The New York Times reported that Folsom, California has plans to build 10,200 new homes, even though the city manager is aware that Folsom Lake, the city’s sole source of water, is depleting to historically low levels as a result of California’s four-year drought.

The city manager, Evert W. Palmer, argues the city has enough water to handle a population increase up to 100,000 people by 2036, and that it would be “economic folly” not to try to maximize the city.

“That would create unnecessary economic hardships here to benefit others,” Mr. Palmer said. “And while I’m a citizen of the planet, I’m also paid to manage the home team.”

Many California towns face the same dilemma: they must continue to expand despite the risk of completely running out of water. We aim to provide a solution to this problem with our home, Casa del Sol. Inspired by the diurnal California poppy, Casa del Sol is drought-resistant. In Southern California, residential landscaping uses the largest percentage of household water. To mitigate this demand, Casa del Sol recycles its greywater and uses rainwater catchment tanks to sustain our xeriscaping. Casa del Sol also features an edible garden. The edible garden is located adjacent to the outdoor dining room and further accentuates the Southern California indoor-outdoor lifestyle. We designed the vertical hydroponic watering system to provide the edible plants with fresh water in a closed loop, further reducing water consumption. Traditional sprinkler systems often require more water because surface-level moisture evaporates in the heat; our hydroponic watering system helps us prevent this.

Aside from the edible garden, the greywater and rainwater catchment systems can sufficiently meet all of Casa del Sol’s landscape water needs. The greywater catchment tanks can hold 250 gallons of water. The tank’s drainage pipes rely on gravity to collect storm water and greywater from the house and also to disperse it appropriately for xeriscaping. The greywater is set on a bilge pump, timer and drip line mechanism to irrigate potted plants around the home, and is designed to take into account the greywater arrival scheduling and plant-watering demand. The pump is turned on after the first hot water draw from the shower so that a sufficient amount of water remains in the tank.

Imagine if the 10,200 new homes built in Folsom were designed with Casa del Sol’s drought-resistant features. The water savings would enormously benefit California, the communities would feel more reassured and city managers, like Evert W. Palmer, would no longer need to choose between managing “the home team” and being a “citizen of the planet.”

Last week the annual Engineering Leadership Council meeting for the Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science was held at UCI. During the meeting, the last task on the agenda, but certainly not the least, was a short presentation from Alex McDonald, Team OC’s project leader.

The concept of biomimicry set the tone for Team OC’s presentation. The driving inspiration behind Casa del Sol’s design is the golden poppy, a California native flower with an inherent efficiency for survival in our local environment. Alex discussed a multitude of technological features utilized by our house that mirror features of the golden poppy.
Council members questioned if the exterior of Casa del Sol mirrored the golden poppy. We clarified that it’s not the outside appearance of the house, but the ideological concept of the flower, that Casa del Sol parallels.In addition to biomimicry, Alex touched on Casa del Sol’s custom tailoring for Californians, something that resonated with all attendees. The flexible features of our house are innumerable.

The presentation piqued the interest of numerous council members. Team OC enjoyed sharing a common belief of sustainability and energy efficiency with the Engineering Leadership Council, and left with great advice from many trusted professionals.

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Check our blog again next week for more updates about Team OC in our mission to Make a Sustainable Future Feel Like Home.

Irvine, CA, USA

Last week Team OC had the opportunity to learn more about one of our first sponsors, Southern California Edison. We spent the morning touring their 31-acre campus in Westminster, California and got a first-hand look at their Advanced Technology Lab facility. At the facility, we learned how the choices we make daily could improve our overall energy-efficiency.

Being in the business of energy distribution simultaneously puts Edison at the forefront of energy-efficiency technology research. One of SoCal Edison’s main foundational concepts is to protect the environment. Two of SoCal Edison’s engineers, Alexsandra Guerra and Stephen Collins, guided us through one of their projects that addresses this: the Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration, more commonly known at SoCal Edison as ISGD. The tour included an interactive walk-through of ISGD’s step-by-step process.

Southern California Edison tested numerous Smart Grid technologies in an attempt to meet the state and federal policy goals for 2020. In its partnership with University of California Irvine, the ISGD project investigates how to measure sustainable energy use through the variety of levels: device level, a house level, a subspace level, and ultimately, the grid at large.
One of our first stops on the tour was in the Garage of the Future. Here we discussed technology that allows an electric vehicle to automatically charge when electricity is at its cheapest. We learned that the most economic time to use electricity is during non-peak hours. Non-peak hours are hours when most people use electricity, resulting in a lower price for consumers during this window of time.
We are fascinated with Smart Grid technologies and the grids’ ability to communicate and operate with one other. At the next stop on the tour, Alexsandra and Stephen explained how residents could utilize their home’s control systems to monitor which appliances utilize the most electricity at any given time. From there, residents can alter using their appliances during non-peak hours to conserve energy, save money, and reduce emissions.

This informative tour of SoCal Edison is just one of the many reasons we are so glad to have them as one of our sponsors. Ultimately, SoCal Edison showed us how the utilization of electricity can coincide with preservation of our environment.

Be sure to check out our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for frequent updates about Team OC.

Check our blog again next week for more updates about Team OC in our mission to Make a Sustainable Future Feel Like Home.

Team OC chased the sun with great strides this first week of June. The organic, cohesive efforts of Team OC are apparent through our consistent progress. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been up to. Some highlights from this week were when we spray painted the outline of Casa del Sol, worked on our SWEC, and revamped our virtual presence.

Team OC officially mapped out Casa del Sol at Irvine Valley College. This white spray paint is just the inception of what’s to come!

Just yesterday graduate student, Moritz Limpinsel, took this candid picture of Zhongyue of UCI working with Dr. Eric Jarvis on the SWEC. The SWEC is a unique prototype for a Sub Wetbulb Evaporative Chiller, and was invented by Dr. Eric Jarvis himself.

Team OC completely revamped our virtual presence. Now there is easier access to our currently trending content such as media from our construction site. In addition, all of our social mediums are linked and visible on our website. Lastly, we updated our sponsor list to show off our amazing sponsors. Be sure to check out our new website and updates about Casa del Sol!

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Be sure to visit our blog next week for more updates about Team OC our mission to Make a Sustainable Future Feel Like Home.