Meet our solar mounting solution, brought to you by the letter Z. We thought it would be a shame to ruin the roof of the Ze-Row by drilling all over to mount our solar panels. Our nifty solution is the elegant Z-bracket. Each bracket screws into the Ze-Row’s parapet wall (which will be covered later by a metal cap) and then all of our solar components are bolted to the Z-bracket. Here you can see how the solar hot water array mounts to the Z-brackets. Strong? Yup. Easy? Check. Shiny? You betcha!

See the Z-bracket in action:

4/25/2009 Greenwall and Solar Hot Water

Our resident gardeners began to plant the the Ze-Row’s green wall today. Each planter box has its own trellis and is planted with two different native vines. The planters will mount on the Ze-Row chassis, and the vines will keep the Houston sun from beating down on the house, and the foliage will provide a touch of wildlife habitat. The flowers also smell terrific, by the way. The coolest part? The green wall is coming to DC with us!

The whole kit-and-kaboodle on Picasa:

4/25/2009 Greenwall and Solar Hot Water

Today, Erin Morrison showed off her skills with a wrench and ratchet by helping to assemble one of the PV racks that will make up the Ze-Row’s array. Each rack is made up of four BP solar panels attached to a Unirac frame. There will be six racks altogether, and we decided to assemble the first one on the deck to make sure we have the process worked out before we try it up on the roof. A handsome bit of work!

4/22/2009 First Solar Racking

Undeterred by a Houston drizzle, Rebecca Sibley and an unidentified Decathlete work here on testing the foundation of the Ze-Row. The Ze-Row has been resting on cement blocks ever since the steel chassis arrived in November, but now we are ready to lift the house onto the six adjustable feet we will use on the National Mall. The simple adjustment system uses a threaded rod, a few bolts, a giant wrench, and globs of axle grease to work it’s magic. It’s a two person job, but after a few (ok, many) turns of the wrench we finally saw a gap of sunlight between the cement blocks and the chassis. For now, the Ze-Row was lowed back onto its cribbing, but independence is coming soon.

Feel uplifted on Picasa:

4/19/2009 Foundation Work

Gary Strouz, the training director of the Houston Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee helped us out on site today by installing the load center that will house all of the house’s breakers and disconnects. The trick bit is that the Ze-Row is only barely wide enough to travel on interstates, so all of the electrical equipment has to be designed to be completely removed. Gary was up to the challenge, help by his amazing spread of tools.

More on Picasa:

4/15/2009 Load Center Installation

With less than a month to go before our public unveiling, we’ve received our first City of Houston inspection approval. The day-glo sticker below lets us know, as far as plumbing goes, that we are ready to install insulation and proceed with drywall installation. Unfortunately, as with playing cards, inspection stickers work best in sets. Before we can start more interior work, we still have to pass electrical and HVAC inspections. Onward!

More stickers and electrical progress:

4/11/2009 More Electrical Work

What’s the best way to finish a lot of plumbing work in a short amount of time? Under the cover of darkness, of course!

Well, it also takes a swarm of some of the most talented plumbers from Houston’s own Plumbers Union #68. The crew of plumbers and apprentice plumbers showed up today after a full day of work to put it extra hours working on the Ze-Row. As the date of our grand opening draws closer (May 9th!), we’re getting very close to needing to finish all rough-in work. The plumbing team worked well into the night (difficult because the house does not have its own electricity yet) and we had official approval to cover up all the plumbing work in the walls within a few hours. Thank you plumbers!

More nocturnal plumbing on our Picasa site:

4/8/2009 Night Plumbing

After hastily installing the light core windows for the RDA tour, we discovered they needed a little…adjustment. So, with a lot of manpower, the windows came down,measurements were made, and the whole unit was carefully leaned back into place. Here, Naoki uses a light touch to adjust the window as other workers focus on keeping the base steady

More photos, for those with a thing for window adjustment:

3/31/2009 Reinstalling the Windows

The Rice Solar Decathlon team was proud to be featured this year on the Rice Design Alliance’s annual Houston homes tour. This year the tour focused on homes on the smaller scale, so the Ze-Row fit right in! We spent the morning installing the wall of window in the light core and adding finishing touches to the site. As guests started to roll in, students took to their tour posts around the house, answering questions and about the Solar Decathlon and our design. Today was our first day to test our tour strategy for the National Mall, so Allison made sure that guests filled out surveys on their way out to let us know how we did.

Look at these proud hosts!

More photos on Picasa:

3/28/2009 RDA Home Tour