MIT students compete in eco-friendly house contest

Imagine never having to pay an electric or heating bill ever again.

That’s precisely what a group of MIT students is trying to accomplish on the corner of Albany and Portland streets.

For weeks, alternating crews of students and Cambridge residents have been hard at work building a house capable of producing its own heat and electricity, all from the power of the sun.

In preparation for an upcoming eco-friendly housing competition in October in Washington, D.C., a team of approximately 40 people, dubbed the “Solar 7” team, have been feverishly assembling a “zero energy” house.

“What that means is it’s a house that’s powered and heated completely off the grid,” said Kurt Keville, one of the team’s volunteer leaders. Keville explained the house, which is to be completed and entered into the 2007 Solar Decathlon, uses a variety of solar energy-absorbing mechanisms to produce clean, free heat and electricity. On the roof, traditional solar panels keep the house lit, and keep household appliances running. On one side of the house, a specially designed wall retains heat and recycles it back into the home.

“It takes a lot of the peaks and valleys out of insulation,” Keville said. “We’re going to be getting a lot of energy production out of [the house’s] southern exposure.”

This year will mark the first time MIT has been invited to the Solar Decathlon, which, according to the competition’s Web site, was conceived by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2002. Over the course of seven days, teams from 20 colleges and universities from around the world will be judged on 10 separate aspects of their “zero energy” homes, including architecture, engineering, market viability, communication, comfort, appliances, hot water, lighting and energy balance. Teams are also required to equip their houses with a charging station for an electric car, which will be supplied by the Department of Energy.

During the next few weeks, Keville said the Solar 7 team will be hard at work installing the solar components of the house. Once it is completed and tested for energy efficiency, the team will split the house into two halves, strap it to a pair of flatbed trucks and haul it down to D.C. A daunting task, to be sure, however it’s not the most challenging aspect of the project, according to one of the team’s student leaders.

“Honestly, the most difficult thing about this whole project is that it’s volunteer based,” said Corey Fucetola, a PhD student who’s a member of the team. “We have so many people that are completely gung-ho about the idea of building a zero energy house, but who also have to make a living.”

To learn more about the MIT Solar 7 team, check out their Web site at http://web.mit.edu/solardecathlon/. For more information about the 2007 Solar Decathlon, visit http://www.solardecathlon.org.


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