Solar home in Va. getting high marks - Political Forum

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary · 01-28-2007, 09:43 AM

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Solar home in Va. getting high marks
By MATT REED
Associated Press Writer

Sen. Frank Wagner R-Virginia Beach, right, speaks during a news conference in front of the Virginia Tech Solar House at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007. Wagner will spend a week living at the house in the parking lot of the Science Museum to help promote the viability of solar houses.

RICHMOND, Va. - State Sen. Frank Wagner is staying warm at his temporary address, even in below-freezing weather and without a traditional power supply or fireplace.

The Virginia Beach Republican, a proponent of alternative energy sources, is living for a week outside the Science Museum of Virginia in a solar-powered house designed and built by Virginia Tech students. He moved in Wednesday. Using a remote control and a computer, Wagner is testing whether the award-winning home can generate enough electricity from the sun to run everyday home appliances — and still have enough left over to send to Richmond's power grid or charge an electric car.

"The house is designed to be self-sufficient, but there's a lot of things that could be adapted into existing houses today," he said Friday, after spending his second almost glitch-free night in the 800 square-foot home. The house is warmed by heat that comes up through the floor, and has a rainwater harvesting system and automated mood lighting. It also features a wide-screen TV and kitchen appliances chosen for their energy efficiency.

These features can be manipulated while sitting on a couch and tapping on a tablet computer connected to the building's control system. All of it is powered by the sun's energy, which is gathered by rooftop photovoltaic panels and stored in the home's battery system. "We want to show that you don't have to huddle around candles and be dressed in all your clothes to be comfortable in a house powered by solar energy," said Robert Schubert, associate dean of research for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech.

The home was built by 80 Virginia Tech engineering and architecture students and eight faculty members over 2 1/2 years. It won fourth place overall at the 2005 Solar Decathlon — an international competition on Washington's National Mall sponsored by the Department of Energy. The home won first place recognition for its design and electric lighting and has since been featured on ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and HGTV's "I Want That!"

Schubert said no one had previously lived in the house, but then Wagner volunteered to be the university's guinea pig, helping bring the house some publicity. Wagner made the offer after touring the house in September at a Virginia Tech-hosted energy symposium. Wagner said the house has been comfortable, but when the temperatures dipped into the 20s Thursday night, it froze the building's water supply, sending him elsewhere for a shower Friday before heading to the General Assembly.

"It's the first time anybody's lived in there, so we're going to have some glitches," he said. "I can tell you, it's a lot nicer than my hotel room, and my hotel room is pretty nice."

I only wish this kind of solar panels for the home were more affordable. They cost about $10,000. I think that the government should really be looking for ways to develop cheaper solar technology.

Slartibartfas · 01-28-2007, 10:36 AM

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Originally Posted by W.E.B. Du Bois

I only wish this kind of solar panels for the home were more affordable. They cost about $10,000. I think that the government should really be looking for ways to develop cheaper solar technology.

Thats something for the future, ie we need the governments to take large sums into their hands to foster the developement. (But not only of photovoltaik but the whole variety of alternative energy sources).

I dont think with that with the current technology it is economically feasible to generate enough energy for standard home + one or two cars.

A far more promsising aproach is not the production of energy, but saving it. In order to elimate the need for energy in first place. Thats also an affordable approach more applicable for the mass. Of course these energy efficient buildings can then be upgraded with alternative forms of energy production. Photovoltaic should however only come after geothermic and solar capacities are already exploited. (air heating, water heating..)

Check out the Passivhaus standard. Thats what is started to be applied more and more in the new construction projects in Vienna. Even though the mass of the projects (new construction, restauration) follows the Niedrigenergiehaus standard.

Slartibartfas · 01-28-2007, 11:25 AM

Examples for new Passivhäuser in Vienna:

Passivhäuser, energy consumption < 10 W/m2

Kindergarten, Passivhaus energy consumption < 10 W/m2

There are many large projects on the way with major residential blocks. They are being constructed currently:

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary · 01-28-2007, 06:26 PM

What is it about those buildings that allows them to save more energy?

Slartibartfas · 01-28-2007, 06:43 PM

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Originally Posted by W.E.B. Du Bois

What is it about those buildings that allows them to save more energy?

They have very good temperature isolation. They are in fact air-tight. And opening windows is not necessary normally as there is an integrated air circulation. This can save enourmous amounts of air already.

Par of this air ciruclation is normally a heat exchanger between fresh and used air. Optionally the fresh air is already warmed by a geothermic facility (simply pumping the air through the soil that cools it in summer and warms it in winter).

Furthermore the buildings are built with having the sun in head, and also the issue of heat in the summer. After all, cooling in the summer is as energy wasting as heating in winter.

Of course, also solar water heating can find its way into those buildings.

The important point for a residential building to qualify as Passivhaus is that it needs less than 10 or 15 W/m2 (I am not sure about the exact number).

Slartibartfas · 01-29-2007, 11:15 AM

Here you have a IR picture. On the right side you have Passivhaus. On the left, behind the tree there seems to be a conventional one.

You can see the huge difference, can you?

That might be even more interesting for you:

From Wikipedia about the Passivhausstandard:

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In the United States the standard results in a building that requires space heating energy of 1 BTU per square foot per heating degree day, compared with about 5 to 15 BTUs per square foot per heating degree day for a similar building built to meet the 2003 Model Energy Efficiency Code. This is between 75 to 95% less energy for space heating and cooling than current new buildings that meet today's US energy efficiency codes.

Another interesting paragraph:

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Comparison with zero energy buildings

A net zero energy building (ZEB) is another term for a very similar approach to creating small buildings that use substantially less energy. Zero energy building or zero energy home seem to be phrases that are gaining popularity in the United States, possibly due to the implication that the energy for a zero energy home would be free.

Unfortunately the ZEB seems to have been implemented without making maximum use of passive techniques to minimise heat loss and instead relies on active techniques to make up the energy / heat shortfall. See zero energy building for details of the debate.

The ZEB might be what you were referring to originally.

If you want to know more have a look into the whole article:
Passive house - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slartibartfas · 06-24-2008, 03:24 PM

Stanford seems to offer lectures about the Passivhaus standard, but on this page you find a great and compact introductory article about the entire concept:

Positive Sustainability: Building a solution - The Stanford Daily Online