New Book by DAAP Faculty Examines "Zero-Energy Design"
In 2007, UC students and faculty designed and built a solar house that was exhibited in Washington, D.C., as part of the international Solar Decathlon. Now, a UC faculty member has literally written the book examining that event. It is the first book to comprehensively examine the Solar Decathlon event.
He'll share the lessons he learned there with his students. Meanwhile, a much wider audience will be able to draw lessons from the previous Solar Decathlon (in 2007) thanks to Zaretsky's new book, "Precedents in Zero-Energy Design: Architecture and Passive Design in the 2007 Solar Decathlon."
(The Solar Decathlon is an international event in which universities from around the world complete in the design and construction of a one-bedroom, zero-energy house. The competition is held every two years, and the houses displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.)
The book grew out of Zaretsky's visit to the 2007 decathlon. "In part due to UC's participation in the event, I decided to go and see the 2007 Solar Decathlon. The design, construction and assembly of the houses were creative and exciting, and I wanted to dig more deeply into each one."
That led to a January thru March 2008 seminar for UC graduate architecture students who diagrammed and carefully studied the 20 entries and their passive energy sources. Said Zaretsky of that course, "It was a design critique of the competition and of each house."
And the seminar course left him wanting to dig deeper still, and "Precedents in Zero-Energy Design" is the result of more than a year-and-a-half of research and writing. With expertise and assistance from UC graduate architecture student Dave Fleming of Minneapolis, Minn, (who graduated in June 2009) as well as several other graduate architecture students and from members of the Society of Building Science Educators (a group in which Zaretsky is a member and an officer), Zaretsky provides in-depth yet accessible analysis of the architecture and passive design strategies of each of the 20 houses in the 2007 Solar Decathlon in his book.
The book provides
- A detailed investigation of the architecture, passive design and systems layouts of each house.
- A diagrammatic comparison of the architecture and passive design characteristics of each of the 20 houses in order of ranking by architecture, comfort zone and overall competition score.
- An analysis of the relationship between architecture and passive design and mechanical systems design as compared to the rankings received in the various contests.
Michael Zaretsky teaching in a studio class.
Zaretsky does not write from the point of view of a disengaged theorist. He is leading the design effort for a health center in northern Tanzania that will rely upon natural cooling methods and renewable energy because electricity (and running water) are not presently available in the region. The design team is exploring options whereby the center will meet some or all of its own electric needs via solar or wind power.
While agreeing that the Solar Decathlon event is "phenomenal for the students involved," Zaretsky also offers suggestions for improving the event in his book.
He offered, "To be really useful for our world today, the event needs to even the playing field among the entrants. There are teams that can afford to spend more than $1 million on materials, while other teams can afford to spend about a tenth of that. In the past couple of events, the team that spends the most money wins. I'd suggest more points for those teams that come up with innovative and efficient solutions for energy conservation and production while on a tight budget. That's how most of the real world works and what many parts of the world need right now."
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