Lawrence Tech’s solar house holds open house before going to Solar Decathlon

 Lawrence Technological University students debut their solar-themed, off-the-grid house for Metro Detroiters before taking off for Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C.. 

Friday, Metro Detroiters will get the chance to tour this greener than green domicile and see just how energy efficient they can make their home. The house will be open to the public for tours between 4:30 and 8 p.m. Friday and Sept. 21 at the university’s Southfield campus, 21000 W. 10 Mile Road with students on hand to explain green building techniques and how they can be used in everyday life.

“This is not the house of the future. It is the house of now,” says Philip Plowright, an assistant professor of architecture at Lawrence Tech and faculty advisor on the project. “We are using well-vetted products and technology, and the focus has been on keeping it simple. As a team, we made a conscious decision not to go for the wow factor.”

A team of more than 40 Lawrence Tech students called ALOeTERRA (which means to nourish the earth) designed and built the 700-square-foot, energy-positive house over the summer. Volunteers from the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millrights also lent a hand creating a home that harnesses the sunlight into enough electricity to power the home’s utilities (along with some left over for a small electric vehicle).

The house will be disassembled in October and rebuilt in Washington, D.C., as Lawrence Tech’s entry into the Solar Decathlon. It will be part of a “solar village” exhibition on the National Mall where more than 100,000 visitors will view them on Oct. 12-20. A field of 20 universities – including MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Cornell – will join Lawrence Tech in this year’s decathlon, a prestigious international competition where universities compete to build the most attractive and energy-efficient, solar-powered home. Lawrence Tech is the smallest college in the contest and the only one from Michigan, but believes it can compete with the world’s top-tier universities.

“The team at Lawrence Tech has built a quality sustainable home that is both economical and earth-friendly.  The thinking that went into this structure is frankly astounding,” says Jim Croce, president and CEO of Detroit-based NextEnergy. “This is an amazing achievement for this internationally recognized student competition and is further evidence of Lawrence Tech’s academic strength in the alternative energy sector.”

That strength is coupled with the common sense of using green building techniques and technologies that are widely available to the public so the house can serve as a showcase on how regular people can conserve energy in housing.

For instance, the primary source of energy for hot water and heating is an array of evacuated tubes. The system can store a day’s worth of hot water and can pay for itself in energy savings in about two years. All of the home’s electricity is generate by photovoltaic solar panels that cover much of the roof. When sunlight isn’t available, the home’s battery system will meet all the energy needs for things like heating, ventilation and air conditioning. To make the house energy positive, meaning it produces more energy than it consumes, Team ALOeTERRA utilizes a number of energy conservation ideas to control its energy appetite.

“We want our house to be a stage for educating homebuyers about the possibilities for dramatically decreasing the carbon footprint of their homes,” says Christina Span, a member of Team ALOeTERRA. “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.”

Source: Lawrence Technological University
Writer: Jon Zemke