Photos: Competition shines at Solar Decathalon

The Carnegie Mellon University team built a 'plug and play' house structured around a steel frame.

Rooms like this living room can be bolted on easily, according to students. That design allows residents to make changes to their house over time, such as adding rooms.

This house, like many in the competition, has a sophisticated data collection system that enables residents to see their energy consumption and generation. The students wrote a program to display the information and to automate lighting and cooling.

Credit: Martin LaMonica/News.com

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