A group of Carleton University, Algonquin College, and Queen’s University students placed sixth in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition, which ran Oct. 3-13 in Irvine, Calif.
The biennial competition hosts teams who design and build compact homes that run on solar energy.
Team Ontario’s starter house, named ECHO, is a 940-square foot livable house with unique features such as multi-use furniture and a specially designed window shading system. The house produces more energy than it uses, and “strikes a balance between engineering and architecture,” according to the Solar Decathlon website.
The project spanned two years and involved over 100 people, the team said.
Not only did Team Ontario rank high among the 19 finalists competing in the international competition, but they also won first place in the engineering sector, tied at first for energy balance and hot water, and won second place for affordability, according to officially released standings.
Judges assessed the houses for real-life functionality, appeal, the amount of energy they produced, and other key points, according to Team Ontario’s construction manager Jacob Morgan.
ECHO was reassembled in Irvine nine days prior to the competition.
Morgan, who studied advanced construction at Algonquin, described one of the team’s biggest challenges at the competition as using California’s climate, since Team Ontario came from a different environment than many of the other teams.
Project manager Chris Baldwin agreed, saying ECHO was designed for Ottawa’s climate. He said the other teams’ houses also came from different markets, which contributed to the diversity in architecture and engineering.
Morgan said since the project was founded on the engineering expertise of the group, winning first place in that category was a proud moment.
While all three universities were working on various aspects of the project, he said “[engineering] was the only category that all three institutions had their hands in.”
Matthew Schiedel, a graduate of Carleton’s engineering program, was Team Ontario’s systems co-ordinator, communicating between the architectural and engineering teams creating ECHO.
He described some of the key systems in the home as being its automated, mobile app-controlled window shading and its energy monitoring.
The competition, he said, was “overwhelming and humbling . . . an eye-opening experience.”
Kristen Balogh, the team’s logistics co-ordinator, is studying in one of Carleton’s newer engineering programs, architectural conservation and sustainability engineering.
“It’s a positive experience,” Balogh said of the competition. “[The project] opened my eyes to the different ways we can go with our program . . . to the green building side of it.”
But the feature that really contributed to ECHO’s success was the team itself, Balogh said, crediting the group’s level-headedness and cooperation, especially under the stress of re-assembling ECHO in California.
Kingston logistics co-ordinator Amelia Cooper, a civil engineering student at Queen’s, agreed.
“You can accomplish something really cool when you’re part of a dedicated team,” she said. “It sounds cheesy, but it’s true.”
