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At a ceremony Friday in Washington, D.C., the Department of Energy announced its winners of the 2009 Solar Decathlon. The competition, in which student teams designed and built solar and energy efficient homes, was won by Team Germany. Smarthome supported teams from Cornell University and the University of Arizona, which placed 7th and 18th respectively. Both homes featured a variety of smart products, including Smarthome’s award-winning INSTEON home automation technology, to control appliances and lighting.
During the last week, each of the 20 competing teams had their homes evaluated and judged in 10 different categories ranging from net energy metering to market viability.
“We’re extremely impressed by what Cornell and Arizona were able to accomplish,” noted Laurie Maroni, Vice President of Marketing for Smarthome. “We are certainly happy that both teams reached out to us for assistance. This reaffirms our goal to develop products that make life more convenient, and help people manage and save energy.”
Cornell University finished in the top 10 in scoring in five of the 10 categories, including a third place finish in “Communications” which challenges teams to communicate the technical aspects of the homes. The University of Arizona finished in the top 10 in scoring in three of the 10 categories, including a seventh place finished in “Architecture” where they were measured on architectural elements, holistic design and inspiration.
About Smarthome
Founded in 1992, Smarthome (smarthome.com) was created based on the realization of a need for automated products that make lives easier, safer and more enjoyable. Today, Smarthome sells more than 5,000 hard-to-find products, including home automation solutions featuring award-winning INSTEON technology. Smarthome sells its products through their award-winning website - Smarthome.com, their direct mail catalog and via their brick and mortar retail store located in Irvine, CA. Smarthome products can also be purchased online through Amazon.com, Crutchfield.com, Skymall.com and Rockler.com.
About INSTEON
INSTEON is the best selling home area networking technology (HAN) on the market. It is the only mesh network capable of utilizing two independent means of communication, RF and powerline, thus also making it the most reliable technology. With over 200 products and kits on the market, INSTEON makes it is easy to link together home systems such as lighting, security, HVAC (comfort control), A/V, appliances, and sensors, allowing them to be controlled or monitored from anywhere in the world.
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