The award-winning University of Colorado/Boulder Solar Decathlon house officially is on the market, and the university is accepting sealed proposals for purchase over the next month. Offers are due August 8, and a pre-bid information session and house tour will take place July 22. (The school also offers regular public tours every Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–noon.)

Last fall, teams of architecture, engineering, journalism, and business students representing 14 universities took part in the first national Solar Decathlon. They constructed 500-square-foot, 100-percent solar houses on the national mall in Washington, D.C. Competing teams designed, financed (including securing donations), tested, transported, built, operated, and fixed as needed their energy-gathering houses. The competition was intended to bring public attention to photovoltaic possibilities and energy efficiency. Competition requirements included cooking meals, washing clothes, maintaining a comfortable interior temperature in the unpredictable Washington early autumn (it varied from sweltering and sunny to raining and muggy), water-temperature testing, monitoring of battery levels, charging and operating electric cars, operating a home office, publishing a Web page and newsletter, an evaluation of construction documents, and, most importantly (it counted for double the points of any other category), design and livability.

The University of Colorado’s entry took first place in the fierce but friendly competition. Entitled “Just About Any House,” the school’s entry set out to prove that solar energy can work in any “everyday American home.” Working with less than perfect pitch for putting collectors on the roof, the team also chose to orient their project more toward passersby than optimum energy production. Basic modules of structural insulated panels (SIPs) form the primary building blocks of the house so that the design can be modified and adapted to any site. The core module, the brain of the house, contains the building’s utilities, monitors, and controls. In addition to its photovoltaic system for electricity, the house uses evacuated tube collectors to capture solar thermal energy for domestic hot water.

Visit the school’s Web site for more information, including the formal request for offers and documentation on the design, construction, and performance of the house.

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