Starting in 2002 and held biannually by the US Department of Energy, The Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges students to design, engineer, and build net zero energy homes. The winner of the competition is the team that exemplifies the best fusion of design excellence, affordability, and consumer appeal. Teams are scored on these aspects through 5 juried and 5 measured contests held throughout the two-week long competition. The competition will take place in Oct. 8–18, 2015, at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California.

Some of the requirements of the competition entail running daily operational functions of a home with a 175 KWH energy budget for competition week. This includes washing 6-12 towels daily, boiling and evaporating water with a stove, charging and driving an electric car 25 miles daily, and daily hot water draws from our domestic hot water tank. Contestants from all over the world come to compete in the Solar Decathlon competition. Each team must prefab, ship, and reconstruct their home to the Solar Decathlon site at The Great Park in Irvine.

Comprised of four colleges in the Orange County Area-Irvine Valley College, Saddleback, Chapman University, and University of California Irvine- Team Orange County’s goal is to win the Solar Decathlon Competition. Each college is delegated certain responsibilities by our project manager and gets overseen by our project engineer.

UC, Irvine is in charge of electrical and controls, materials and 3D printing, mechanical and power, project management, structural design, and water resources. Chapman is in charge of communications and policy, marketing, home entertainment, and interior and graphic design. Irvine Valley College is in charge of construction technology and Saddleback College is in charge of architecture and urban planning. Together we coordinate through weekly work group leader meetings and monthly team meetings to make sure our home is well on its way to be a leading contender in the upcoming competition.

About The Mechanics and Power Team

In order to meet the needs of Southern California residence both ecologically and economically, the Mechanics and Power team has created a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system that helps to alleviate our energy consumption and transitions some of the energy load to a thermal load. Incorporating a Sub-wet bulb evaporative chiller (SWEC) unit, solar thermal collectors, and a water source heat pump (WSHP) into our system helps achieve that goal.

Goals and Objectives Spring Quarter

Procurement of Items (Deadline: May 13^th)

Research which items will function well in our home given specific requirements and find a good price on these items.

WSHP-Water Source Heat Pump
SWEC
24DCV Pumps
Hot water tank, cold water tank, buffer tank

Engineering Narrative (Deadline: June 25^th)

For the competition, members of our team have to perform and record climate analysis, energy analysis, tests on our equipment, and house performance in a concise written document to turn into the DOE. The energy and climate analysis will discuss how our home will perform during the competition and throughout the year given its location in Southern California.

Testing procedure of the Water Source heat pump
Testing Procedure of SWEC unit
House Performance Discussion
Solar Thermal Sizing Analysis
Radiant Sizing Analysis Rough Draft
Energy Balance
Climate Analysis

Public Exhibit of Materials: (Deadline: May 13^th)

When the home is open to the public there will be items that we would like to showcase throughout their tour. Our team needs to crease a 3-paragraph essay on each section’s function and importance of being in the home. Each section will be paired as followed for the Mechanical Team: