Southwest Missouri students prepare for solar competition

NEOSHO, Mo. -- When every kilowatt counts, why generate heat for the dryer when the attic is already bursting with air warm enough to dry clothes, asks Monty Pugh-Towe, a blacksmith and Crowder College student.

He and others at Crowder will use a fan to pump attic air into their dryer. That way, the only electricity required will be for the fan and the tumbler in the dryer, said Pugh-Towe, who is working on the school's latest solar project, a fully operational solar house.

This week, Crowder's solar team will disassemble the house and ship it to Washington, D.C., to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon. Houses built by students at Crowder and 13 other schools will be displayed on The National Mall in Washington from Thursday through Oct. 6.

According to contest rules, the house, which has to be handicapped-accessible, can be no larger than 800 square feet and no higher than 18 feet. All electricity and heat must come from solar energy. There also must be enough electricity to charge the batteries in an electric car.

Rules require that the house maintain a comfortable environment for its inhabitants year-round.

"You have to keep it between 70 and 75 degrees," Pugh-Towe said.

'A lot of curveballs'

The sun's energy must be used for all lights, to heat water for the shower and the laundry, and to run the stove and refrigerator as well as a home office.

And, since the typical American home has a television set on six hours each day, this home, too, must run a television set for six hours.

"We got a lot of curveballs," Pugh-Towe said.

On a tour of the cedar-sided home, another student and team member, Lori Kern, said the Crowder group will use a new General Electric oven, which heats with halogen bulbs.

"It cooks chocolate chip cookies in 4.5 minutes," she said.

The solar home's washer uses 5.6 gallons of water per load.

"Mine at home takes 42 gallons," she said.

Self-regulating lights turn off when no one is in the room and adjust automatically based on the amount of natural light available.

"Daylight harvesting," Pugh-Towe called it.

The refrigerator uses 1.1 kilowatt-hours per day, or about $34 worth of electricity each year.

Hot water provided by the home's thermal panels will be pumped through a radiant heating system consisting of tubes running beneath the floorboards. Cold water pumped through the same tubes in the summer helps cool the house and will supplement an air conditioner.

The house also has a perk: a hot tub.

In the spring, summer and fall, the solar panels generate more than enough hot water for the home's needs, and the excess will go into the hot tub, Kern said.

Materials easily available

The double-pane windows are filled with argon gas, which acts as an insulator. The 2-by-6 walls have R-19 insulation, while the attic has R-41.

"There is nothing in this house that the normal person cannot go out and buy," Pugh-Towe said.

The house also must generate enough electricity to charge an electric car donated by Ford Motor Co. to each team.