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Duke Smart Home
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There’s a bright future in green technology jobs. Some students at Duke University are gaining valuable experience by living in tomorrow’s smart home today. Lilla Marigza has their story. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Durham, North Carolina)What looks like a typical college dorm is actually a living laboratory for students at United Methodist-affiliated Duke University.
Kelvin Gu gives tours. He says visitors to the 6,000 square foot Duke smart home come to see the basement.
Kelvin Gu, Duke Smart House: “We have some green roofs on top of the smart home and the rainwater filters through the soil on the green roofs, and then it comes down here into these tanks. And pretty much all year round we can take care of all of our toilet and washer needs with just rainwater.”
The house has green features you would expect, like solar electric and water heating and energy efficient construction. It’s also on the cutting edge of new technology.
Kelvin Gu: “The typical light will need a high voltage wire to run to it. Because LEDs are so efficient, the amount of electricity coming through a cable that delivers your Internet is enough to light a house. So we have that technology here so that when that technology is mature we can take advantage of it. Also we have great Internet speed.”
The exposed ductwork and encased wiring systems are designed to encourage engineering- minded students to tinker. Experiments range from serious to silly.
Kelvin Gu: “We can get temperatures of up to 170 degrees Fahrenheit. My roommate over the summer, he wanted to cook Ramen noodles and he literally just opened the tap in our bathroom. I mean it wasn’t totally boiled, but we basically cooked Ramen noodles with the water.”
The house has ten full-time residents, but about 50 students and faculty have taken an interest in projects here. Esther Granville stops by to do some weeding in her smart house garden plot.
Esther Granville, Clinical Research Dietician: “I am a clinical research dietician at Duke University and I just come and work in the garden to try to grow some of my own vegetables.”
The technology you see here may gradually be coming to your home.
Kelvin Gu: “I think people will be installing solar panels on their houses as a matter of habit. I think the same way television sets got introduced into people’s homes, there will be new utilities that will be introduced into people’s homes.”
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About half of the students chosen to live in the smart house are engineering students. For more information on the Duke Smart House, call 919-399-5501.
Posted: April 21, 2010