[Above | Artist’s rendering of the completed Indigo Pine project. ]
Group will build solar-powered, carbon-neutral house for national competition
Last week, a Clemson University team participating in next year’s U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon revealed its solar-powered and carbon-neutral home, called Indigo Pine.
The name is derived from two crops important to South Carolina. Indigo’s rich blue dye symbolizes the state’s tradition and culture. Pine’s sturdy versatility represents the team’s construction approach.
Clemson and 16 challengers from colleges and universities across the country have begun the nearly two-year process of building solar-powered houses for the competition, which aims to demonstrate technologies and design that save money and energy while protecting local communities and boosting economic growth.
Designed for a family of four, Indigo Pine was envisioned as a traditional Southern family home with a porch. It will also be equipped with a smart energy-monitoring system that can be easily operated by all family members. The primary material is wood, as it is a renewable, natural resource indigenous to the state with the lowest embedded energy of any structural material.
“We have designed a small Southern home for a family that lives big using local materials for global application, user-friendly technology and innovation in existing systems,” said Blouin.
After completing Indigo Pine on the Clemson campus, the team will “transport” the design via email to the competition site in California, eliminating the use of energy for transportation for a completely carbon-neutral solution.
“We will email our design files to a plywood manufacturer in California,” who will then cut the wood to specification using a CNC machine, said Blouin. “Our team will take a train to California, pick up the material from the manufacturer, assemble and transfer to the build site.” The student team’s plywood structural system will be assembled and fortified through locking joints, wedges and stainless-steel zip ties to create a structurally resilient form the team says can be expanded, adapted and utilized as a construction method for any home. The team will use only man-powered tools on site to further reduce construction energy.
The student teams will unveil their solar-powered houses in Irvine, Calif., in October 2015 with free public tours that showcase the renewable energy systems and energy-efficient technologies, products and appliances.
“Indigo Pine shows how we act locally, but think globally as an interdisciplinary project,” said Richard E. Goodstein, dean of Clemson’s College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities. “It exemplifies how working across the traditional boundaries between academic disciplines can help solve the problems of everyday life.”
Indigo Pine will remain on Clemson’s campus after the competition and continue to be used for education and research in renewable energy.
