The July sun beat down an unmercifully humid 95 degrees on heaps of lumber, piles of stones and the frame of a uniquely designed house at a Crozet construction site.
According to David Click, a project manager and second-year graduate Engineering student, other Engineering and Architecture students can be found in their "posh, corporate summer jobs making $20 an hour," but students participating in the University's chapter of the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon are content to change the world for $8 an hour - one sunlight-powered home at a time.
Professional drivers will transport the 800-square-foot structure to the National Mall in September to compete in the weeklong event. Top recognition will go to the team of college students who design and construct the most effective photovoltaic residence that captures, converts, stores and utilizes enough solar energy to power a household, home-based business and electric car.
Judges will award points in 10 categories, including architecture, space heating and cooling, as well as water heating, refrigeration, lighting and power to appliances such as a television, online computer and fax machine.
Six students at a time from each participating school will work in their respective house monitoring the sunlight-capturing gadgets as well as performing daily tasks such as washing clothes, operating the home office, driving the electric car and keeping the house at a certain temperature and humidity.
The students also will give tours to the public. Participants hope to showcase solar power as a viable consumer option.
By designing a solar-powered house rather than simply adding solar panels on to an existing house, the students are making it "more environmentally efficient and fun to live in," Click said.
The house's novelties include insulated glass over part of the south wall for heat in the winter, an encompassing screen to keep the house cool in the summer and a roof-top garden to preserve the landscape.
"We're trying to show that solar power can actually be cool," Click added.
And cost-efficient. Engineering Prof. Paxton Marshall, who is a project faculty advisor along with Architecture Prof. John Quale, said it is not the cost of materials that keeps a solar-powered house more expensive than a standard house but rather the fact that these environmentally friendly houses are not yet being mass-produced.
"It's like an efficient appliance - you can make up for the cost in energy and water savings," Click said.
Marshall and Quale's co-taught class in designing and constructing a solar-powered house, offered each of the past three semesters, was integral to the project and allowed the input of over 80 engineering and architecture students. The class and the related Solar Decathlon project have provided a unique opportunity for participants.
"I think that very few college graduates have the experience of designing and building a system of this complexity," Marshall said.
According to Marshall, the University funded approximately half the cost of building. The Class of 1995 donated their class gift of over $42,000 to the project as well.
When the house returns to Charlottesville, the University is planning to utilize the building as housing for visiting faculty, said Click.
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