UNLV students prepare house to compete in solar decathlon

Building a house with no prior experience is tough enough, but imagine constructing one knowing that you would soon have to split it into multiple parts and transport it out of state.

That is just part of the challenge that 30 UNLV students face as they prepare for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2017 competition next month. The winning school takes home $300,000.

The crew is building a 990-squarefoot solar-powered home, dubbed “Sinatra Living,” integrating the latest technology and energy-efficient features.

The engineering and architecture students have day and night shifts, and they work around each other’s school and work schedules. Various community partners throughout the valley have assisted.

“It’s not just what you learn in the classroom, it’s what you learn outside of it a lot more sometimes,” said Rama Venkat, dean of the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering. “What they’re learning in the classroom, they’re bringing it to practice, in terms of the house. They get to work among themselves and learn leadership qualities.

Each of the 13 teams in the competition chose a target market for their home. UNLV chose the elderly population. Nationally, it is projected that by 2030 one out of every five people in the United States will be 65 or older.

“We’ve seen a huge, growing demographic of people 65 years old and older … and we wanted to offer a housing solution that can deal with some of the needs of someone who is retiring,” said Nasko Balaktchiev, project manager and sec-