NanaWall in Solar Decathlon 2007

NanaWall in Solar Decathlon 2007

Three colleges competing in the Department of Energy competition for energy-efficient home design choose NanaWalls

MILL VALLEY, Calif., October 2, 2007— Twenty teams have been selected from around the world to compete in the 2007 Solar Decathlon in October to design, build and operate a fully-functional home powered entirely by the sun. Three of this year’s teams include the energy-efficient NanaWall^®  in their home designs: Cornell University, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) and Santa Clara University.

The Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is an unparalleled solar competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home. Teams started designing their homes in early 2006. In fall 2007, the teams transport their solar houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where they form a solar village and compete in 10 categories: architecture, engineering, graphics and communication, the comfort zone, hot water, appliances, energy balance, lighting, marketing, and getting around. The houses in the “solar village” are open for public tours from October 12-20, 2007.

Cornell University

“Our design is called ‘the light canopy.’ The two NanaWalls are the main focal point of the house design,” said Siobhan Rockcastle, team leader of the Solar Decathlon team of Cornell University of Ithaca, NY.  “The NanaWalls are in the sunroom, the passive heating room,” she added. “One on side, NanaWalls open to the deck to the exterior. And on the other side, open to the interior of the house and allow heat to filter back into the house through the winter.”

The Cornell University Solar Decathlon team is run entirely by students. Rockcastle is one of four main team leaders who have worked on the project for the past two years. The house incorporates details such as a garden with trees and fully operating wetlands for processing gray water from the house. About 50 students are traveling from Ithaca, NY to Washington D.C. for constructing and marketing the house.   

New York Institute of Technology

Matthew Vecchione, a fifth-year architecture student and project manager for NYIT’s 2007 Solar Decathlon team, said, “The opening glass NanaWalls are critical to the design of OPEN House. The five doors and two windows allow us to achieve our vision of openness, while providing an energy-efficient solar-passive design—which means less energy is spent on lighting and heating the interior of home.”

NYIT students attend classes at its New York City and Long Island campuses, online through Ellis College of NYIT, and throughout the world in the Middle East, China, and Canada. NYIT’s interdisciplinary team is made up of approximately 75 undergraduate and graduate students studying architecture, interior design, engineering, communication arts, management, and culinary arts.

The NYIT OPEN House demonstrates commercially available solar technology, sustainable architectural design principals, and energy-efficient technologies. Aptly named, the home features a 480-square-foot open floor plan that allows inhabitants to freely arrange and manipulate their environment and furniture elements. The open space is bound by opening NanaWall glass walls on the south wall thus providing natural sunlight and virtually connecting occupants to nature. NYIT is also employing an innovative engineering strategy, including automated building controls and a state-of-the-art heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) system based on the geothermal principle; a roof top pool will replicate the heating and cooling properties of the Earth for demonstration.

Santa Clara University

James Bickford, project manager for Santa Clara University’s team in Santa Clara, Calif., said, “We chose the NanaWall system because it has very good insulative properties for a window.  It allows us the elegance of this architectural feature while preventing any adverse thermal loss.  The Nanawall was chosen because it is a beautiful door, that makes our small house feel much bigger, and because it does all of this with the most energy-efficient system that we could find.”

The Santa Clara University home is designed for Baby Boomers, the largest home-owners market in the United States and reflects the unique spirit of California, from historical missions to outdoors spirit. The home includes details such as exposed bamboo I-beams and a retractable NanaWall, eight feet of insulating glass that can be completely folded away to open the living room to a sunny-side south porch, the perfect place for get-togethers that spill from house to the yard. The NanaWall maximizes the amount of natural light illuminating the home while minimizing the amount of unfavorable heat lost through glass. By opening the NanaWall, the living room peacefully melts into the deck, elegantly extending the living space in sunny California.

For more information on the individual teams and their houses, see their Web sites at:

Cornell University: http://cusd.cornell.edu/

New York Institute of Technology: http://iris.nyit.edu/solardecathlon2007/www.nyit.edu/solar.

Santa Clara University: http://www.scusolar.org/

About NanaWall Systems

NanaWall Systems is the leading provider of opening glass walls in North America. NanaWall Systems’ opening glass walls provide flexible solutions to large architectural openings, from 8 feet to 320 feet and are used in houses, condominiums, restaurants, stadiums, schools and more. The NanaWall^® is certified for energy-efficiency by EnergyStar and the National Fenestration Rating Council. NanaWall Systems is a member of the U.S. Green Building Association. The aluminum-framed NanaWall uses recyclable aluminum with non-toxic powder-coated finishes. The wood-framed NanaWall uses wood from sustainable sources with water-based finishes. For more information about the NanaWall, visit the award-winning Web site and photo gallery at http://www.nanawall.com/ or call (800) 873-5673.

About the Solar Decathlon

Twenty teams have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to compete in the 2007 Solar Decathlon. The teams, from colleges and universities around the globe, participate in an unparalleled solar competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home. In fall 2007, the teams transport their solar houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where they form a solar village. The teams compete in 10 contests to determine an overall winner. Using only energy from the sun, the teams generate enough electricity to run a modern household. With an eye on energy efficiency, the students carefully choose the systems, products, and appliances used in their houses.

The houses in the “solar village” are open for public tours from October 12-20, 2007, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., weekends, and 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. weekdays, except Wednesday, October 17, when the houses are closed for competition purposes. See http://www.solardecathlon.org/ for more information.