Want a house that costs $2 a month to power? Some local students can make it happen
Monthly energy costs of $2? Who wouldn’t sign up for that?
It’s not science fiction. A group of students from local colleges designed a home that could do it as part of an international Department of Energy competition involving 28 schools.
The local team tied for the win, sharing the Challenge Home Student Design Competition’s top prize with a group from Ryerson University in Toronto. The Syracuse team included students from Onondaga Community College, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Syracuse University.
The contest challenged teams to design homes that use as little energy as possible. The $2 in monthly energy costs is based on the team’s estimate of what the home would use.
“We really felt we knew what the competition was about,” said Kenneth Bobis, a professor of architecture and interior design at OCC and one of the advisers on the project. “We understood it. We addressed everything they were looking for and more.” Read More