Gov’t Built Solar House Falls Apart

[Roscoe]

Green Follies: Gov’t Built Solar House Falls Apart

Gov't Green Fail At Its Best/Worst

Posted by Warner Todd Huston

Wednesday, May 20th at 6:02AM EDT


Hailed as a completely self-sustaining building, the solar house at the Troy Community Center in Troy, Michigan was set to open for tours and community use this Summer. Unfortunately, the systems failed to work over the winter, pipes froze, and water burst through the uninhabited structure causing the floors to collapse. As a result, the building sits unused after the hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on it by government.

This is government waste and folly at it worst, but it is typical of the best government can do. Oh, it’s not the best because anything worked, it’s the best because failure is all one can expect from government when undertaking projects of this nature.

The model house was supposed to be an engineering marvel that would save the planet. But ended up being just a monstrous waste of the taxpayer’s money.

In April of last year, the news was all of the excitement.

A team of more than 40 Lawrence Tech students called ALOeTERRA (which means “to nourish the earth”) designed and built the house last year. Volunteers from the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millrights also lent a hand creating a home that harnesses the sunlight into enough electricity to power the home’s utilities (along with some left over for a small electric vehicle).

But only a year later, it was all about the disappointment and finger pointing.

It was supposed to be a shining example of the green movement — a completely independent solar-powered house with no gas or electrical hookups.

Seven months ago, officials gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the $900,000 house owned by the city of Troy that was to be used as an educational tool and meeting spot.

But it never opened to the public. And it remains closed.

Oh, there are all sorts of reasons why this engineering marvel was an utter failure. There is finger pointing and head scratching all around. But the singular fact of the matter is that this project is a failure because it was not undertaken by business in a situation where success meant fulfilling a business plan to satisfy investors in order to obtain profit.

No, it was a dalliance by professors financed by government without any expectations or requirements for success. Further, everyone involved knew that any loss would be absorbed by the tax payers and would result in no consequences of blame for failure. No one had any reason to be precise. No one had any pressure to succeed.

So, once again We The People get fleeced by university professors and fraudulent government spending.

But, heck. They meant well, right? That is the salve for all wounds, after all.

http://www.redstate.com/warner_todd_...e-falls-apart/

[Ron61]

I hope this isn't a sign of what will happen to the car companies once the Govt. takes them over.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

I guess Ford will be the token of American Quality. If that is how the GM and Chrysler Cars will be, it won't take long and Americans will not buy them anymore. Bad part is they will probably lump Ford into the same quality category, and they will suffer too even though they are not a part of it.

[Wayne Maybury]

You would think that at least one person would have had the sense to say, lets put in a small back up system in case something goes wrong with the primary system. This place is a prototype, not a proven design. It doesn't take a genius to know that initial designs require tweaking. Of course this was a government project so no one gives a damn.

The real problem is that maybe they were onto something good but this disaster is going to set the entire program back because the people running it were too stupid to think that maybe they could not be completely right.

Wayne

[Bill Bess]

Sounds like what they needed was an experienced general contractor, an experienced designer to verify if the darn thing would hold up and to make sure normal building codes were met.
I have no problem with folks coming up with new ideas especially for "green houses", but I think in this case they should have just built a green house for growing plants and save us tax payers from the loss.
Backup systems and proper insulation etc. might have saved the day. Bill

[computerworks]

"redstate.com"? Well, that kinda negates any validity.

What's troubling is ..more and more of these nihilist bloggers are just down on America and the American will to succeed...it's just anti-American propaganda.

Roscoe, when did you become so anti-American?

Originally Posted by Roscoe

No one had any reason to be precise. No one had any pressure to succeed.

I find that hard to swallow and insulting to the American people and the talent in Michigan.

[J. T. Toad]

I read this on fox news a while back.

It truly amazes me how asinine the public can be in the naivete of practical application and understanding of environmental science.

As a solar generator myself, I find it comical that this flawed technology has been subsidized so forcibly.

900K for this?
http://www.solar.ltu.edu/2_design.php


Here's the UPI story.

" TROY, Mich., May 15 (UPI) -- A $900,000 solar-powered house
designed for the city of Troy, Mich. has never opened because of
water damage caused by frozen pipes, an official said,
Director Carol Anderson of Troy's Parks and Recreation
Department said tours of the house can't begin until the damaged
floors have been repaired The Detroit News reported Friday.
"It's not safe right now, and there's no estimated opening
time because it depends on when we can get funding," Anderson said.
The 800-square foot house was built by students from
Lawrence Technological University. It had no gas or electrical
hookups and was supposed to be livable year-round.
"The system was designed to kick a heater on to keep water
from freezing," said Jeff Biegler, parks superintendent. "The heater
drew all reserve power out of the battery, causing the system to
back down."
Joe Veryser of the university said he heard that somebody
turned the system off and forgot to turn it back on. "

[trularin]

GM was doomed a long time ago.

They are top heavy
They have been carrying the 50 billion plus retired account around like a ball and chain for years
They still, to this day, operate off the "good ole boy" method
They upper management never seems to address long term issues

And the list just keeps getting longer and longer.

It is amazing what a number of years of reckless abandonment can do.

[Bobcat]

Did I read the UPI story correctly ? A 800 square foot house for $900,000 ???
Must be true if the govt. is involved .... and maybe a preview of what a new car will cost after all the govt. meddling/engineering ???

[427sharpe]

Hmmm, have the 'nihilists' turned their back on America, or has America turned her back on those that believe strongly in the principles she was founded on? Namely, hard work and self sufficiency. Everybody get together and drink the Obama-aide while we slide down the slope into irrelevance.

[1ntCobra]

Hmm, just taking a quick look at the website, this seems like a student project for a competition that was given to the department of parks and recreation after the competition was done? Perhaps nobody was really interested in it after the competition. You would think there would be some sort of university interest in monitoring the thing for energy efficiency. Don't you think if they had someone go out and visit the house on a daily basis that burst pipes would be noticed before the floor collapse?

Well the pipes can burst in a normal house in the winter when a heater fails. A normal house can burn down, be destroyed by a tornado or be vandalized too. Why do they need funding to fix this? Did somebody forget to purchase insurance on the building?

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by Bobcat

Did I read the UPI story correctly ? A 800 square foot house for $900,000 ???
Must be true if the govt. is involved .... and maybe a preview of what a new car will cost after all the govt. meddling/engineering ???

I think there is a bit of difference between someone building a house with known off the shelf proven technologies and researchers engineering something completely new. If this was truly engineering new technologies, it would have cost 10's of millions of dollars or more. I suspect this is student project involved dozens of researchers working together with both proven and prototype technologies to build a one off deliverable. I'm sure if someone actually built a whole development of these houses the cost would be reasonable, but still higher than a normal home.

[VRM]

Originally Posted by computerworks

"redstate.com"? Well, that kinda negates any validity.

What's troubling is ..more and more of these nihilist bloggers are just down on America and the American will to succeed...it's just anti-American propaganda.

Roscoe, when did you become so anti-American?

I find that hard to swallow and insulting to the American people and the talent in Michigan.

CW,
Don't sweat it - I have it on good authority that we are not able to design and build a bunch of cars with an average of 35.5mpg either.
Obama's wants 35.5mpg by 2016

I'm glad the folks on CC were able to set me straight before I wasted all kinds of time trying to solve some engineering problems. I'm told praying works...

Steve

[Roscoe]

Computerworks:

Should I be taking umbrage?

Advise,
Roscoe

[J. T. Toad]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

Computerworks:

Should I be taking umbrage?

Advise,
Roscoe

www.umbrage.org

I would have liked to have never known societies ideological adoption of "umbrage" for policy implementation.

[Roscoe]

LOL....Taking umbrage just got easier....
Roscoe

[392cobra]

Originally Posted by computerworks

...it's just anti-American propaganda.

Roscoe, when did you become so anti-American?



I find that hard to swallow and insulting to the American people and the talent in Michigan.

How is it anti-American to point out the fact 40 Students and some Union Workers failed and wasted a lot of taxpayers money ?

Are the Union Workers & Students part of the Short Bus crowd where everyone is Special and deserves a trophy no matter how badly they fail ?
That mentality seems unAmerican to me and almost certain to foster more failure.

[Scott S]

Mother Nature Puts Freeze on "Green" Solar-powered Toilet
thenewamerican ^ | 12.30.08 | William F. Jasper

Posted on Saturday, January 17, 2009 5:28:42 PM by Coleus

With great fanfare, the City of Portland, Oregon, inaugurated its first solar-powered "loo" in Old Town, on December 8. "At the unveiling, mayor-elect Sam Adams gave the fancy new toilet its first ceremonial flush and Commissioner Randy Leonard was awarded with an honorary golden plunger," reported Portland's KGW-TV.

Leonard, who helped design the solar-powered outhouse, said the $140,000 price tag was nothing to worry about because "we're patenting the design and we intend to actually market them." The city could actually make a profit down the road, he said. Mother Nature was less than cooperative, however, dumping record-breaking snowfalls on the Portland area in the three weeks following the green loo's send-off.

According to news accounts, "Snow covered the restroom's roof-mounted solar panels, cutting off the flow of power to the storage batteries, which were completely drained and damaged." And without power, "The heat tape around the water lines stopped working, prompting the bureau to lock it up." No reports yet on how much the repair costs will be, or when the loo will be open for business again.



Scott S

[trularin]

I am not sure, but this may be the first time Roscoe has asked for advise.

[ccomt]

I wonder why nobody consulted an RV dealer to find out how they winterize RV vehicles? Hasn't anyone in the government heard about Propylene Glycol that's safe to put in potable water lines?