A local Vermont-slate island and matching floor divides living and kitchen areas. To the right is the integral green house wall.
The palette of recycled lumber, sustainably harvested timber and local stone resonated with judges and visitors. Not only did this team take top market appeal honors, it also scored first in communications and home entertainment. It rated fifth in affordability with an estimated construction cost of about $283,000, and took fourth in the overall competition. Not a shabby debut for the first liberal arts college to ever enter Solar Decathlon without an engineering or architecture partner school.
What visitors found most appealing was the green wall—a large south-facing kitchen window with a cornucopia of herbs and other edible plants that could be shaded by an exterior, louvered shutter. Another sign of self-reliance was the use of condensate from the home’s air-to-air heat exchanger to “feed the green wall with condensed moisture.” The green wall joins a large kitchen island (Vermont slate, of course) to create the home’s heart. Close to hand are all the implements of canning, cooking and baking, and abundant results were kept on display: home-canned goods and other food stuff s—all hallmarks of household independence.
Triple-paned windows with cork insulated frames have a high R-value of 7 and a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.53, so they deliver a net heat gain over the course of a year. Stack effect ventilation pulls in cooler air toward the ground and vents out warmer air from the skylights. Though the house did not perform at net-zero level at Decathlon V, the team says it will achieve net-zero when erected in Middlebury, Vt.
Since the competition, Self-Reliance has been moved back to the Middlebury College campus. Every semester, four students will live in the house and keep it’s mission and message alive, hosting meals and lectures by visiting architects, authors and environmentalists. GB
GREEN FEATURES
> Local Materials. Vermont slate, oak and maple plus local and recycled materials wherever possible.
> Energy-Efficient Windows. Triple-paned windows with cork-insulated frames that have a high R-value of 7 and a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.53.
> PV Panels. A 30-PV panel, 7.93 kW PV array produces most of the home’s electricity.
> Humidified Green Wall. A so-called “green wall” provides space for planter boxes and trays full of herbs and vegetables. A heat exchanger “feeds the green wall with condensed moisture.”
> Natural Ventilation. Stack effect ventilation pulls cool air in near the ground and vents hot air out through the skylights.
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www.greenbuildermag.com 01.2012
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