Solar_Decathlon_2015

Team Alfred's OFFICIAL BLOG!

This was a multi-faceted collaboration between Alfred State College and Alfred University for the 2015 U.S. Department of Energy's national competition in Irvine, California. Scroll down to the start of the blog to get a sense of what the event was and is.

I myself was originally commissioned as the teams designer. I later became a decathlete to go compete with the team. Since I was going to California I also convinced the school to let me bring along my work to have a solo art show in the teams solar house. (Blog post from Day 7 highlights my involvement.)

Day 3

Saturday Oct, 10th

 

View from Alfred's Alf House.

 
 

Back in the Game

By day three we all caught up on sleep and started realizing that we needed to focus more on competition events to gain points. By this time there were enough events bearing points that we could start to see what place everyone was. Out of 14 teams, we were in 6th place. We could have gained more points but from lack of sleep we lost track of who was staying in charge of what. Over the course of these three days there was also a lot of public interest in how cool the house felt to others. This aspect was quite amusing, since our house was designed for western NY- the only house designed for extremely cold conditions (i.e. we have heated floors). 

 
link to Team Alfred's competition scoring.

link to Team Alfred's competition scoring.

 
 

Outside the front door and NanaWall porch door.

Art & Design!


We have been going through hundreds of handout pamphlets per day! Many people were interested enough in my artwork to take my business cards and take a look through the artist binder. All of the art in our home is by students, and for sale, however nothing has sold yet. There is still hope!

Display table with artwork descriptions binder and Alf House pamphlets.

 
 
Visitors discussing their favorite highlights of the Alf House while exiting.

Visitors discussing their favorite highlights of the Alf House while exiting.

 

The Magic of Kindness

Being an active participant in welcoming people into the home while trying to take photos for documentation is quite the hard task to perform. Because of this, I leaned more toward delivering a fun user experience.Matter of fact, I am the only one who has thought to do so thus far. Later this week we will have more touring days so I will make it my prerogative to get more live action shots of the event.

 
 

Our House Sells!

 

Second and final Dinner Party

At the end of the night I attended the second and final dinner night at Cal Poly. Funny enough I had met the hostess, co-project manager of the Cal Poly house, on the first day during a food break. The house exceeded my expectations, but I guess I should have expected this much from a California school. They had custom dinnerware made by their institutions, as well as their schools own made ice cream and fruit topping. We had salmon; and yes, it was amazing!

 

Eating as a visitor at the Cal Poly house.

Lovely dinner conversations in Cal Poly's well designed solar home.