Refract+House

Team California 2009 Refract House. [|Refract House Website] AWESOME SITE! lots of great info beyond what I have here. This team's goals focused on light and taking full advantage of the sun all day long. The refract house's shape is meant to use light efficiently throughout the entirety of the day. Also the private and public areas are arranged in a way that each space will receive natural lighting when it is in highest use. Sun hits bedroom at sunrise, kitchen at midday, and the living room at sunset.

Architecture: 1st place (98) Market Viability: 3rd place ( Engineering: 2nd Lighting Design: 6th Communications: 1st Appliances: 3rd Hot Water: 3rd Home Entertainment: 2nd Net Metering and Comfort Zone: unavailable

Cool Ideas: -Solar panels oriented in multiple directions to catch radiation at different times of day. -Solar water heating and cooling system. -Windows oriented to allow lighting, but manufactured to reduce heat transfer. -Estimated house energy use in categories of types of homeowners (eco-friendly, normal, luxury) Products: -Sunpower's SPR-225 solar panel (high efficiency, small size, sleek black appearance) -iPhone app that allows visitors to ask and have questions answered about the house. -Lucid Design Group's Building Dashboard to monitor energy (they did win communications) To learn from: -Competition envelope restrictions limited their roof angle, and thus their PV angle to 10.5. Far less than optimal. -Their focus, lighting design, didn't actually impress the judges much (it was their worst category), but they still did really well overall. -Beautiful California Design Link: [|Refract House Website]