Race Heats Up to Build World s Best Solar House

During winter-quarter final exams in mid-March, much of the University of Cincinnati campus was without students – except for the business, design and engineering students energized in the effort to hammer out final details for the solar house they’ll soon begin building.

For instance, electrical engineering seniors Emily Martini, 23, of Western Hills, and Mike Obringer, 23, of Piqua, Ohio, were among the half-dozen students or so responsible for cutting and sizing the approximately 125 steel beams that will be used to frame the house and support its walls. Meanwhile, other students have been busy drilling bolt- and wood-screw holes into those beams, or doing carpentry work, or even transporting donated supplies – items as conventional as lumber...or as unconventional as evacuated tubes used to create thermal energy to cool and dehumidify the house.

This ongoing work builds on a firm foundation of design, engineering and business planning that began early in 2006 on UC's solar house. And the students are happy to finally have the chance to implement their plans and to, literally, get their hands dirty.

“The best part for me so far is this hands-on work,” said Obringer, who added that up till now, his contribution to the house’s design has consisted of helping to test solar photovoltaic panels for efficiency, to experiment with the panels’ placement, to figure  the solar power usage of the home’s appliances, and to design the layout of the house’s wiring.

Martini, who has also contributed to all of the just-mentioned tasks, agreed that finally seeing physical progress and work underway is the most satisfying aspect for her. “The very best part will be when we actually begin building. It’s fun to be making hands-on progress, and yes, to get filthy dirty. Up till now, the work has been conceptual and theoretical, and it’s been hard to know that we’re actually making progress. Now, it’s all hands-on practice, and we can see what’s being accomplished,” she stated.

The 200 or more UC students who have been involved in the project so far will work on construction of the house in two locations – in front of Braunstein Hall and at UC’s Center Hill Research Facility in Carthage. They’ll work through to mid-October. Then, the house – constructed in four portions on mobile home trailers – will travel to Washington, D.C., where the four sections will be assembled and displayed on the National Mall.

UC’s completely solar-powered house – which will measure about 800 square feet – will  then become part of an international 20-house display by select universities worldwide. The final results of the schools’ efforts will be judged on 10 specific criteria (hence the name of the competition as the Solar Decathlon) related to such factors as architectural aesthetics, livability, engineering, appliance efficiency, lighting, use of organic materials, innovation and energy production.

The effort to build the house has required a high-energy, integrated team effort on behalf of a number of UC colleges and departments, including the university’s top-ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning; College of Business and College of Engineering.

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