ECHO House: Team Ontario’s Winning Design
By Lucas on Oct 22, 2013
By Penny Munoz
Team Ontario’s ECHO ecological home is this year’s winner of the celebrated engineering contest at the 2013 Solar Decathlon. The home was praised for its unique capacity to bring energy efficiency and affordability together in a beautiful modern design.
Team Ontario is a collaboration of 100 students and faculty from Carleton University, Algonquin College and Queen’s University. Designed with future students and professionals in mind who are both health and environmentally conscious, the design was entered into the U.S. Department of Energy’s biennial competition, which took place in Irvine, California. Nineteen teams from around the world competed with designs that intend to demonstrate that solar-powered, cost and energy efficient homes (known as ‘net-zero’ homes) can be attractive, especially amongst “echo boomers”. The judging took place over the course for 10 days, analyzing entries based on engineering, energy balance, hot water, affordability and market appeal.
The design is an open-concept plan that embodies William McDonough’s renowned “cradle-to-cradle” system of socially responsible material recycling. The wood and other materials used for the kitchen cabinetry and hardwood flooring is all sustainably harvested solid wood or recycled post-consumer material from other urban developments.
The $300,000 prefab home is 900 square feet with one master bedroom, one bathroom, a multi-purpose room and a combined kitchen/living/dining room. Students worked on a design that would maximize space by allowing light to enter through large windows.
Technologically, ECHO employs the latest advancements in the industry like an impressive integrated mechanical system that provides space heating, cooling, dehumidification and domestic hot water with facilitating pumps by Grundfos Canada. Simon Fedemma, the president of Grundfos said the company is proud to support Team Ontario, “ECHO will help raise awareness for the money-saving opportunities and environmental benefits of clean-energy solutions.”
ECHO was also praised for its easily customized features and cutting edge technological innovations like its advanced architecturally designed sloped exterior structure which sustains the photovoltaic array and solar thermal systems and maximizes passive shading techniques. Other features that impressed judges were the predictive shading system that uses daily weather forecasts (taken from the internet) to run computer simulations and determine the optimal shading placement, and an application that allows homeowners to control housing conditions using a mobile device.
“We are thrilled to have done so well in the competition and furthered the cause of sustainable housing,” said Jacob Morgan, constructional manager for Team Ontario, but the team says that their work does not end here. Moving forward, the team will continue to monitor the house’s performance, using it as an educational tool to motivate and inspire further public support and research.
All images via Inhabitat.com
