Photo by Laura L. Hunt

Initial construction of UWM’s solar-powered house went on all summer behind the SARUP building on campus.

A handful of architecture and engineering students chugged energy drinks in the early hours of Sept. 30. It had rained the night before and the group was up all night safeguarding the crown jewel of their college careers: a small, solar-powered house that had taken students at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) two years to design and build.

Photo by Stefano Paltera US Dept. of Energy Solar Decathlon

UWM students assemble their house in preparation for the start of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2009 in Washington, D.C.

Now, despite the mud, they were disassembling the 775-square-foot structure and loading it in large chunks onto flatbed trucks bound for a biennial global contest. The house is one of only 20 in the world competing in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this month.

The marathon competition pits university teams against one another to see which can produce a solar-powered house that operates more efficiently than competitors without sacrificing modern amenities. The UWM team won its spot to compete in the spring of 2008, when its plans were still on paper.

“DOE is looking for teams in this contest to design and build prototypes of ‘net-zero-energy’ houses, which are houses that produce as much energy as they use,” says Greg Thomson, assistant professor of architecture, who heads the project. DOE also is interested in ideas used in the home designs that have commercial potential.

The journey so far has been a long one for a dedicated core of student workers – some of them devoting nearly a thousand hours outside of class time to the cause, while working around jobs and sometimes family obligations.

Still, the whole group of 150 team members spread over the last four semesters is meager compared to most of the teams they are encountering in the competition, says Bob Greenstreet, dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP). And they will face teams from such universities as Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Cornell, Rice and Ohio State.

“We’re incredibly proud of Greg and the team for getting to the Solar Decathlon,” says Greenstreet. “They are competing against some teams that have been in the competition before and some who have two and three times the financial backing we have.

Lacey Engelke, a senior architecture major, prepares planks for the siding.

“So for me, winning is irrelevant. The fact that we’re there means that they’ve already won.”

Judging begins Oct. 13 and the awards ceremony will be on Oct. 16.

What’s green about it?

The UWM house, dubbed “meltwater” because its design is inspired by glacial processes that carved the Great Lakes, incorporates a host of green features besides its roof-mounted solar cells, called photovoltaics.

One is an innovative wall of perforated metal doors that act as louvers, automatically pivoting with the position of the sun overhead to block or admit direct sunlight to the house.

Other highlights are an exterior rain screen of unique “wavy” wooden planks, a specially made computer processor that adjusts temperature and humidity levels in each part of the house, and countertops from a company called PaperStone made with recycled wastepaper from SARUP.

“Everything about this house is custom,” says engineering senior Eric Davis, who built the computerized air-quality controls. “Only a few things, like the photovoltaics and the water heater, were commercially bought.”

Through the simplicity of its design and its small footprint, the house allows occupants to be comfortable for as many days as possible without the use of heating or cooling. Even the aesthetics were inspired by the natural, local environment.

“For the wavy siding, we were able to steam-bend 1-by-4 planks of pine to create an abstraction of the Menomonee River Valley, the house’s final destination,” says Joe Rice, architecture graduate student and construction manager. “It’s also a play on the standard Milwaukee wooden clapboard siding that you can see pretty much on any house in the city.”

Help from business

The team has paid particular attention to the use of recycled materials and materials from local sources, including sustainably harvested wood from a sustainable forest managed by the Aldo Leopold Foundation.

Partnerships with state businesses were critical for bringing the house from concept to reality. For example, Cardinal Glass Industries donated the glazing and the triple-paned glass used in meltwater’s windows to match the high level of insulation in the walls. 

“A typical double-paned residential window is probably in the neighborhood or R-2 or R-3 depending on the materials used,” says Thomson, referring to the R-value of the insulation. “The higher the number, the more effective the insulation. Ours are higher than R-8.”

Besides DOE, BP Solar and We Energies made leading gifts totaling $300,000 to UWM’s Solar Decathlon project, with additional donors throughout the state stepping forward to provide funding, materials and expertise.

After the competition, the house will be transported back to Milwaukee, where it eventually will be donated to the Urban Ecology Center for use as a satellite classroom in the Menomonee Valley.

“The house been a real homegrown effort, and the learning experience for our students has been phenomenal,” says Greenstreet.

“It’s not that common in school you actually get to see your yearlong work being built,” said Eric Harrmann, architecture graduate student and project manager. “The entire School of Architecture is based on each individual focusing on their own designs. So I was very proud that, when the time came for all of us to be working on the same page, we were capable of doing it.”