Solar Houses on the Mall

I remember when I was young, first or second grade probably or maybe a bit older, my class went to see a place called Urban Options -- an environmentally conscious demonstration house. It was one of the moments in my life, possibly the first definitive moment, when I knew that I wanted to make a difference for the environment. The staff spoke to our class about using less water by replacing the shower head and recycling bottles and cans. I don't know if my parents noticed it at the time, but I remember feeling a terrible urgency to use less water and start recycling everything that we could possibly recycle. I still feel that way and ever time I read or hear about global warming, low water supply from draught, pollution, etc. I get all in a twit about what I am doing and what I could be doing. So, in the spirit of raising awareness and learning more about greener technologies, we went down to the Mall to see the solar houses participating in the Solar Decathlon.

The third Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the Department of Energy, is taking place on the National Mall in Washington until this Saturday. The incredible houses are designed, engineered and built by students at universities from around the world. Unfortunately, with a squirmy toddler and fussy three month old, it was hard to wait in the lines to see the interiors but the exteriors were fantastic. Henry and I were able to go into the University of Missouri Rolla house, partly because there was no line waiting outside and partly because my dad went there. It was quite beautiful inside; though it looks like, as of today, it ranks in last place overall in the competition. Imagine what the others must be like!

The participating houses are judged in ten categories such as architecture, engineering, market viability, comfort zone, energy balance, etc. The awards ceremony is not until this Friday, so we will have to wait and see who wins, but from the outside Vince and I each had our favorites. I thought the Team Montreal home with it's skin of plants and dark wood was very nice and the rain water collector and garden in front of the Carnegie Mellon house also caught my eye. Vince favored the University of Maryland's LEAF House, which I also liked very much. We were excited because any of those three houses could have easily fit into our neighborhood. It made us hope that someday when we buy a place we can incorporate some of the incredible green technology that is out there more closely into our home.

The lovely morning was finished off with an encounter with a forklift, a hot dog and pretzel from an especially nice street vendor, and the kids falling asleep on the way home.

Here are a few of our pictures from the excursion.

Team Montreal's house:


Carnegie Mellon's rain water collector:


The forklift: