A student-designed house in Texas offers ideas for builders in drought-prone areas.
A home that generates all of its own energy and requires no additional water has been designed by students in the U.S. as a way to combat living in drought-prone areas.
The University of Texas at Austin, partnering with Germany's Technische Universitat Munchen, is constructing a home that is net zero usage for energy as well as water. Called NexusHaus, the home has been designed as part of the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon competition.
NexusHaus is one of the U.S.'s first water-independent dwellings. It has been designed with water efficiency in mind, with a goal of 25 gallons per person per day (about a quarter of the amount a traditional household uses). It can achieve this by using the latest water efficient fixtures and appliances such as a Bloomberg dishwasher that uses 4 gallons of water per cycle and Equator clothes washer that uses 9.5.
Water from the home's bathroom sink, shower, and clothes washer will be filtered and re-used in a drip irrigation system, providing up to 75 gallons a day of graywater for maintaining the landscaping. Condensation from the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system will be used to provide the small amount of water required to top off the home's unique aquaponic grow beds, which will sustain vegetable gardens and edible fish.
The home will capture enough rainwater to supply all of its potable water needs, although it will be connected to the municipal water supply for backup during long dry spells. Rainwater will also fill a corrugated metal storage tank on the side of the house that in summer is used as a thermal storage unit for the hydronic cooling system.