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The team from the University of Cincinnati takes a dinner break on Saturday evening. (Credit: Byron Stafford/Solar Decathlon) |
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Lee Ann Holwager, a safety officer at the Solar Decathlon, discusses safety issues with two Santa Clara University team members on Saturday night. (Credit: Byron Stafford/Solar Decathlon) |
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The teams from Carnegie Mellon University and the Technische Universität Darmstadt enjoy a barbeque sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders. (Credit: Kevin Eber/Solar Decathlon) |
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Many teams are now installing solar thermal systems on their houses. Nearly all the teams employ "evacuated tube collectors" to gather the solar heat. These are glass tubes with a vacuum inside them as insulation to keep them from losing heat. A metal tube with fins collects the sun's heat, transferring it to water that passes through the tubes, thereby heating the water. In this photo, Nansen Yu and Myra Wong of Cornell University install evacuated tube collectors on their team's house. (Credit: Kevin Eber/Solar Decathlon) |
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Christopher Davis of the University of Cincinnati cleans evacuated tube solar collectors on the south side of the team's house. The team is using solar heat rather than electricity as the main driving force for their air conditioning, so they need a large bank of solar thermal collectors. Air conditioning that is driven by solar heat is called "solar absorption cooling." (Credit: Kevin Eber/Solar Decathlon) |
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The Penn State house combines the new and old: reused slate tiles from an old barn on the right, and new solar "slates" on the left. (Credit: Kevin Eber/Solar Decathlon) |
