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" Rice University&amp;#039;s ZEROW house could be a case study in making less seem like more. At only 520 square feet, the house should feel cramped. It may be the copious sunlight giving that feeling of openness, or perhaps it&amp;#039;s due to the recessed strips of LEDs shining soft light in ceiling corners that would normally be occupied by crown molding. It&amp;#039;s also possible that the feeling is a kind of trompe l&amp;#039;oeil caused by a series of wall-width panoramic Houston landscape photos, placed in several rooms at about waist height, creating a fish-eyed wainscoting effect that seems to raise the ceilings and invite the visitor to view a sprawling city from a new perspective.  Beyond the minimalist design flourishes, the house makes the most of a streamlined, almost spare approach to the mechanical systems. The recessed LED pinpoints keep the house ablaze at night, using a total of 250 watts. The solar photovoltaics on the roof at first seem paltry, compared with the grand PV arrays seen elsewhere on the Mall, but Rice chose a small system to prove a point: &amp;quot;We could have put solar panels all over the house,&amp;quot; says project manager Roque Sanchez. &amp;quot;But when the public visits, and they see solar panels everywhere, they think, \u00C3&amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t put that on my own house.&amp;#039; We wanted to show that the house can be operated on less.&amp;quot; Sanchez specified the exact amount of panels needed to keep the house at net-zero consumption--the 24 175-watt panels on the roof are just enough to cover the house&amp;#039;s electrical needs.  The minimalist strategy has kept the house&amp;#039;s price down as well. The students project that this prototype--with labor--could be built for $140,000. Sanchez estimates that a site-built version of the home could be completed for as little as $80,000. The approach has paid off: On Oct. 13, Solar Decathlon judges announced that Rice had taken second place in the competition&amp;#039;s Market Viability and Architecture categories. Keeping costs under control and resisting the urge to overbuild the systems shows that Rice sees the bigger picture of the Solar Decathlon. The designers demonstrate this understanding most critically by planning to integrate the project into the row houses of Houston&amp;#039;s Third Ward neighborhood. Sanchez hopes the ZEROW can serve as an model for a &amp;quot;solar village&amp;quot; he imagines emerging in Houston. &amp;quot;A lot of vacant lots are held by the city for the development of affordable housing,&amp;quot; Sanchez says, noting that Houston has been meeting that need with the same types of buildings for quite a while. Working in conjunction with the community organization Project Row Houses, &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re hoping to stir it up,&amp;quot; Sanchez says. He hopes buildings like ZEROW can take steps--both electrically and economically--to minimize their burden on the environment. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a4741/4333863/>