Day 13 was another eventful day.  We started off with some great news from the 10:00 awards ceremony: Team ZEROW took 5th place in Communications!  We were all pleasantly surprised with our Top 5 ranking, and adrenaline was high throughout the rest of the day.  Which was definately needed, as Day 13 was Solar Education Day on the Mall, and the Solar Village welcomed over 1,600 8th graders and middle schoolers to the Mall between tour hours of 11 and 3.  We were asked some of the best questions by these very well-informed students, and it was inspiring to see how many were interested in solar technologies and architecture.  Decathlon 2020 anyone?

It was also a semi-sad day as Team ZEROW said goodbye to Rachal, David, Rebecca, Aron, Cassie, and Seanna, who had to fly back to Houston and the real world (Cherry and Travis leave Wednesday morning as well).  It was tough to leave the Mall, but they left the ZEROW HOUSE in good hands.  We look forward to more team members flying in on Wednesday and Thursday! 

A final team photo. (-:

Day 13 on Picasa

Day 13 on the Mall

WHAT A DAY!!!!

The ZEROW HOUSE won 2nd place in both Market Viability and Architecture!

Our certificates are proudly displayed on our refridgerator, alongside our beautiful "Simple Solar" art.

From the official Solar Decathlon Blog:
“The jury lauded the house as testament to the team’s desire to make a statement about the economy, saying the Rice team did ‘the most with less.’ Knowles commented on the house’s minimal openings that still produced a ‘beautifully day-lit interior with wonderful views and sight lines through an elegant composition.’ The jury found that Rice offered a compelling narrative that incorporated a larger neighborhood strategy….The jury applauded Rice University for meeting the needs of a lower-income, underserved target market and simultaneously proving that zero energy can be attained at a modest price and without compromising aesthetics or functionality.”

Our team is so happy to have done so well in the eyes of the judges!  We are proud to be on the Mall, and to show that solar can be an accessible alternative to people of all incomes!  Emotions were at an all time high as the results were announced Monday morning, and lots of excited phone calls were made to team members back in Houston to spread the great news!

This great news propelled us through another busy day of tours.  We also had our Engineering and Lighting Juries, which went very well, as both jury teams report. 

Megan, Courtney, and Rebecca prepared dinner party #2, which like Friday’s dinner, was a blast!  We are so lucky to have great neighbors!  We hear that all of our neighborhood’s dinner parties were wonderful!  Team Iowa served up local fare, with pork chops and Iowa apple cider.  It was Canada’s Thanksgiving, and our two Canadian teams, Team North (BC/Ontario) and Team Alberta took out all the stops and prepared AMAZING meals.  Team North served salmon and lamb kabobs, and Team Alberta’s culinary students whipped up a gourmet feast for their guests!  Everyone came back full and satisfied, and had lots of stories to share. 

The day ended with a celebration party hosted by Roque’s parents.  It was such a great way to unwind after a long and busy day.  Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez!

The tasty spread at our Market Viability / Architecture celebration party.

More photos from Day 12 at

Day 12 on the Mall

Our tour guides are up bright and early on Sunday, and are ready for the crowds!

Sunday brought a TON people to the National Mall, even more than Saturday! It was a great day to give tours, as the weather cleared up and we had some wonderful sunshine!  We gave tours from 10 to 5, and showed over 2,500 people the ZEROW HOUSE.

Looking towards the Capital...

Looking at the back of the ZEROW HOUSE and our awesome "Solar Energy Power" outbuilding.

It was a long day of tours, so we were definately ready for that evening’s Movie Night!  One of the decathlon contests is Home Entertainment, and every team had to host other teams from their neighborhood (ours is Iowa, Team Alberta, and Team BC/Ontario).  The movie shown at every house on the Mall was The Dark Knight. 

Megan made some awesome guacamole for our guests! We also had some delicious sweet tea!

While it was a great movie to watch, I think most of the people in our neighborhood were just happy to get to meet other people!  I don’t think anyone at our houses actually watched the movie…instead, we had a great time just hanging out, eating, and swapping Solar D stories.  I think every team agrees that our neighborhood is pretty awesome, and we’re really looking forward to having a block party as the week progresses.

Day 11 photos on Picasa:

Day 11 on the Mall

#1 on the Leaderboard!

Starting off as number one on the leaderboard was not a bad way to start off Day 10!  It was another busy day of tours, and the public did not seem to be phased by the cold temperatures and drizzle.  Lines for all of the houses on the Solar Village only got longer as the day cleared up, and Team ZEROW gave over 2,100 people tours of our house! 

We made sure the kids in line were happy too, and had crayons and "Simple Solar" coloring sheets out on our porch. Everyone loved them!

I wish I could have captured just how crazy things got on the Mall today, with incredible crowds everywhere you looked! I think our team did a great job of keeping people engaged in line, talking to guests and answering questions during a wait that fluctuated between 10 to 35 minutes to just get into the house. 

LOTS of people on the mall!

Roque, always in his cowboy hat and boots while on the Mall, talks about the ZEROW to people waiting in line.

We are ready for just as many people, if not more, to come to the Mall tomorrow.  There are also a number of marches that will go by the National Mall and up to the Capital, which will most likely increase the number of people visiting the Solar Village. 

For more photos of Day 10,

Day 10 on the Mall

Travis is pretty happy about cleaning those solar panels.

It was a beautiful morning to be out and about. Tours began at 10, and as it was a Friday, they started off kind of slow, but steadily picked up pace as the day went on.  We welcomed some of our awesome sponsors, school kids, Rice alum, news crews, and people from all over the country into the house, and explained to them our ideas on an affordable solar home.

David tells middle schoolers about the living room and our Light Core.

Everyone LOVED our solar powered dryer, aka our clothesline.

Today, we also had our first three subjective Jury Tours: Market Viability, Architecture, and Communications.  Our jury teams had spent the previous night working for hours on how to best present the ZEROW HOUSE to the jury.  One of the biggest parts of this was time, as we only had 20 minutes to present to the jurors, so we had to really focus on making our tours succinct and very clear.  I think we rocked all three of the tours, and all of the jurors seemed to like our affordable solar home.  Results for Market Viability and Architecture are announced Monday, and Communications is announced Tuesday.  Keep your fingers crossed!

As tours wound down, things were just starting to being for the team!  We hosted our first of two dinner parties on Friday night, and Megan had been cooking all day long in preparation for our 6 guests from Team Iowa, Team Alberta, and Team BC/Ontario.  She did SUCH a great job of preparing our amazing dinner, which included local Houston and DC foods!  Thanks to Monica Pope, who developed our menu and also provided our team with all of the local foods from around Houston and Texas (we packed up two ice chests full of food, and checked them on the plane with us to DC). 

Megan preparing our spicy squash and curry soup before our guests arrive.

Dinner was really wonderful, and I think our menu was a complete success!  We had Pure Luck feta, summer pickles, and sage crackers, endive and cremini mushroom salad (with Texas pecans and a truffle basalmic vinegrette), spicy squash and curry soup, a delicious Texas bison bolognese (a favorite of all), and panna cotta with Texas blueberry compote. 

We loved having Team Iowa, Alberta, and Team North over!

What was really great (other than feeling kind of normal for a little bit, talking, chatting, and gossiping with new friends, and not having to worry about competitions or contests or tours), was that all of our guests really understood and loved what we were doing with the ZEROW HOUSE, in terms of how we were working with Project Row Houses, but also how we were able to show that solar can be affordable and accessible to people of all incomes.  Our team is eager to see their beautiful homes!  We had such a great time and good conversation with our new friends, and we can’t wait to hang out with them and play cornhole together in our “front yards.”

To see more of a very long, and very exciting Day 9, check out

Day 9 on the Mall

The Capital Building in the early morning. What a motivating view!

Day 8 started off with being on site bright and early…After an “oops” moment of forgetting our keys and consequently being locked out the ZEROW for about 20 minutes until we were able to get a copy from the hotel, our team was ready for a great morning on the Mall.  The sun was out, and Team ZEROW was well rested and ready to go!

It was the first day of contests, which included clothes washing/drying, hot water boiling, and the beginning of energy monitoring.  We got to meet our wonderful observers, who will be at the ZEROW during contest times to make sure we do things the right way, and to collect data.  Ours are great, and are just as excited to be at the Decathlon as we are!

Our observers and team members in the Kitchen, getting ready for our first go at the cooking contest, aka boiling 5 pounds of hot water.

At 12:15, all of the teams began to assemble at the Main Tent for a team photo and the Opening Ceremony.  We got to chat with some of the other teams near us, like the cool kids from Iowa and from Team Alberta.  The Opening Ceremony was really nice.  There was a ton of press, and a ton of sponsors present.  Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu gave a GREAT speech to the teams, and I think we were all pretty happy with the way he addressed the future of alternative technologies, and the role that we as students and young adults are playing in getting solar out to the public. 

David, Rachal, Roque, Danny, and Brent waiting in the crowd for the all-team photo.

Press at the Opening CeremonyAs soon as the Opening Ceremony was over, we rushed back to the ZEROW to give tours to VIP and whatever lucky public that was on the Mall. We had a long line, and everyone who came into the house was super responsive to our idea of making a solar powered home affordable. We are SO happy that people are excited about the ZEROW, and hope that this continues throughout the next week of public tours!Everyone loved that we had our boards out to read during the wait to get inside the house!