2013 Solar Decathlon: SHADE

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE STUDENTS:

Team ASUNM collaborates with ASU’s Design School and UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning to incorporate all aspects of architecture:
Landscape architecture, Interior design, Visual communication and design, Housing and community development
The ASUNM house is a living lab focused on sustainable building principles, sustainable resource usage, energy generation, energy management, and education of next generation students. The overall goal of the ASUNM house is to incorporate as many sustainable practices as practical, and conduct an on-going, long-term energy flow monitoring and analysis.
Residents: Ultimately, homes constructed in alignment with Team ASUNM’s model, SHADE, will be built with active older couples in mind.
Ideal Location: Future ASUNM houses would be located primarily in suburban or rural areas. In urban areas, the homes would be located outside the proximity of sky-scrapers to prevent shadowing. In suburban or rural areas, the houses could be designed with a larger garden.
Solar Design
SHADE’s architecture includes the integration of PV panels tilted at a stationary angle that properly positions the panels for optimized solar gain. Tilted PV panels are better than flat-mounted panels because they collect more solar rays.
Interior Design: The Interior Design Team, headquartered at ASU, creates a pleasant living environment for the target demographic. Both aesthetic and functional considerations are taken into account during the initial design process. A functional home office offers an additional sustainability feature by providing a resource for telecommuting to work.
Lighting: The lighting of the home maximizes the admittance of high quality daytime sunlight by using smart light-guiding techniques. Use of high efficiency, LED electrical lighting ensures that dynamic and customizable light settings are available throughout the home to accommodate occupancy, mood, and other preferences.
Carport: The convertible, transformable space of the carport can be studied as space for further expansion of the home, office, or possible production area.

Team ASUNM is committed to executing an overall well-planned, calculated, and managed program that will immerse students in knowledge of solar technologies and teach them practical management skills necessary for the work force.
Beginning with analysis, our team has already started developing and suggesting preliminary technical (and electrical) solutions that will need to be implemented using existing tools or, in some cases, new tools will be developed.
Test houses and test beds are designed to reflect specific energy and/or cultural aspects of southwest areas. The Solar Decathlon house will be built through separate student workshop courses (SWC) at each campus and a combined summer research experience for undergraduates (REU) at ASU.
Project Goals
The goals for this student design challenge are to:
Design and implement Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) systems;
Develop a monitoring system for individual BIPV;
Develop a DC-based wiring infrastructure for the house;
Demonstrate Net-Zero energy consumption;
Demonstrate the cost-efficiency of a Net-Zero energy building;
Complete 3-year monitoring of power generation from the roof of the house and measure electrical and thermal power consumption by occupants;
Calculate 3 year life-cycle operating costs of the house to provide validation for sustainable building and BIPV materials; and,
Calculate 3 year life-cycle cost benefits analysis between AC-only or AC-DC electrical infrastructure inside a residential house.

For an animated explanation of Team ASUNM's SHADE house, please watch their video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AvjpnYE1gQ&feature=player_embedded