Beausoleil Solar Home

[NewsCopy]

UL's BeauSoleil Solar Home is ranked fourth in the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, D.C.

Judging began Thursday and will conclude when the winner is announced next Friday. On Friday, the team was judged in the areas of market viability, architecture and communications.

"I think it went really well. We felt we were strong in all three of these categories," said Geoff Gjertson, faculty adviser for Team BeauSoleil, in a news release.


The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

  The decathlon trains building professionals to help move solar technology forward.

WASHINGTON — A tidy village dedicated to the future of green, solar-powered living has taken over the heart of the National Mall, where 20 teams of college students are vying to see who can build the most appealing energy-efficient home.

The teams, from universities in North America and Europe, are competing in the Department of Energy's biennial Solar Decathlon, which runs through Oct. 18. The challenge: design and build a prototype house that can provide the comforts of home while generating all the energy residents need from the sun's rays. Teams get bonus points if they can produce surplus electricity and sell it back to the power company.

The transformation began Sept. 30, when the first flatbed trucks carrying building modules rolled onto the Mall across from the Smithsonian Castle.

Student-led teams, backed by professional builders, suppliers and advisers, turned the Mall into a feverish construction site from early morning until late each evening. They built sleek pyramids, rusty silos, reclaimed-water gardens, glassy boxes and shaded porches.

The rest of the story

By ELIZABETH RAZZI, Special to The Washington Post

[BabbForHeisman]

So now it looks like we are ranked 14th. Every other school has a point value for Hot Water, but we don't. Does that mean we don't have hot water?

[RaginCajun77]

Could be we weren't judged in that category yet. Or we don't have hot water...

[Turbine]

So what's the prob?

In Louisiana room temp is hot water

[trd1282]

We had sufficient hot water in terms of temperature and supply, the problem was that we fell just short of the required line pressure. Hot water will be judged again so we will have time to attempt a fix, and make up some points to close the gap.

[KACajun]

Cajuns take 1st in - market viability!!!

[Turbine]

_ Cajuns take 1st in - market viability!!! _

Yes!

[Trigger74]

I know this is a sports forum, but......

Went to the DC Mall Sunday and saw UL's entry into the DOE solar house competion. UL took 1st this morning in the Media, need fans vote by text to win fan favorite.

Go to www.beausoleilhome.org for the text number and house number for voting. They also have a facebook page with info.

By the way, we (Balt/Wash Alumni Club) has our social Saturday evening with 8 of the BeauSoleil team attending.

They have put UL on the map in new areas. They deserve everyones congratulations.

[NewsCopy]

  WASHINGTON, D.C. – The BeauSoleil Louisiana Solar Home was designed and built by Louisiana students for Louisiana residents. Judges for the Market Viability contest in the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon recognized that.

The University of Louisiana team placed first in the contest. Judges were looking for homes that answered the needs of their clients.

TEAM BeauSoleil designed for Louisiana residents who face harsh summers and hurricanes.

“The (BeauSoleil) house hit on all cylinders,” said Joyce Mason, Market Viability judge and vice president for marketing with Pardee Homes. “We were so impressed with the degree to which the team listened to their market. They didn’t impose their ideas or try to infer them upon their residents.”

The team is one of 20 university teams from across the globe competing in the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall. TEAM BeauSoleil is the only team from Louisiana to ever participate in this contest held every two years.

“We knew from the beginning that if we couldn’t bring this home to the people of Louisiana, we wouldn’t accomplish anything,” said Gretchen Lacombe Vanicor, BeauSoleil project manager. “We paid a lot of attention to our Cajun culture and produced a product that is viable.”

The house is designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and to be totally self-sufficient, which makes it especially ideal for coastal environments.

It also reflects key elements of Louisiana's rich culture, including its world-famous Cajun cooking. At the same time, it represents an architectural heritage that developed after Acadians, who were exiled from Nova Scotia by the British in the 1700s, settled in south Louisiana. The result is a simple, modest, but highly functional 800-square-foot structure.

The BeauSoleil Home design incorporates several aspects of early Cajun cottages. For example, it emphasizes wide exterior porches for social interaction and casual entertaining, as well as movable exterior doors in the '”dog-trot” that make access to the outside easy. The home also has a large kitchen that is the cultural center of the home. Good conversation and great food, important elements of Louisiana's culture, flow naturally from this functional space.

This structure accommodates Louisiana’s sometimes-challenging climate. Long, hot summers are the norm, so the BeauSoleil Home takes advantage of natural breezes and utilizes several dual-purpose shutters, while collecting its own water and generating more energy than it uses.

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