This year, New Zealand is happy to be the first finalist from the Southern Hemisphere to make it to the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. As New Zealand sees the light of the sun everyday before the rest of the world, they have named the home the First Meridian Light House.

The design concept for the house was inspired by the traditional Kiwi bach, a New Zealand holiday home.

Kiwi culture places heavy value on socializing and being outdoors. 

The Kiwi values have been incorporated into the home so that even in the winter months you can still connect with the outdoors. The floors of the home are concrete slab to help stabilize internal temperatures. The home is insulated with a renewable resource we don’t see in homes, recycled sheep’s wool. They have also come up with a system that not only centrally heats and cools the house but is easy to manage and recovers the excess heat inside to be reused.

The solar power combined with thee other innovations make the home net zero, it produces as much or more energy than its inhabitants will use. There are display pads throughout the home programmed so the owner can manage energy usage. One completely new feature of the home is a drying cupboard. It is a closet built into the home in which air blows through from the ventilation system. The designers are optimistic that this idea could be the innovation to drastically lower our energy consumption for drying clothing.

As a

practice run, before the big move, the house was assembled and opened to the public in Wellington. In the short 18 days it was open nearly 20,000 people toured through this innovative house. The house was then packed up and shipped to the US ready to be reassembled over a short 7 days, fully ready for the start date of the competition, September 13th.

To learn more about the lighthouse visit their site @ firstlighthouse.ac.nz/home/