UMR's hard-working Solar House Team pulled off an amazing feat! Less than a week after the Solar Decathlon closed up shop on the National Mall, UMR had its house back on the foundation at the campus' solar village. Deconstruction at the competition site began at 10 p.m. Saturday Oct. 20. By mid-day on the 21st, the roof and upper story had been removed and secured on the flatbed truck for the westward trip.
Monday the 22nd saw each module set on rollers, slid off the house site and lifted up in the air for the flatbed trailers to be ever-so-slowly backed under each massive structure. Monday night was all about cleaning up the site, and Tuesday dawned quiet and peaceful. So peaceful, in fact, that the students managed to sleep in a few hours before starting the 1,000-mile trip back to Rolla.
Read more about the return trip home (which included a near fire and a police escort through part of Illinois) and see some pictures after the jump.
Westward Ho! The wagon train (of sorts) was not without its drama. The SDELC van, Budget Rental truck, and the center's pickup truck pulling the big solar car trailer (thanks, solar car!) had smooth sailing once they cleared Washington's notorious traffic. The beautiful fall colors of the Appalachians and great communication over the 2-way radios kept morale high.
Day two of the trip was supposed to be a short run from Indiana to Rolla, but just across the Illinois line smoke began billowing from the solar car trailer trailer, because a bearing had failed and welded itself to the axle. It was so bad that when they tried to remove the wheel the entire hub just fell on the pavement!
The guys transferred as much weight as possible to the rental and pickup trucks, and with an Illinois State Police escort drove down the shoulder on only three of the four wheels to the next exit some 15 miles away. The local mechanic was too busy to fix it, so the students pulled tools from the trailer and cut the ruined parts away, drove to several local parts stores for new bearings and seals, rebuilt it themselves right on the gravel lot and were back on the road by dinner time. That sure beat leaving the rig in Illinois because it contained many of the essential items needed to put the house back together.
Anyway, Thursday had the crew was faced with resetting the house modules back on the foundation, which went flawlessly.
With rain showers forecast for the next day the house was covered in tarps and the team stepped back and tended to an even more important task. Laundry!
Saturday the crew returned and set the upper walls and roof sections, sealed the roof, and declared victory! All in just under seven days. Amazing!
Now work continues on removing travel-related assemblies, moving power and plumbing panels into the basement, storing the roller system away for use on the 2009 house, and getting the place ready for its first tenant in January. Stay tuned for the house-warming party!
Did we mention that the Miners won the Mud Bog event over nearly 100 other mudders? How appropriate that a school founded to efficiently burrow into the earth took top honors in just the group's second year of existence. Not bad, not bad at all for a sophomore team, eh?