Oh what a journey it has been so far!
15 long days of construction and now here we are on the second day of touring for the general public. Right throughout the construction period my focus has been on the operation of the HVAC system, which included me getting up inside the boiling ceiling of the house in the hot temperatures of Dubai to carry out the ducting connections of the HVAC system as well as crawling amongst the prickly rocks of the desert, underneath the house for the wiring of these components. However, today a major milestone was achieved by pressurising the second PCM tank after multiple minor modifications to the tank and having a leak free outcome, which was a great note for me to end my day on.
Aside from the troubleshooting of the HVAC system, the other key part of today comprised of me participating in a highly informative Solar Decathlon Simulation and monitoring – Status and Perspectives workshop, where we covered the methods and procedures conducted in previous Solar Decathlon competitions for the simulation and monitoring of data, and discussed the next steps of this aspect in the future editions to come. This workshop is where I truly came to know of the prime value the Solar Decathlon competition has in the eyes of the other competing universities as well as academic leads in their research fields, thus stimulating me to optimize the opportunity of participating in this competition.
Providing feedback to the Solar Decathlon experts as participants and engaging in discussions about the extent of the need to focus more on Building Information Modelling just the same as the construction of the house, as well as discussing the value of accommodating the competing houses for a longer period of time post-competition for research purposes or returning them back to their home countries was quite uplifting to be a part of as it showed me the potential this competition has, to impact the global industry in many more Solar Decathlon Europe, Dubai and USA editions to come.
As far as the current competition is concerned, with the monitoring of comfort conditions commencing at the strike of midnight tomorrow, all the years of effort and work put in to this product is finally being put to the test, and I’m certain the Desert Rose HVAC System will no doubt be the best of the lot which will be determined over the next of couple of weeks. So stay tuned to hear about the triumph of this contest and hopefully be the crucial step to the overall victory!
– Suhail Salih, Building Services Team