Team Aggie Sol built its house here, cut it in half and is now putting it back together in Irvine for the Department of Energy’s 2015 Solar Decathlon, Oct 8-18.

UC Davis students are competing for the first time in this biennial event that challenges collegiate teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses.

Fourteen teams from around the country are vying in this year’s decathlon. In this last phase, each team must show that its home is not just another pretty space. It has to work.

At UC Davis, students, staff, faculty and others raced to put the finishing touches on the Aggie Sol home last week across the street from the Domes.

Then, almost as soon as the last nail went in, the Aggie Sol team dismantled the house by splitting it down the middle. Trucks then hauled the two halves — which had been built on trailers — to Orange County Great Park.

 

In less than 3 hours we had all of our equipment setup and both of our houses pulled together on our job site! We're pretty proud of our awesome team members for pulling this together!

Posted by UC Davis Solar Decathlon 2015 "Aggie-Sol" on Monday, September 28, 2015

“This is the big final hurrah,” Aggie Sol project manager Robert Good said.

Zero net energy the goal

The decathlon, naturally, comprises 10 contests. Each team must host a dinner party for 10 people, do a load of laundry and boil water, for example. Along the way, each home’s energy consumption will be tracked and calculated. Zero net energy is the goal at competition’s end.

The judges also look at affordability and consumer appeal. Team Aggie Sol offers up what it calls a dignified home for farmworkers, a 1,000-square-foot house that is easy to build and maintain, costing an estimated $100 per square foot for construction.

The Aggie Sol home features a space to remove work clothes and boots, and to wash off any pesticides or other residue that may remain after a day in the fields.

“We had a group of UC Davis sociology students interview farmworkers, and the cleanup room was a real need,” said the team’s faculty adviser, Frank Loge, professor of civil and environmental energy, and director of the Center for Water-Energy Efficiency.

The center helped Team Aggie Sol develop ideas for water-conscious, energy-efficient design. Other key features include heavy insulation, solar tubing and an energy-efficient method of heating water. Also, the home’s butterfly-shaped roof aids in collecting rainwater, which is sprayed back on the roof for natural cooling in the night air and pumped through the floor to cool the home during the day.

Heart and sol

Some 40 students comprise the Aggie Sol team as the competition is about the begin, although more than 300 students have participated in the project since it began. Representing nearly every department on campus, students have gained experience in architectural design, engineering, communications, project management and other skills.

“They’re coming away with a nice portfolio piece — something worth sharing,” Good said.

The Center for Water-Energy Efficiency and other units made this project a community effort. The Water and Cooling Efficiency Center advised the team on its innovative radiant sky cooling system, while the Institute of Transportation Studies and Plug-In Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Research Center ran test simulations on the home’s capacity to charge an electric vehicle.

Engineers and staff from Utilities and Facilities stepped in to help when time was running short, working all through the (hot) final week of construction and into the weekend to get the job done. There were regional sponsors and even a local plumber, who donated hundreds of dollars in materials without even wanting a tax write-off.

“At the end of the day, the local community really helped out,” Loge said.

Follow the Aggie Sol Facebook page and the DOE Solar Decathlon website for decathlon updates.

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