Solar Cal Poly

The California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, (Cal Poly) entry to the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015, INhouse, is designed to inspire its residents to take control of their personal environment. INhouse was created by a multidisciplinary team of students and faculty from across 12 different majors at Cal Poly. Intuitive, interactive, integrated: our interpretation of net-zero and a new way of interpreting a contemporary California home. INhouse explores the link between system and resident, with the goal of making operation and management intuitive, energy affordable, and waste minimal. All energy consumed by this net zero home is offset by renewable energy sources generated on-site.

INhouse took 3rd place at the Solar Decathlon competition, held in October at Great Park in Irvine, California, out of the 14 entries. The competition consisted of a series of ten different contests that range from architectural design, to using the appliances to cook a meal and to charging and driving an electric car. The team earned second place in the Market Appeal and Home Life and third in the Architecture contests. As a follow-up to the competition, and to help share information on the home, a brief summary paper describing the design philosophy and details of the home can be downloaded by clicking here. After the Solar Decathlon, INhouse was reassembled at Cal Poly's campus for further research and performance monitoring.