"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
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Zerow Energy Row House
This is a short blurb about the 2009 Rice University Zero Energy Rowhouse. It’s a follow up to my blog post on the Solar Decathlon and I’ll post some pictures doc**enting a bit of the process/details.
The design of the ZEROW HOUSE adopts the traditional row-house typology as a primary precedent. Our design addresses the small size and limited budget of typical row houses through replication, innovative use of current technologies, local materiality, and an understanding of life-cycle costs.
The ZEROW HOUSE will be able to produce all the energy needed for its operation on site through the use of a photovoltaic array and solar hot water system that collect solar energy.
The home designed specifically for a hot, humid climate, and after the Solar Decathlon will be permanently located at Project Row Houses, a CDC that provides low income housing in inner city Houston. The row house typical to19th century Houston is a high-density urban model derived from traditional low-income Caribbean-type houses found across the South. Also called shotgun houses, where rooms lead directly into one another in a line, these affordable and small
houses are lined up in rows for blocks. These row houses have a beautiful, recognized form that resonates with the historic significance and culture of the Third Ward. The design of the ZEROW HOUSE is based on respecting the character of the existing homes and community, and re-imagining the row-house typology in terms of what it means to be an affordable solar house for Houston that will be able to produce all the energy needed for its operation on site.
The primary thing we tried to demonstrate with this project was that building a 100% solar powered house could be reasonably affordable. When we priced out the project we found that if you were to take these plans to a builder in Houston you could have one for about $140,000 ($100k for the house, $40k for the PV/solar hot water systems). This does not include the cost of the site, permitting, etc. but does include labor. It is, however, not a bad starting place for a one-off project. If you were to move towards mass production (it is already designed for highway dimensions) you would continue to push the price down. Keep in mind that you also are no longer paying energy bills and the PVs we used (BP solar) are warrantied for twenty years.
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Comment by David Dewane on March 19, 2010 at 3:48pm
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Are you referring to a Sterling engine? We never got into it and, to the best of my knowledge, neither have any of the other teams. I am actually not too familiare with them but if you have any good links please pass them along. Thanks.
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Thanks - I'll look into it.
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Stirling strikes again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU47blakiiI
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You are a total freak, man. In a good way. There is a surplus of people frolicking through flowery fields of tech baubles and not enough looking constructively (much less critically) at the posts and synthesizing them into solutions. A little sobriety is refreshing, and I appreciate you interjecting it. And even though I can't say I exactly share your views on human nature, I'm glad you have the guts to explode taboo subjects.
Anyway, I'll get to work on the spark, but that may take a couple days as I'd like to drag an engineer friend into this.
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Comment by Hayden Darrell Linder on March 24, 2010 at 9:59pm
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@ David, Great post.
@ PanAmericana, why'd you never tell me about that freak stuff!
I tried to Google "Dr. Bob Beck" expecting to see a lot of "He's straight quack yo!" but instead it was nothing but a bunch of people who agree with what he was working on. We really need to dig deeper into that.
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