EcoHus Sustainable Home

EcoHus is a full-scale demonstration home designed and constructed by a small team of UCSC students and mentors which won best in category for innovation, energy efficiency, and water use at the Orange County Sustainablity Decathalon. EcoHus integrates a host of cutting edge technologies into a self contained off-grid system that minimises environmental impacts over the life of the building while saving costs durring construction and use.

The EcoHus is prefabricated in two shipping containers within a canopy overstructure that is adaptable for shading, ventilation, or insulation depending on the climate. This structure supports various sizes of solar arrays including our in-house developed hybrid translucent pink solar pannels that aid plant growth in the rooftop garden while simultaneously generating power.

Water from rain, sinks and showers within the ecohus is recycled through a multistage filtration system that incorporates an engeneered native plant wetland that removes heavy metals and organic contaminants as well as uv sterilization, carbon filtration and storage - all monitored by a suite of water quality sensors that can be viewed wirelessly from the many smart devices within the home.

All lighting and many appliances in the house are controlled intellgently as part of an IOT integrated smart home to adapt to energy production of the house, weather, available battery storage, and water needs.