Componeering sponsors ReVolt House, a solar energy house for Solar Decathlon 2012

The warmth of the sun and coolness of the water. The ideal combination for a great day at the beach, but also the perfect combination for a house. ReVolt House, a student project from the TU Delft, is a floating and rotating house, developed fully on solar power. A team of about thirty students is currently involved with the ReVolt House project. The team is made up of a group of international students from different faculties, such as, architecture, sustainable energy technology, civil engineering and technology, policy and management. The floating, rotating house, fully powered by solar energy, is the team's exhibit for the Solar Decathlon Europe exhibition. Team ReVolt House aims to integrate solar energy technology with an appealing and attractive design.

The house is a rotating one out of energy considerations. One side of the house has a completely closed facade which would follow the sun during the summer in order to keep the inner spaces of the house cool and shaded. In wintertime the exact opposite would be the case, the house would rotate with the windows facing the sun in order to warm up the inner spaces. This strategy ensures lower energy consumption for cooling in summer and warming in winter. The energy needed for the rotation of the house and appliances is generated using solar panels placed in the roof.

The determining parameters were lightness, pre-manufacturing, thermal performance, appearance, assembly and costs. The walls of the house will be made of a PET foam core, hot wire cut into shape, which will be covered on both sides with glass fiber reinforced plastic using a manual lay-up technique. Phase Changing Materials (PCM) grains or sheets will be embedded in the inner part of the ceiling and floor to increase thermal mass. The floating base of the house will be made from the same reinforced plastic shell, but instead of foam as a filling, it will be filed with reused plastic bottles, filled with a couple of grams of dry ice to make them structurally stable. The house's rotation will reduce the cooling demand by up to 9000 Wh/day, by completely preventing direct sunlight penetration through the glass facades, while unlike most shading systems, not blocking the view to the outside in any way. ESAComp is used for all the structural calculations of the composites design's floating base and walls.

The house will be entirely built in the Netherlands after which it will be shipped in prefabricated parts to Spain. Once in Madrid, the house will be re assembled and exhibited and tested in the Casa de Campo for two weeks alongside the other entries. The general public will be guided through the house by the team members. The TU Delft team is confident in achieving a good score in the Solar Decathlon Competition 2012. Visit www.revolthouse.com for more information.

January 2012 - Tim Hilhorst / ReVolt House