Solar Decathlon Monday : Inside three houses

Interests, Life
Solar Decathlon

Solar Decathlon

On Monday, Columbus Day, I was working from home, but I needed to come into the office to reset my computer because it’s a cheap government P.O.S. and it froze. So because Wade was working a half day we decided to meet up with him and tour some of the Solar Decathlon houses down on the mall. Wade forgot the memory card in his camera so the only pictures I have are from my little Sony which is normally OK, But I am no professional Photographer. We were all really impressed with the designs and ideas. It’s a totally different experience to actually go inside the houses and see up close what they’ve done with the technology and the space. There were long lines for all of them so we just chose three to visit that day.
Puerto Rico, The Ohio State, and Team Alberta.

Solar Decathlon Preview

Interests, Life
North House

North House

Team Canada

Team Canada

filtration?

filtration?

Team Germany

Team Germany

Awesome Deck

Awesome Deck

Silo House

Silo House

Construction

Construction

West End

West End

Artificial Wetlands

Artificial Wetlands

I heard that the Solar Decathlon was back in town this year, but I didn’t know the dates. I didn’t want to miss it, so at lunch today Phil and I walked over to check out what’s going on. I think it starts next week, so they’re really coming together. They look so much more complicated than in previous years. I think they’ve really brought their A-game this year. It was cool to see the funcitoning artificial wetlands and water conservation systems. I didn’t have a good camera so I had to use my cell. I’ll come back next week when it’s really going so I can get a tour of the homes and get better pictures.

Maybe I’ll bring wade for some joint Swalrus Network coverage.

Solar Decathlon DC 2007

Interests, Life

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Oh Man! I was totally supposed to write about this the other day when it was fresh in my mind. It’s kind of hard to remember to do these things when there’s no encentives. I think I’ll just give a list of things I can remember about the event.

  • Totally cool architecture, even if they all kind of look like shipping containers.
  • How did they keep all the plants alive when shipping them in?
  • I didn’t see anyone from Ecogeek.org, Inhabitat.com, or Treehugger.com, I’m sure they were there somewhere.
  • The international schools are great at Design.
  • Having the electronics covered by a greenwall was an awesome design (puerto rico)
  • The recycled formica outside was really cool.

And now other thoughts…

The real cool thing about the event was just being around regular people that are trying to make an impact on the environment. I’ve been saying to Laurel that environmentalism needs a makeover. Hippies in veggie oil powered VW busses have been saying it for years and it isn’t working, they need a PR makeover. It needs to be cool! If you can get the rich yuppies to buy it then the rest will follow. Why do we want Mercedes and Designer Handbags? Because celebrities and rich people have them and we don’t (also they’re well made and cool looking).

So what’s my great idea really? Envy! That’s right Envy, the new tool of the environmentalist. I’m telling you this is the way to go. If you can get the people in McLean, Virginia to buy $30,000 golden Buddha yard art that also is a rain water collection cistern that will automatically water the yard without  using the public water supply then later when they’re popular you can introduce lower price versions to the general public. I want to make the H3 of environmental systems. I want to trick people into living green.

Later!