The fourth Solar Decathalon is still a year a way, but that doesn’t mean that student teams haven’t been hard at work all summer.

I was just reading about University of Minneasota’s Solar Decathalon team.

The team has put in more hours per week during the summer than it normally did during the school year, president of the Solar Decathlon team Shengyin Xu said.

Check out their preliminary design:

I like the envelope/overhang; I wonder what it’s like on the inside. Just yesterday I was reading about Enertia homes. Enertia homes are completed wrapped in an envelope, creating a natural, open convection path all around the home, thus keeping the living space cool in the summer and warm in the winter. You’ve got to check it out:

In the Enertia® Building System, solid Energy-Engineered™ wood walls replace siding, framing, insulation, and paneling. An air flow and access channel, or Envelope, runs around the building, just inside the walls - creating a miniature biosphere. Here solar heated air circulates, pumping and boosting geothermal energy from beneath the house, storing it in the massive wood walls. Thermal inertia causes the house to “float” between the cycles of night and day, and even between the seasons.

Many aspects of the Enertia® House are unusual and innovative - but backed up by science, common-sense, and prototype homes across America. In fact, each aspect listed below increases the energy efficiency of the building. The effect is Synergistic - equal to more than the sum of the parts. The Enertia® House can make more energy than it uses!

It’s so simple it’s brilliant.

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