AHS Grad Key Player In Solar House Competition
by David Pugh Buckeye Staff Writer

Jeremy Smith, center, an AHS graduate and University of Cincinnati electrical engineering student, was one of the leaders in constructing UC's entry into the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon. His parents, Leon and Vicki, visited him in Washington, D.C., where the competition was held.- courtesy photos

Jeremy Smith, a 2003 Archbold High School graduate, was a key player in the University of Cincinnati's entry into a competition for solar houses.

Smith, son of Leon and Vicki Smith and a UC electrical engineering student, was one of the lead engineer students and one of three people who supervised the construction of a solar house, UC's entry into the competition.

The event, the Solar Decathlon, was sponsored by the Department of Energy. A total of 20 colleges and Universities from across the nation and the world built houses that were assembled on the national mall in Washington, D.C., in October.

"We used it for all the things you would use a house for. There was a competition to see who had the most energy effi- cient house," he said.

This is the University of Cincinnati's entry in the Solar Decathlon competition. The house, at about 650 square feet, used donated, recycled, and in some cases, scrap, material. The one wall is made from left-over sheet metal, resulting in the "patchwork" appearance.

Smith was involved in the project from the beginning.

"I worked on it for a total of a year and a half, or a little bit more," he said.

The House

The rules limited the houses to no more than 850 square feet. The UC entry was about 650.

"We had a pretty wide-open floor plan. A lot of people commented on how big it was.

"We had a lot of natural lighting, and innovative use of materials."

As examples, Smith said the home's floors were made of recycled tires. The counter tops were paper pressed into a solid material.

"There was built-in cabinetry around most of the walls, and there was metal and some recycled resin; it looks like clear plastic or glass."

Recycling and re-using materials was one of the goals of the project.

"We actually got a lot (of building material) for free. The exterior were all scraps from a metal roofing company. It was kind of a patchwork design," making the UC house one of the most colorful.

There were passive-solar features, such as designs to afford shade at proper times.

But Smith said it was the active solar features that set the house apart from the others.

The house used an absorption chiller system, which used hot water as its source of energy.

"It's similar to a heat pump, except the primary source is hot water, near boiling, 195, 200 degrees. Then there's a fan and a small motor to keep things going, but it uses about a fourth or a third of the energy of a typical heat pump."

A Spanish company makes the system. The unit used by the UC team is only the second imported into the U.S.

"It's off-the-shelf, but it's not very common," Smith said.

"We had solar hot-water heaters on the south side, forming a fence on the south side of the house and the south side of the deck.

"On the roof was where we had the photovoltaic panels to make electricity, and we had the battery and inverters.

"We had a touch-screen interface in the kitchen, so we could see the status of the HVC (heating, ventilating, cooling) system, with the pumps and things like that, but it would also optimize the energy usage, depending on what was the priority that day.

"Say you were going to have someone over for dinner that night, you could type that in, and save as much power as possible for evening."

Smith said solar heating was actually the easy part of the project.

"Electricity and domestic hot water, those are the major points," he said.

How They Did

Smith said UC's house finished 15th out of 20 competitors.

"But, a lot of that was due to being the first time we were there. This was the third time they held the competition, and 10 of the schools had been there one or two times before.

"There's a lot of things you learn during the process that you need to test beforehand," he said.

The winning home was a German entry.

"It had good architecture, the technology was integrated well, and they had a lot of money to do it."

By comparison, the UC team still owes for its entry.

"We tried to do as much as possible and tried to get donations. We got the university foundation working on that. We still haven't raised all the money to pay for it, even though it's done," he said.

But, even though the project isn't paid for, "we're going to try to do it again, because of the international exposure."

Job Search

Smith said he's naturally drawn to an engineering career.

"Basically, I liked to mess around with things and learn how they work."

He is a senior at the University. He isn't sure whether he will work on the solar project next year. Right now, he's looking for an engineering job in Northwest Ohio.

The Solar Decathlon experience will be an advantage in his job search.

"There are a lot of companies that are interested in renewable energy and green building."