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!