Solar house off to Decathlon

A solar-powered house designed by Pitt and Carnegie Mellon students and built by the… A solar-powered house designed by Pitt and Carnegie Mellon students and built by the Pittsburgh Solar Decathlon Team will go head to head against other solar projects from around the world in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon next month.

Students and faculty involved with the project were on hand at Construction Junction in Point Breeze Thursday to explain the finer points of the building.

This environmentally friendly house runs entirely on solar energy, collected from solar panels on the roof of the house.

A battery powers the house at night and is recharged each day by the solar panels.

The concept of the house began as early as May 2006, project manager and CMU architecture student Ben Saks said when the first designs for a solar-powered house were created.

After that, it was an “on and off” project, Saks said.

The final design integrates a “plug and play” concept, according to CMU architecture student, Robin Fok. The house comes with a central core containing services such as electric, water, heating and plumbing.

Extra rooms called “pods,” with kitchen, bedroom and living areas, can be added or removed as needed.

Building upon this concept, cabinets in the house can be added, removed or rearranged.

“It’s fun being involved in a high-technology house like this,” Fok said.

Students from Carnegie Mellon’s Schools of Design, Architecture, Art and Drama were involved in the project, as well as engineering students from the University of Pittsburgh, according to Hilary Robinson, dean of the College of Fine Arts at CMU.

“I am so proud of what these students have been able to do here. This is truly a student-led project,” Robinson said.

Students started on the actual construction of the Solar Decathlon house in May, architecture student John Easteridge said.

The start of the school year has not slowed work on the project – students work on the house between classes and on the weekends.

“It’s been non-stop,” Easteridge said. “There are always students here from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.”

“It’s a good learning experience. I’ve learned more about designing and building houses than in all of my years in architecture school,” Easteridge added.

“It’s one of the few houses that is completely self-sustainable.”

Unlike other environmentally conscious houses, Pittsburgh’s Solar Decathlon house is “ascetic and beautiful,” according to Easteridge.

The house includes a porch and a greenscape, a tiered structure that can hold plants and promotes the house’s environmentally friendly concept.

Over 60 sponsors donated materials needed for the construction of the $400,000 project, architecture faculty advisor Stephen Lee said.

The house will be entered in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition on Oct. 12-20, where it will compete with houses from 20 other universities across the United States, as well as houses from Germany, Spain and Canada.