Project Timeline

Project Timeline

2003     2004     2005         The Contest Home     Our Other Projects          

Welcome to our progress! Since 2003 team members and volunteers have worked diligently on the UMass Dartmouth Solar Decathlon Project. Here is an overview of some of the key events along the road to our solar home:

2003

April 2003  On Earth Day the proposal application is sent to the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab requesting participant status in the 2005 Solar Decathlon.

September 2003 Ten team members attend the weekend Solar Decathlon kickoff workshop in D.C. Carol Casperson, Executive Director of DC HFH, gives some team members a guided tour of DC HFH projects and a potential site for the Contest Home.

The Design of a Sustainable Solar Home, a new course, is offered at UMD. It covers concepts of architectural design and building technologies.

At the DOE-NREL Washington D.C. reception the UMass Dartmouth Solar Decathlon Project team slogan emerges: "A delightful mix of architecture, engineering and community service."

October 2003  The UMass Dartmouth Solar Decathlon Project hosts a kickoff media event. The team flies in Carol from DC HFH to UMass Dartmouth as our guest of honor. Carol has lunch with the students in the UMD HFH chapter and speaks at the kickoff event hosted by our Chancellor, Dr. Jean MacCormack.

November 2003  The Project Leader, Gerald Lemay, makes two presentations with his solar van at Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School. The GNBVT students plan to install the radiant floor heating in the UMD solar home.

December 2003  UMD Solar Decathlon Project website goes online. It is launched to coincide with the end-of-semester celebration featuring food, music, brainstorming, and a motivational speaker.

2004

January 2004  Info Week and the Design of a Sustainable Solar Home course continue with weekly guest speakers.

March 2004  Fifteen students from the UMD team and UMD Habitat For Humanity chapter travel to Lenoir City, TN, during spring break. They live with host families and work with Habitat For Humanity volunteers building with structural insulated panels (SIPs) and learn about Net-Zero Energy construction practices.

May 2004  Panel Pros in Keene, NH, delivers and helps us install the shell of the Grid-in-a-Box. The UMD Solar Decathlon Team holds an end-of-semester celebration with food, music, chair massage, and recognition of team members.

June 2004  The UMD Solar Decathlon Project Leader lives in D.C. for a week to meet DC HFH community and to learn how to "get-around" in D.C. Website renovations continue in an effort to link to the national Solar Decathlon website by the July 1 deadline.

July 2004  The UMD Solar Decathlon Project website receives approval to link to the national Solar Decathlon website.

September 2004  Info Week and the Design of a Sustainable Solar Home Course continues. We have our first telephone conference with NREL's Mike Wassmer and the other 18 teams. Team members Mike Guilmette and Wendy Malenfant participate in the 2-day radiant floor workshop at NESEA and are asked to lead a team of students to design, install and test a radiant floor system for the Grid-in-a-Box.

Peter Tea, Greater Plymouth Habitat For Humanity President, addresses the UMD HFH chapter with chapter president Jen O'Toole.

October 2004  National Solar Home Tour, the UMD Solar Decathlon Grid-in-a-Box is on the tour.

November 2004  Organizers from D.C. have a meeting at the National 4-H Convention Center (the place where the UMD Solar Decathletes will reside for 25 days in September and October, 2005) to continue work on the memorandum of understanding. Richard King, DOE Project Leader for the Solar Decathlon, is in attendance.

December 2004  Students at UMass Dartmouth delive their design of the Contest Home. This provides the architects with eight weeks to prepare the "Construction Drawings and Submittals" as specified in the "2005 Solar Decathlon Rules and Regulations."

2005

February 8, 2005  The team delivers the "Construction Drawings and Submittals" to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and to DC Habitat For Humanity. This provides DC Habitat For Humanity with sixteen weeks to obtain code approval for the intended use of the Contest Home. The Contest Home will be used for temporary transportable housing by the AmeriCorps volunteers that are hired on a yearly contract by DC Habitat For Humanity. These AmeriCorps workers supervise the Habitat For Humanity volunteers in the construction of homes in Ward 7, Washington, D.C.

February 11, 2005  The project leader meets with the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust (MRET) to outline additional funding sources. It is determined that the remaining $7.5K for the Test Home can be used for the Contest Home and MRET will provide a challenge grant of $20K.

The outside of our Test Home is 40% complete!

April 20, 2005  Project Leader Gerald Lemay presents "A Sustainable Approach to the Solar Decathlon Contest" at the UMD Earth Day 2005 Teach-in.

May 2, 2005  The groundbreaking ceremony for the Contest Home building-site on campus is held and the student solar decathletes are inducted. In attendance are 35 people representing 12 different organizations:

Local experts from:

May 10, 2005  The team celebrates with an end-of-semester pizza party! Summer and building time is here and we are still gaining team sponsors!

June 1, 2005  We begin building our Contest Home!

June 14, 2005  The structurally insulated panels (SIPS) are delivered to the campus building site.

July 7, 2005  Xantrex Technology, Inc., of Burnaby British Columbia Canada, donates two SW4024 power inverters, charge controllers, and everything else we need to power our UMass Dartmouth Solar Contest Home. This generous gift has a retail value in excess of $11,000 and is provided at no cost to our project. On behalf of the family that will receive this home we sincerely thank Xantrex Technology, Inc. Xantrex is a world leader in advanced power electronics, enabling delivery of electricity anytime anywhere. For further information on this and other fine products from Xantrex see www.xantrex.com

August 16 2005  National Solar Home Tour open house

September 2005  The Contest Home is transported to the National Mall.

October 2005  The Contest Home is transported to its permanent site, connected to the infrastructure and dedicated to DC Habitat For Humanity.

Check out our daily updates from the National Mall!

Learn about our other projects.


Last updated: Tuesday, October 4, 2005 12:27 PM