The Team's blog

We have passed our first round of inspections! Foundation and decks are good to go, and in regards to our PV system the comment was made "You are the only team who has done it right." Big huge thanks to Dominic and Meridian Solar for that!

Day three was a big day for us here on the Mall. Our solar system is up and on line, the aluminum window boxes are up and bolted on, the decks have been raised to position, and our skin is almost installed. This list of accomplishments made a huge difference in our moral. Formally, it made a huge difference to our house, it looks like a home now. It also cleaned up our site tremendously not having these huge pieces laying around.

It was another busy day and big progress has been made. The house is official level and our photovoltaic are racks up with solar panels are installed. We were also able to get our heavy and fragile evacuated tubes for solar water heating up on the roof. I have to admit it was much easier lifting the racks with our forklift rather than a ladder. A few simple electrical connections tomorrow and we should have our solar system up and running. When the electric comes online tomorrow, we will be able to activate the air conditioning and plumbing systems.

10/4/07

After a long hot, very busy summer of building, the House finally arrives at its second home, right in front of the Capitol, on the National mall in Washington DC!

Our freight truck arrived first with our decks, electric car, solar panels, tools, supplies etc. We were happy to see that our Landscaping arrived in tact in the planters, and in good shape albeit thirsty. Luckily our rented forklift arrived at the same time so unloading could proceed.

We had a whole lot of coverage of our Unveiling event last night - this entry will fill up as it all rolls in...

Event Photos
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=ut%20solar%20decathlon%20unveiling&w=114...

Coverage in the Austin Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2007/09/17/daily7.html

9/17/07

Friday, Audrey from KUT came out to speak with us about the project - the spot aired this morning.

http://www.kut.org/items/show/9900

All summer, we've been arriving at the hangar at 6am to start construction. We tend to be out here long enough to see both Sunrise and Sunset at the hangar - and a lot of them have been spectacular.

Just in case you don't want to get up that early - here's an image.

Jason Wheeler and CBS News came out last night to check on our construction progress and see how the house is shaping up. They interviewed several students, and even did a live broadcast on the 10pm news from the hangar (Yes, we were still hard at work in the background!)

http://keyetv.com/topstories/local_story_253224923.html

Saturday, with the help of the awesome gang from Meridian Energy Systems, the team installed 7.6kW worth of solar panels on the roof. We worked really hard all day to get the array up, and a lot of the decking attached to the house. 1 week til we open...