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The WSU solar house took shape during the summer of 2005 in a College of Engineering and Architecture parking lot. Photo by Robert Hubner.

The solar industry is rapidly growing throughout the world, says Mike Nelson, manager of the Northwest Solar Center through WSU Extension. In Germany, the industry grew by 165 percent last year; Japan had a 60-percent increase, and in the U.S., the industry expanded by 35 percent. Last year too, Washington became the first state to provide production payment incentives for solar housing—meaning that those who produce solar power are paid for the electricity they generate. The state’s renewable energy legislation is thought to be the most progressive of its kind in the U.S.

“I hope this competition helped to heighten awareness about this emerging technology,” says Nelson. “A lot of people don’t incorporate [solar] into their thinking. The students, I hope, can help the University take a step forward. WSU architecture is out in front.”

Building for sustainability has to become the norm, rather than exception, says Matthew Taylor, assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Construction Management and advisor for the Solar Decathlon project.

“It’s important to do it correctly,” he says. “Otherwise, . . . it could very easily turn into a fad. We have to do drastically better [than we have been doing].”

From the beginning, the multidisciplinary team of students wanted to show that their home could be beautiful and functional without following strict solar design guidelines. Rather than a solar home’s typical 45-degree sloped roof and due-south orientation, the WSU house has an eight-degree sloped roof and is 17 degrees off due south. But with the use of improved solar technologies, this has had little effect on the performance of the system. The butterfly roof is its most distinctive feature. “It was the most extreme way to show the public that solar design does not have to follow typical constraints,” says Brad Frey, a graduate student in architecture and a lead designer on the project.

A rendering of the exterior of the WSU house by team member Lindsay Mellum shows the structure's unique butterfly roof design.

The house is also unique because of its nuts and bolts construction. Because the team wanted to build a home that could be transported easily, the entire structure can be broken down into pieces. Yet when it’s assembled, it doesn’t look like it just came off a flatbed truck.

With the help of in-kind and cash contributions, the house cost about $200,000 to build, the smallest budget of any of the Solar Decathlon homes. The students were proud that, unlike many of the other teams in the contest, they did all the work themselves, installing plumbing, cabinetry, lighting, appliances, and furniture. The coffee table—made out of sorghum, and designed and built by Andrea Read, a third-year architecture student, and some of her teammates—pivots up and becomes a dining room table, saving valuable space and increasing efficiency. The office desk is made from scraps from the floor joists. Various parts of the living room couch—designed and built by Lindsay Mellum, an interior design major—serve dual purposes. Some have storage space within the seats. One piece hides a pop-up coffee table.

The home has a number of other environmentally-friendly appliances and features. Its refrigerator—10 times more efficient than that found in a normal home—also pumps cool air into the house and serves to pre-heat the water system. In a typical home, the refrigerator is one of the big energy hogs, says Read. The floor is eucalyptus, produced by Weyerhaueser, using second-growth trees that only take seven or eight years to harvest. The home’s structural members are a recycled product, made from what would be waste wood from sawmills.

“We chose to have everything be sustainable,’’ says Read. “We’re sticking with our Northwest theme by being green. We are using our materials to their fullest.”

The siding and decking of the home are wood-plastic composites, developed at WSU’s Wood Materials and Engineering Laboratory and made from recycled products. Contrasting with the modern look of the wood-plastic siding, the students used recycled, industrial-style metal sheeting as shade devices on their home. The sheeting was installed on sliding barn doors, allowing for temperature control and privacy.

“We are questioning the idea of always having brand new things,” says Duff Bangs, another student on the project.

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