Blog post from Kevin Connor:

With energy consumption rising by 50% and a need to cut CO2 emissions in half, we need to be 3 times more efficient.

This is how Schneider posited the challenge to me.  It is a simple way to view a complex problem that is being dubbed a revolution (for good reason). Personally, I have a long history with sustainability. I focused on environmental studies in high school. I then viewed the challenge from an engineering perspective in college. This led me to believe it is possible to mix a successful career and a conscious mind about the environment. I don’t have to solve the problem, but I do have to be part of the solution.

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After nearly a year and a half of planning, market research and construction, Northwestern’s student-designed solar home, Enable, competed in the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2017 in early October in Denver. The annual collegiate competition challenges teams to build a full-size solar-powered home in hopes of winning a $300,000 grand prize.

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The summer of 2017 found the House by Northwestern (HBN) team knee-deep in design strategy and customization with Bluebeam Studio for their entry project into the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2017 Solar Decathlon. The contest pitted 11 schools together in a worldwide competition to push the boundaries of design and integrate themed functionality into the build of an actual house that would ultimately be rebuilt and judged in Denver, Colorado.

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Jerry Brennan heaved a sigh of relief Tuesday night after Evanston's Zoning Board of Appeals agreed to variance requests to let him locate the new Northwestern University solar house on his lot on Lincoln Street.

Brennan said he now hopes he can move into his new solar-powered house before the end of this year.

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Vivien Ng is a junior majoring in Manufacturing and Design Engineering (MaDE) at Northwestern Engineering. MaDE is offered through the Segal Design Institute and teaches undergraduate students how to integrate design and manufacturing processes into an effective system for delivering value to the end user or marketplace.

For the past year and a half, Ng has been a part of the student team behind House by Northwestern (HBN). 

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CHICAGO -- From expanded bike lanes to garden rooftops, Chicago is trying to lead the way in reducing its carbon footprint.

Be Green, be sustainable, eco-friendly projects are popping up everywhere...

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A collaboration between Northwestern undergraduates and senior members of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) has resulted in two first-place awards in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2017 competition.

Results of the competition, which began in 2015 and culminated in Denver last month, saw Northwestern’s first effort at the Solar Decathlon yield a total of four awards, plus friendships that developed between the Gen Y students and their Baby Boomer mentors.

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ANDOVER, Mass., Oct. 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, is a lead sponsor of the 2017 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, one of the largest global university competitions focused on home energy management. Schneider Electric supplied the electrical distribution equipment required to connect the solar village to the utility service for the duration of the event, provided distribution and solar products to the house by Team Northwestern University and provided more than 50 local employees to staff the event.

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SustainNU's Audrey Steinbach shares her Solar Decathlon experience: "I arrived at the Solar Decathlon after all the teams had finished reconstructing their homes in the Solar Village. At first, I could not believe that all of the houses in the village were designed by students, each one remarkable in its way. There was a water-smart house from UC Davis, a home with a fully operational hydroponics system inside from the University of Maryland, and a farmhouse from Missouri University of Science and Technology. These were just some of the houses that Enable, Northwestern’s entry, was up against in this two-week long competition."

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This could be the future of downsizing.

A team of Northwestern University students has built a prototype energy-efficient solar home that is designed for boomer empty nesters who want to age in place in a sustainable way.

The design team spent more than a year talking with and observing boomers in the community to get a firsthand sense of what features might appeal to them, said Maggie Waldron, director of program operations for the House by Northwestern team.

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DENVER - Following a 1,000-plus-mile trek and an intense reassembly by tireless team members, Northwestern University’s student-designed solar home, Enable, is ready for the main event.

Several members of the team of House by Northwestern (HBN) arrived a week early to prepare Enable for its first entry into the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Decathlon...

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Long time resident Jerry Brennan is hoping his housing luck is about to change.  Eleven years ago he purchased a small cottage in North Evanston he intended to tear down.

Then came the recession.  The plan to rebuild turned into a fixer upper.  But thanks to some quick thinking he may soon be living in Evanston’s most efficient solar powered house.

“I read an article about the solar powered house Northwestern students were building, and I emailed Northwestern and asked them, what were they doing with it?”

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The house came down piece by numbered piece. In mid-September, the House by Northwestern (HBN) team dismantled the entire home they built over the summer, and FedEx-ed it off to Denver.

The solar-powered sustainable house, Enable is an official entry in the eighth Solar Decathlon competition, sponsored by the United States Department of Energy. Northwestern University will be participating for the first time.

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Northwestern University's Solar Decathlon team, "House by Northwestern," has designed a sustainable home that is suited to Chicago’s harsh climate and inspired by the city’s tradition of architectural innovation. The house is named Enable for its “energized and adaptable” design, suitable for a baby-boomer couple on the cusp of retirement in Chicago’s North Shore.

Throughout the building and design process, HBN relied heavily on feedback from individuals in their target market, and found that aesthetics and functionality were of most value to them. The team’s final product is a sustainable home design with clean, modern lines and a practical layout.

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This month, Solar Decathlon teams are FedEx-ing their 1,000-sq.-ft. domiciles from around the globe to Denver, Colorado, to compete in this year's Dept. of Energy competition. A team from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. will enter "Enable House by Northwestern," a renewable energy home mindful of aging in place. Local green-home architect, Nathan Kipnis guided the team's efforts. Kipnis applauds the student team for its keen knowledge of renewable energy construction, "These are absolutely state-of-the-art technologies; Enable is like a living laboratory," says Kipnis, who was instrumental in the space plan. Kipnis also contributed to a viable business plan by connecting Enable's project team with a potential buyer—an indication that regardless of the Solar Decathlon results, this house is a sure winner among self-sustaining homes with longevity. You can't pre-order Enable on Amazon Prime, but here’s the scoop on a few of its product secrets.

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“One of our main goals is to show the community that it can have a very sustainable, green and energy-efficient house that is also beautiful, comfortable and functional,” says rising junior Lila Reynolds, a member of the HBN communications team. “There’s no sacrifice involved in having a sustainable house.”

In the fall the house will be disassembled into three modules and shipped 1,000 miles by FedEx on flatbed trailers to Denver, where it will be reconstructed and compete against a dozen other entries in contests such as architecture, energy production, innovation and market potential. After the Solar Decathlon, the team will bring the house back to Evanston, where it will remain open for public tours.

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Inspired by their vision of a world where renewable energy is commonplace and available, the House by Northwestern (HBN) team unveiled its inaugural entry into the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. on Aug. 23 at 669 Colfax St. 

The 100%-solar-powered house, which HBN has named Enable, incorporates modern construction practices, energy efficiency, and adaptable features that appeal to the growing population of Baby Boomers who are looking to downsize to a home with features that support aging-in-place, such as zero-step entrances and single-floor living.

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Northwestern University junior Viven Ng spent months trying to figure out what kind of home a couple nearing retirement might envision for their elder years.

During interviews and home visits with North Shore baby boomers, Ng noticed that they didn’t say much about energy efficiency or sustainability.

“I don’t want to live in a hospital,” Ng remembers one woman telling her repeatedly, emphasizing that she didn’t want the home to feel sterile.

Read more . . . 

Our very own Lila Reynolds and Bill Bach tour Enable with WGN and our partners from Beko USA.

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With climate changes putting earth at risk on a daily basis, it is imperative that we begin to reduce our carbon footprint and live more sustainably than we have in the past.

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2017, scheduled this fall between October 5-15, allows students, professors, and community members begin this discussion at a grassroots level by building a house that models a green home, not only for the future generations but also for the present times.

Enable by House by Northwestern (HBN), is Northwestern University’s first-ever entry to the Solar Decathlon. By packaging energy efficient and sustainable features into a comfortable, beautiful, accessible, and easy-to-maintain home, Enable is designed to offer sustainability without compromise.

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As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's biennial Solar Decathlon competition, the Enable home by Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., markets itself as a home where inhabitants may age in place, but it's also packed full of innovative, sustainable products.

Beyond sustainability, the team of students and faculty at Northwestern created a design that would take the local market into account, making aging-in-place and combatting the Chicagoland winter climate top priorities along with the home's solar capabilities.

In their research, the House by Northwestern (NU) team found that only 1 percent of the current housing stock is suitable for people to age in place, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. They seek to fill this hole in the housing market with their design featuring zero-step entrances, single-floor living, wide hallways and doorways, wheelchair-accessible light switches, and lever-style door handles and faucets.

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People might expect a solar house to be futuristic and sterile, but the student-built House by Northwestern is cozy, warm, and inviting. Its student designers selected every detail with thoughtfulness and care, taking into account their end users’ comfort and needs. 

That’s what sets it apart from other model homes. It’s not just a solar house — it’s a solar home.

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The Northwestern University student group House by Northwestern unveiled its 100-percent solar-powered home, the organization’s first entry into the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday afternoon in Evanston.

The result of 17 months of design, market research and construction the students sought to develop a home that would appeal to active North Shore baby boomers looking to downsize and buy a home for life.

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It’s normal to feel nervous before a dinner party. Will the guests get along, will the avocado toast get burned?

But for Sophie Sisson and other students involved in the “House by Northwestern” project at Northwestern University, the stakes are much higher. A dinner party is one of the final tests in a contest the team has been working on for 17 months: building a fully solar-powered house from the ground up.

The team will ship the house to Denver for the finals of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, where the house’s energy use, solar generation and other indicators will be measured — and where the dinner party will prove that it is functional in a real-life situation.

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When Northwestern undergraduate students began designing their sustainable home entry for the 2017 Department of Energy's "Solar Decathlon" competition, they turned to OLLI members to help them understand the needs and preferences of their entry's target baby-boomer couples. The competition pits 12 collegiate design and construction teams from throughout the country against each other, building full-sized, solar-powered homes. When completed, it will be disassembled and shipped to Denver to compete against the other entries. Later, it will return to Evanston, Illinois for display and eventual sale.

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Designed with roof-integrated solar panels, ultra-efficient heating and cooling systems, and photocatalytic surfaces that break down harmful pollutants in the air, the student-led House by Northwestern (HBN) is a showcase of sustainable living.

A ceremonial groundbreaking in June marked the start of a three-month construction plan that will conclude with rigorous testing of the home’s energy-efficient systems. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 4 p.m. on August 23 at 669 Colfax Street in Evanston.

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...While the work the students are putting in is already quite impressive, what makes the project even more special is that it is truly made possible because of the backing and participation of so many companies within the AEC realm and beyond. Helping to cover the $250k+ costs of the project are sponsors and advisors like Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture, sustainNU, GAF, FedEx, Thornton Thomasetti, Power Construction and The Hill Group to name a few. Beyond the financial and resource contributions, the firms worked with students to guide their efforts and teach them real world experience to enhance their preparedness to thrive in the field. “We are working with all of these great partners who are giving us all of these products and supporting us and all these people with all this experience helping us out; so we have a strong idea of what the best systems will be for our house,” explains Project Health and Safety Officer Karla Lopez.

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When students building Northwestern’s entry into this years Department of Energy Solar Competition research-ed solar panels to run their house, they chose GAF Industries for the roof and Solar World for the panels. That is because GAF engineers have developed a new product called DecoTech which provides special fasteners and interconnected wiring for solar panels that eliminate the bulky frames that used to be needed to mount the panels on roofs. GAF is a manufacturer of roofing materials in North America and DecoTech is its latest roof-integrated solar system. GAF is donating all roofing materials, solar panels and labor to House By Northwestern (HBN).

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House by Northwestern (HBN) is Northwestern University’s first-ever entry to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, a competition that “challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.” Upon completion of construction in August, our 1,000-square-foot house will be the most energy-efficient building on campus to date.

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... The student-led House by Northwestern (HBN) will be a fully functional home, designed with integrated solar panels, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, and photo-catalytic surfaces that break down airborne pollutants. 

Mayor Steve Hagerty, Northwestern University Vice President of Research Jay Walsh, and HBN faculty director Dick Co welcomed a crowd of more than 50 students, faculty, donors, and community members to the empty lot where construction is now underway. 

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In a matter of months, the gravel-surfaced lot at 669 Colfax Street in Evanston will give rise to Northwestern’s most energy-efficient building.

Designed with roof-integrated solar panels, ultra-efficient heating and cooling systems, and photocatalytic surfaces that break down harmful pollutants in the air, the student-led House by Northwestern (HBN) is a showcase of sustainable living.

Read more . . .

Growing up, she wanted to be an artist. Today, Vivien Ng is a 19- year-old Manufacturing and Design Engineering student at Northwestern and the chief interior decorator for House By Northwestern, the University’s entry in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2017. 

How does a sophomore in college know what retirees want in a downsized home? “Since last fall, I have led focus groups on campus with seniors who are members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), listening, asking them questions and synthesizing all of the information they gave me into a plan of action,” said Ms. Ng. 

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The sun will not just power one of Evanston’s newest homes; it will also help to clean it.

Designed with roof-integrated solar panels, ultra-efficient heating and cooling systems, and photocatalytic surfaces that break down harmful pollutants in the air and keep surfaces clean when exposed to sunlight, the student-designed House by Northwestern (HBN) is a showcase of sustainable living.

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In a twist many aging Evanstonians will appreciate, young Northwestern students are seeking their advice. This year, for the first time, NU is participating in the Solar Decathlon, a competition organized by the Department of Energy for which students design and build a 1,000 square-foot, solar-powered home. Each of the 13 universities participating in this year’s competition have identified their own unique target market around which their house is designed. NU’s team is designing a home for adults in the “Baby Boomer” generation that will serve as a model for aging in place in Evanston.  
 

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After months of planning, Northwestern’s first solar-powered home is set to break ground in May.

“We’ve spent a lot of time putting things together on paper and now we actually get to put things together in physical form,” said McCormick junior Bill Bach, the house’s project manager.

Bach said he is most excited to see the house come to fruition.

“I love that you’re just doing things that are actually tangible and will make a difference, so it’s not just an academic exercise,” he said.

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With mentorship from a group of local, world-class professionals, the team is designing a two-bedroom, two-bathroom home that is beautiful, highly functional, and entirely sustainable. “House by Northwestern” (HBN) will be 90% more energy-efficient than the average home in the community and will be able to exist completely off the grid. The HBN team will seek LEED Platinum, Passive House, Energy Star, and Living Building certifications for this house.

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The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2017 is only eight months away, but the competing teams have been hard at work for more than a year. Competition organizers recently reviewed team design development drawings, which reflect about 90% completion of the design details.

Solar Decathlon 2017 takes place in Denver, Colorado, at the 61st & Peña Station October 5–9 and October 12–15, 2017. So, just what are you going to see there? A few themes are emerging as the student teams’ ideas take shape...

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One of the newest construction projects on campus isn’t an academic building or residence hall. It’s a solar-powered house, and it’s being designed by Northwestern undergraduates.

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WASHINGTON, DC —The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2017 student design competition, which challenges collegiate teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive, will take place October 5 – 15, 2017, in Denver, Colorado, Energy Department and Denver officials announced today.

The 14 collegiate teams competing in 2017 will focus on creating high-performance houses that reflect current market conditions, innovative building and the best in sustainable living.

Learn more about the competition...

In June, Adler invited HBN to participate in Adler After Dark, a monthly 21+ event that allows guests open access to the Planetarium and unique exhibits and entertainment. HBN shared our designs with guests and talked about the importance of building energy efficient homes.

See the program

Northwestern University is a finalist in the U.S. Department of Energy's 2017 Solar Decathlon in Denver, Co.

The Solar Decathlon is a biannual event that challenges “collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive.” 

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Earlier this year, Northwestern was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to compete alongside 15 other universities from around the world in the Solar Decathlon 2017. Northwestern’s team, “House by Northwestern” (HBN), has hit the ground running in designing a fully-functional, solar-powered home conceived and built in collaboration with industry partners. In the fall of 2017, HBN and competitors will unveil their houses in Denver, CO as they compete for $2 million in prize money. 

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A team of Northwestern students is building a solar-powered house to submit as the University’s first-ever entry to the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2017 Solar Decathlon.

House by Northwestern will be one of 16 selected entries in the competition, which challenges collegiate teams worldwide to design, build and operate solar-powered houses.

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Imagine a beautiful home on the shores of Lake Michigan – large windows looking out at the lake, native grasses adorning the exterior landscaping, and rooftop solar panels soaking up the sun. In fact, this house is so energy efficient that it operates entirely off the grid.

Students and faculty will not only be able to see a home like this on the Northwestern University campus in 2017, they’ll help create it.

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