10
Oct
The BP Solar Decathlon
Whether you think global warming is a load of rubbish, or if you’re a committed tree hugger who recycles the contents of their own toilet (I’m somewhere in between), there’s no real doubt that it’s worth saving energy where you can. By reducing your energy consumption you’re saving yourself money, reducing the strain on our environment and just being a good neighbour. Long before global warming became fashionable I was always brought up with the idea of turning lights off, closing doors and turning the heating down, switching off TV’s that aren’t being watched etc. just so as not to be wasteful. It’s simple common sense.
With that in mind, events like the BP Solar Decathlon are well worth looking into, as the results of competitions and efforts like these, are likely to have a large impact upon all of our futures. The event is all about 20 teams of University student, from all over the world, coming together in competition to design, construct and run the most energy efficient home. The houses must be realistic, and contain all of the common household appliances you would expect to find, but they can only be run on power taken from solar energy. The homes are currently being assembled at the National Mall in Washington DC, where they will be running ‘live’ from the 11th to the 18th October, where you can go along and see them if you’re in the area. While the competition is all good fun, there’s every chance that some of the technologies developed, will find their way into the mainstream in the future. One day, all of our homes could contain a piece of technology developed for one of these decathlons.
This is the third decathlon to be run, and all of them have been sponsored by BP so far, the only energy company to do so. To keep those of us not in the DC area up to date, BP are running a decathlon blog at BPSolarDecathlon.com where you can find out all the latest news, plus some interesting behind the scenes information.
A very worthy event, and one that could have some real benefit for all of us.
This is a sponsored post.
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