INhome solar house earned a total of 931.390 points out of a possible 1,000 second only to the University of Maryland with 951.151 points.

Nineteen teams, including four from outside the United States, designed and built affordable, energy-efficient, solar-powered homes for the competition, held Sept. 23 to Oct. 2 at the National Mall's West Potomac Park.

INhome involved more than 200 students from six colleges and schools: Technology, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Agriculture, Management, and Health and Human Sciences.

“This is just a phenomenal win for Purdue,” says Eric Holt, a doctoral student in building construction management in the College of Technology and the construction manager for the project. “What set us apart in the competition was our team. It just shows how well Purdue students can do.”

According to DOE competition rules, a house was to be net-zero for energy consumption, which means it must produce at least as much energy as it uses. Purdue's two-bedroom, one-bath house is 984 square feet with an open-plan kitchen-living-dining area and a utility room. It also has a garage.

Sarah Miller, who graduated in May with an interior design degree, is pursuing graduate studies in building construction management. She served as the INhome architecture and design manager. As lead interior designer, she was responsible for advising on the choice of sustainable materials, ranging from LED lighting to recycled flooring, countertop options, and environmentally friendly paints.

“Our goal was to make a marketable home that could be placed in any city in America,” Miller says. “I believe we reached many people and often changed minds that previously perceived solar living as something for only a select few technologically inclined modern innovators.”

She was recently interviewed by Architect magazine writer Alex Hoyt, who asked her about how unique and sustainable features were incorporated into the design.

Miller says that INhome’s solar system is unique because it is photovoltaic with no evacuated tubes for producing hot water. A heat-pump water heater produces hot water run-off for electricity.

“This worked in our favor because a solar hot water system cannot produce hot water in cloudy weather,” Miller says, “while our all-electric system was able to produce plenty.”

The exterior is also unique. Instead of building with traditional wood-stud framing, which allows for increased thermal bridging, the crew used pre-manufactured structural insulated panels (SIPs) to construct the exterior shell in two days.

Miller says the inspiration was to combine practicality with innovation: “Many technologies and efficient systems behind the walls enable this home to be net-zero energy. However, it is our belief that in order to see solar living more mainstream, home still has to feel like home.”

So what’s next? The house has been placed in a Lafayette neighborhood that is undergoing redevelopment. It is scheduled to be finished in December and then will be open for tours. In early 2012, a subsidized homeowner will move in and the team will be able to remotely monitor the home’s technical performance for further research.

“This is exciting for the team because we’re able to share something we put our hearts into with an actual family,” Miller says. “We’ll continue to monitor the home’s performance for five years gathering a realistic depiction of how the INhome’s design lives up to the use of a family.”