ohio state’s encore is the university’s second entry into the us department of energy solar decathlon. the team is designing and building a net-zero solar powered home that will travel to washington dc for the competition in september.

osu’s encore strives for spatial efficiency in a 970 square foot, 3-person family home that features 2 bedrooms and an office. many active and passive systems were implemented in the design including an 8.5 kw pv array, solar thermal hot water collectors, solar thermal hot air collectors, shower drain waste heat recovery, desiccant dehumidification, energy recovery ventilation, air-to-water heat pump heating and cooling, r-40 walls, r70 ceilings, triple-pane windows, and airtight construction. this video introduces these systems and strategies that run this prototype for the new sustainable and affordable family home.

you can keep up with us and learn much more about the house, the team, and all of the student designed systems on our website at http://solardecathlon.osu.edu

looking to keep track of ohio state’s encore?

for access to the entire archive of ohio state’s solar decathlon 2011 videos: visit the member page