a wide range of products and ideas in the interest of reduced energy footprints. The students were not only learning about technology but learning about what techniques worked and which didn’t in each other’s houses. All the students and staff were exhausted and energized at the same time. This was an experience none of them would ever forget. Nor I.”