LTU “off the grid” house on display in DC

Lawrence Technological University is one of 20 schools from around the United State in Europe competing in the Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC this week. Each team had to build a home that was completely self-sufficient, or off-the-grid.

Excerpt:

“We want our house to be a stage for educating homebuyers about the possibilities for dramatically decreasing the carbon footprint of their homes,” said team member Christina Span, who graduated from Lawrence Tech in May with a degree in architecture. “Making homes more energy-efficient is the single biggest thing we can do as a country to reduce our country’s energy consumption and reliance on foreign oil.”

Taken together, these 20 houses represent many of the best ideas for changing America’s perception of housing. The structures demonstrate how pleasant it can be to live in a relatively small but well-designed space. The contest requires houses to be 800 square feet or less, and in most of the houses the actual living space is well under 700 square feet.

Read the entire article here.