People don't normally associate solar power with large electric utility companies, but we'd be sadly remiss if we didn't point out that St Louis-based AmerenUE made the largest single cash donation to the 2007 solar house project. The firm's gift of $22,600 was made without much fanfare, which to our way of thinking means they support the integration of renewable energy sources within their market. As a matter of fact some folks at AmerenUE approached then-team leader Chris Wright (more on him later) at an ASME meeting, expressed interest in knowing more about the project and invited the team to make a full presentation to the firm. No big photo ops for the check, no big announcement, just unqualified support for the project.

It is particularly significant that the team earmarked the gift (with Ameren's blessing) towards the purchase of the solar panels shown above during the D.C. construction phase (DC in D.C., get it?) and the entire power generation system. Kinda puts the students and AmerenUE in the same business, providing power for all of us, doesn't it? After all, as solar systems proliferate, more and more of them will be grid-tied, and AmerenUE knows it will need to stay ahead of the crowd.

Posted at 10:43 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (1)

CBS Sunday Morning spent a significant amount of time at the Solar Decathlon. We have received confirmation that the segment will be the “cover story” on Sunday, Nov. 4, at 9 a.m. Look for the UMR house and team members.

Posted at 01:49 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

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.

Continue reading "Out of DC, Rebuilt In Rolla In Less Than A Week!" »

Posted at 09:26 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

During the planning of the Solar Decathlon officials established a de-construction schedule of only 52 hours in which the teams had to remove the houses that took nearly a week to assemble. The conflicting goals were to keep the houses open to the public as long as possible, yet quickly return the site to National Park Service control, and that left the 20 teams with a real challenge. The Miners put together a plan that, while stretched to the limit, SHOULD have gotten them off the site within the 52 hours allotted. Well, they didn't meet the goal, they blew it out of the water!

Starting at 10 p.m. Saturday and working 'round the clock, the Miners removed the solar systems and pulled the upper story off the house by Sunday mid-day. By about the 38-hour point both halves of the house were then packed with furniture, solar panels and other components, rolled off the site and loaded onto flatbed trailers for the long ride home, and all that was left was the cleaning up the property. All-in-all it took about 45 hours to acomplish what many had said couldn't be done in less than three days! Why do we say three days? Apparently so many teams felt that 52 hours was an impossible goal that the organizers stretched the deadline to three full days! The solar house girls and guys figured that they had a workable plan so why not stick with it? They did all that and more and as it became obvious that their goal was attainable morale SOARED! Not only did they work extremely hard, they had a great time doing it! Amazing? Well, yeah, but isn't that typical of UMR's design team students? We think our students, faculty and alums would definitely agree.

Posted at 11:18 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

UMR finished 11th overall in the Decathlon, beating out teams like MIT and Kansas. Now the team is on its way home (if they're not already back) and so is the house, which will be placed back on its foundation in UMR's Solar Village. Here is the UMR news release.

Posted at 12:33 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

The Solar Decathlon points battle on the National Mall continues to wage, but UMR is currently leading the Hot Water and Appliances portions of the event. The Miners have yet to be judged on Energy Balance and the all-important (to us) Engineering, and the Comfort Zone, Lighting, and Getting Around events are judged throughout the week, so no points have yet been awarded in any of those categories.

Stay tuned and find out who provided our entire photo-voltaic system. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Posted at 10:46 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (1)

Our Miners wore themselves out rebuilding the solar house on the National Mall, and if they thought it was going to get easier they got a big surprise Saturday and Sunday. THOUSANDS of people swarmed the event site to tour the houses and learn about new energy technologies, and long lines in front of most of the houses were the norm. The Mall was simply PACKED. Adam, Jacobe, Luke, and Travis, Mike and Samantha found out that talking non-stop for hour after hour to attentive groups of people will wear you out much faster than swinging a hammer all night. We hear that Jacobe was snoring before he even settled into a chair Sunday night.

Anyway, judging has started in earnest but as of this reading we don't see any scores posted. The architectural judging has been a tough event for a nearly pure engineering team, so if we can post a respectable score in that category we'll go with our strengths in the less subjective events. The public reaction to our house has been very enthusiastic; a "real" home, and "very liveable" are the comments that we keep hearing, and the price tag has been very well received by folks in that part of the country. A bargain, even.

You can learn more about the overall event at www.solardecathlon.org.

Posted at 12:36 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

In the annals of the Solar Decathlon, UMR has built not only great solar houses, but also a reputation for arrriving on the National Mall prepared and ready to work. In both '02 and '05, the Miners were the first (or tied for first) to have their houses certified for proper operation, and this year, despite bringing a more complicated structure they were still in the top third of the houses deemed complete. Maybe that is why when the media descended upon the decathlon site UMR's breath-taking structure caught their eye. Or camera.

Regardless, the news crews from CNBC passed up other teams' entries and operated on the front porch of UMR's stunning entry, setting up lights, sound, tripods and video cameras. The Miners were the big feature of CBNC's report, we are told, so the UMR (MO S&T) march toward national recognition is picking up even more speed. Want to become part of a great project, one that will mark you as a future leader? Then enroll at Missouri S&T and join one of our many design teams. Education doesn't get any better than this!

Posted at 08:37 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

High praise, indeed, from a member of the solar house team that took 3rd place in the 2005 Solar Decathlon. We won't mention the name of the well-known school, but it's fabeled location is "Far Above Cayuga's Waters". Regardless, we think you'll agree that soon-to-be Missouri S&T's stunning interior design would impress any stylish interior decorator, even this writer's lovely wife.

UMR's Solar House Team has long held that the Solar Decathlon is more than just about building a solar powered house, but more about designing and building an amazing energy-efficient house that also just HAPPENS to get all it power from the sun. And especially an efficient, solar-powered house that people would actually want to LIVE in. Don't believe us? How about UMR's Solar Village, where our '02 and '05 house now serve as very popular student residences. Still don't believe us? Why not visit the houses for yourself. We'd love to give you a tour.
Anyway, the previous Solar Decathlons had a very strong architectural perspective, and considering that most entries were designed more by architecture students than engineers UMR more than held its own, so much so that UMR's 05 house was featured in Popular Mechanics magazine a few months later, and honored by the D-I-Y Cable channel as well. And we expect similar kudos for our really cool 07 house when the dust (er, judging) settles. Not bad for engineers, eh?
Stay tuned for more cool stuff from the nation's capital.

Posted at 06:56 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (1)

The UMR Solar House Team will be featured live this morning on CNBC. The segment airs at 9:40 a.m. Central Time.

Also, CNBC is scheduled to return to the UMR Solar House at 1 p.m. Central (2 p.m. Eastern) to broadcast live.

The UMR Solar House Team is one of 20 college and university teams competing in the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The event began earlier this week and concludes on Oct. 20. This weekend, several UMR alumni will gather at the UMR Solar House for an event.

The UMR team is also blogging about the experience.

Posted at 09:14 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (1)

UMR's Solar House's reconstruction on the National Mall is nearly complete. The girls and guys pretty much kept on schedule rebuilding the complex structure, with both modules quickly placed and assembled and the second story components lifted into place without incident. The weather has been great (if you don't mind hot and humid), just perfect for those 12-14 hour days of heavy physical effort. On Sunday all heavy work and generator noise was banned to alow the public to wander around the huge competition site, so the team members concentrated on finishing the interior.

Worsksite safety on is paramount so Nicole Annis and Jacobe Colbert (above) install the last solar panels using safety harnesses loaned by Alberici Construction of St Louis, without fear of falling on students simultaneously finishing up the deck systems. The rest of the day was devoted to finishing up railings and rebuilding the main house entry, which is the keystone of the house's design.

Luke Sudkamp kept busy with a circular saw, but didn't have much time to take in the sights such as the US Capital in the distance. That will come later.

Posted at 01:34 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

UMR's solar house has been topped off with the addition of the upper walls and roof sections yesterday. Three 18-wheelers hauled the modern-style solar powered house the 1,000 miles to the nation's capital. Two of the trucks unloaded Wednesday, and once the house modules were bolted together and secured the truck carrying the higher walls and roof panels pulled up to the site and the second-story components were carefully lifted into place.

The weather continues to be warm and dry, excellent for an intensive construction schedule, to say nothing of having a roofless house for a couple of days. UMR has a reputation for rapid solar house set-up. In both previous Solar Decathlons ('02 and '05) the Miners were the first team to have their houses completed and certified for operation.

Posted at 10:32 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

Musical chairs, er, trucks actually, on the National Mall as 50+ 18-wheelers descended upon one section of the Mall all at the same time, all trying to disgorge their solar houses in the middle of the night. How'd YOU like to be in charge of that?
Anyway, we are delighted to report that the reconstruction of UMR's solar house is on schedule despite a 2-hour traffic delay in moving onto their lot. The two house modules are safely off the trucks, set on their foundations and bolted together. Now students are hooking up the plumbing and under-house electrical systems and looking forward to installating the upper walls and roof sections tomorrow (Friday). All the heavy jacks, lifting equipment and other shipping items have been removed and stored off site, and the innovative siding is going back up. By week's end we should see a nearly finished house.
The team is pretty busy, so we don't have photos to post but we hope to rectify that shortly.

Posted at 02:10 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

UMR's 2007 entry in the Solar Decathlon is on the road. Monday the team, with help from wall manufacturer Thermocore of Missouri and a large crane, removed the house's roof and upper floors, and began to box in the house for travel. When heavy rains swept over the partially roofless house students successfully contained the leaks with plastic sheeting, buckets, and even inverted hard hats to protect the house interior. Wednesday the students rigged the first of two modules to be crane-lifted onto flatbed trucks, with Luke Sudkamp spacing steel beams to properly support the nearly 9-ton house.

Lifting the house simply involved slowly swinging the 32' section counter-clockwise around the crane and setting it on a flatbed trailer. After loading various deck sections and a small electric car, the house was shrink-wrapped, tarped and chained down and sent on its way. Today the remaining module will get the same treatment, and then the team will load up the tools and equipment necessary to reverse the process.

Posted at 08:33 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

It's crunch time for UMR's 2007 Solar House. With the house scheduled to move on to the National Mall in Washington DC in less than two weeks the sun-powered structure has switched from the construction phase to the DE-construction phase. Right after applying the house's (almost) finishing touches students immediately began to prepare to load it onto trucks for the nearly 1,000-mile trip to the nation's Capitol. Kinda like a very large, very slow, solar car race. In this photo Project Manager Bill Eggert helps Jacob Colbert hang the kitchen cabinets which will remain in place throughout the trip.

Continue reading "Lift-off time for the Solar House" »

Posted at 09:28 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

The UMR Solar House Team's participation in the 2002 and 2005 Solar Decathlons inspired Cheryl Marcum and her husband, Mitchell Ross, to move from Alexandria, Va., to the farm where Cheryl grew up near Stockton, Mo. -- where they now live in their very own solar house. Cheryl recently sent us a nice email:

I know the university invested considerable resources in designing, building and transporting their houses to the Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C., and we thought the school would like to know that investment stimulated at least two people to make a huge life decision to build an energy efficient home -- in Southwest Missouri, no less.

Now, less than a few years after being impressed by the UMR entries in D.C., the Marcums' new house is on the American Solar Energy Society's National Solar Tour. Cheryl and her husband both attended Missouri State, but they wanted us to know that the efforts of the UMR Solar House Team have had a profound impact on their lives.

Posted at 01:56 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (1)

UMR's Solar House Team hosted Missouri State Representative James O. Guest on a tour of the solar village and the 2007 solar house in late August, and Rep. Guest reciprocated by presenting a $1,000 check to support the team's project.
Rep. Guest had plenty of questions about the applications of energy-efficient features of the team's latest entry in the Solar Decathlon, and discussed legislative efforts to promote renewable energy programs within the state. Responding to questions about developing wind farms on Ozarks hilltops, Rep. Guest said that studies indicate that only northwest Missouri has sufficient sustainable wind power to justify the investment in wind power technologies.

Posted at 12:54 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

This weekend, the dorms on campus were repopulated by new and returning students. But there are three people who have their own private residences on campus: Navarre Bartz, Rachel Swearingin and, oh yeah, Chancellor Jack Carney. Two of the three occupy houses that happen to be completely solar-powered.

Navarre (above) and Rachel (below) are lucky student residents of UMR's unique solar village, a three-structure (so far) community of student-designed solar houses. They have privacy, convenience to classes, plenty of parking, and tenants only have to walk across the street to see UMR's sports teams in action.

The first two houses were built for the Solar Decathlon, a ten-event student design competition held in Washington D.C., in 2002 and 2005. Featuring high efficiency appliances, superb insulation and open floor plans, the buildings have been designed to support a comfortable lifestyle in a small package. UMR's first house was a conventional design, but the second was a blend of high technology and Frank Lloyd Wright architecture (it was even featured in Popular Mechanics magazine).

UMR's third house, which has a strikingly modern design, is nearing completion and will be moved to the National Mall in early October. More than 100,000 visitors are expected during the 10-day Decathlon. UMR's entry and all of the other houses in the Decathlon are being designed to provide all of their own electric power, light, heat, air conditioning and hot water. Additionally, they will each be able to charge a plug-in electric automobile.

Posted at 02:09 PM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)

The UMR Solar House Team has turned to a modern and environmentally-sound design for its entry into the 2007 Solar Decathlon, an international competition to design an innovative, stylish home that is 100 percent solar powered. The team is nearing completion of the contemporary structure in the UMR Solar Village located across 10th Street from UMR’s football field.

Wrapped for months in a reflective foil cocoon that kept the house waterproof but was confusing to passers-by, the house is now swathed in a pattern of dramatic grey panels made of 100 percent recycled paper combined with non-petroleum based resins. The product is called PaperStone Rainscreen, which not only is visually striking but incredibly strong and impervious to hail. It is installed as a stand-off siding, mounted inches away from the house walls. This helps shade the structure during the warm months and the air gap provides a natural cooling system as air flows behind the siding. Both characteristics constitute a passive solar design and reduce the need for air conditioning.

Also: Resin phenols extracted from cashew nut shells are used in the process of manufacturing the gray panels. More after the jump.

Continue reading "This is not your father’s vinyl siding" »

Posted at 10:20 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (1)

(We totally stole this post from Visions, which is OK because we totally wrote it last summer...)

One day, you might be able to buy your very own version of a UMR solar house. Dr. Stuart Baur, advisor to the UMR Solar House Team, says he gets inquiries from people all the time about buying one of the university's solar houses or at least purchasing the plans. With this in mind, Baur is interested in partnering with a company that sells manufactured homes. Because UMR's houses have to be capable of quick assembly, they are constructed in units and are put together a lot like quality manufactured homes. Baur imagines rows of solar houses in a futuristic trailer park, where none of the residents have to worry about utility bills. Meanwhile, UMR is building its own solar village near campus.

Posted at 09:52 AM | Permalink | add to del.icio.us| Comments (0)