SPRINGFIELD (AP) - College students in southwestern Missouri have helped develop a portable solar-powered home they believe can withstand the most powerful of tornadoes, thanks to a triple layer of "armored" exterior walls.
Using assistance from architecture professors, students at Springfield's Drury University and Neosho's Crowder College designed the prototype home that's bound for the national Solar Decathlon competition in Irvine, California, the Springfield News-Leader reported. It will compete against other solar homes designed by 20 colleges around the U.S.
Assembled at the Crowder campus, the tornado-resistant home was borne out of a perceived need among the students for a small, self-contained, solar-powered home that could quickly be transported to a disaster site and operational within hours, Drury architecture professor Traci Sooter said.
The structure's two rectangular units can be joined to accommodate eight to 10 people, and the home can be enlarged and made permanent by setting it on a sturdy concrete foundation, separating the two units and building a strong roof between them, Sooter said.
Sooter said the students conceived a way to build a triple layer of "armored" walls on the home's exterior that testing showed would withstand tornado debris traveling at 200 mph or more.
The first layer - a steel-and-aluminum panel "fence" that takes the brunt of the wind - would be backed up by strong fiber cement cladding, resembling armored drywall. The third layer would consist of panels of quarter-inch thick plastic similar to what is used to make bullet-resistant windows.
Those layers protect wood-frame walls made of 2-by-6 timbers, with half-inch steel rods every 4 feet securing the roof to the solar home's steel foundation.
"There's nothing sacrificial about this house. It's designed to stay together and is a big design idea with this home," Sooter said. "This home is designed to save people, property and the planet by not filling up the landfill with storm debris."
Jarren Welch, a graduate of Crowder College's solar-power program, said the home has 42 donated solar panels covering 900 square feet of roof space.
The solar decathlon is sponsored by the Department of Energy.
Sooter said she can't yet say what the home would cost.