ULL house part of contest
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LAFAYETTE — A vine-covered trellis over a bedroom deck offers a cool and quiet setting to take in a book.
Solar panels move to track the sun for maximum effect, rainwater is harvested and stored for later use, and a giant garage door-style window can be raised to open the living room completely to the outside.
“We live in Louisiana in flux between indoors and outdoors,” said University of Louisiana at Lafayette architecture student Jeremy Credeur, discussing some of the influences on his home design for the upcoming 2009 Solar Decathlon.
ULL is one of 20 teams selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for the international competition.
Credeur’s design was one of 12 on display Friday for an input session to help students combine their best ideas for the project.
The students must design a and build an 800-square-foot, solar-powered home that will be reassembled with the work of the other teams as part of a “solar village” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The designs on display Friday show influences of regional styles — the New Orleans shotgun, the Acadian cottage, the dogtrot — but focus heavily on efficiency.
The homes take full advantage of natural light and have plenty of ventilation to help keep things cool naturally.
Some designs include systems to harvest rainwater for home use and water heaters that use the sun’s warmth rather than electricity.
Efficiency is key, because the competition requires the homes to produce enough solar energy and hot water to power lighting, cooking, clothes washers and dishwashers.
The house also must produce enough extra energy to charge an electric car.
The student home designs will be judged on 10 criteria, including architecture, engineering, ability to produce hot water, comfort, lighting and market appeal.
ULL architecture professor Geoff Gjertson said his goal is a solar home that could be reproduced for about $100,000.
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