The Competition
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a competition which challenges teams of college and graduate students from around the world to design and build solar-powered, net-zero houses. Teams spend two years designing and building their entries within their institutions. The houses are re-assembled for an intense ten day competition on the National Mall in Washington D.C. The event is enormously popular and attracts thousands of people to the Mall. Tours are given of each house to teach the public about energy efficient design, sustainable products, and energy-saving technologies that are readily available. In 2009 alone, the Solar Decathlon provided 307,502 home tours to the public over a ten-day period.
The Decathlon consists of ten contests in which the houses are evaluated on criteria ranging from energy performance to architectural appeal, alongside the house's performance on typical household activities such as cooking and laundry.
The Contests
Architecture
Each of the nineteen teams will be evaluated by a jury of professional architect of the house's architectural appeal. CHIP's design truly stands out from the crowd, and we hope that the architecture jury agrees that CHIP is pushing residential architecture into the future.
Market Appeal
One of the more important aspects of the Solar Decathlon is to promote energy efficient housing. The Market Appeal contest is about how sexy CHIP's vinyl skin is; how much we like CHIP's elegant, spacious interior; and how much people drool over being able to turn the lights on and off just by pointing at them. Market appeal? CHIP has it.
Engineering
The engineering contest highlights our mechanical, electrical, and computng isystems. We know how to size an HVAC system and a PV array and can't wait to showcase our systems. We've worked hard on the engineering design of CHIP over the past two years, and we're confident that the jury will appreciate the details of our system.
Communications
Another primary goal of the Solar Decathlon is public outreach - making sure that you know what energy efficiency and a renewable supply of electricity can do for your home. Our communication at the Solar Decathlon competition consists of tours, brochures, display boards, and of course this website, and we hope you're getting the point!
Affordability
Getting the public to embrace our nifty architecture and neat technology isn't good enough if no one can afford to buy these systems. Fortunately, cost analysis was an important aspect when we designed CHIP. The contest assigns full points up to $250,000, and we're pleased to report that CHIP weighs in around $300,000, although the jury's still out on the exact figures.
Comfort Zone
Sure, we're all nerds for energy efficiency, but that doesn't mean we want our house to feel like a sauna (especially since it is bad for the electronics!). This category requires that we keep CHIP between 71 and 76 degrees Fahrenheit and below 60% relative humidity throughout the contest week. We know our system can beat the heat, and we hope it can tackle the humidity as well.
Hot Water
There's nothing quite like a hot shower when you get home from work. Or first thing in the morning when you wake up. CHIP can meet the demand of a real house, drawing hot water worth taking two showers everyday. With our thermal recovery system that captures waste heat from the AC to use to heat water, we expect CHIP to rock this category.
Appliances
Fridge, freezer, washer, dryer, and dish washer: things you expect to find and in good working order in any house; CHIP is no exception. The appliances category requires us to keep the fridge and freezer in certain temperature ranges, do loads of laundry, and run the dishwasher. CHIP comes stocked with energy efficient appliances that will not only be up to the tasks, but complete them with minimal energy consumption.
Home Entertainment
This "catch all" category which will require us to keep CHIP's lights on, use the flat-top electric stove in CHIP's kitchen, run a TV and a computer, and entertain guests from other teams at a dinner party and a movie night party. CHIP has beautiful energy efficient lights, and an awesome home theater system complete with stadium seating in its sloped interior, so we're looking forward to showing it off to the other teams!
Energy Ballance
This is the ultimate category, the one it's all about: can CHIP generate more energy during the contest week than it consumes during the other nine competitions? We analyzed fifteen years worth of data in the process of designing our system, and the answer is that CHIP should be net zero for the competition in 95% of possible weather conditions that we might get during the contest week. And in Southern California, there's more sun, so CHIP is net-zero, no questions asked.
