On October 5th, we took a trip to Washington D.C. to see the Solar Decathlon - a competition sponsored by the Department of Energy in which 14 schools competed by designing and building a completely solar-powered house on the National Mall. It was very impressive, and interesting to see the varied approaches the different schools took. Some teams really thought about the whole building envelope, using sustainable materials and incorporating passive and active technologies to improve the efficiency and comfort level of the building, while other schools sought to show that any average homeowner could solarize their own house. Most teams were a mix of architecture and engineering students. It was called a decathlon because the winner was the school which had the highest combined score in 10 different competitions: Design and Livability Design Presentation and Simulation Graphics and Commnication The Comfort Zone Refrigeration Hot Water Energy Balance Lighting Home Business Getting Around For more info, check out the Solar Decathlon webpage at www.solardecathlon.org