The Nest Home: Successes, Failures and Lessons Learned

Winner of the 2015 US Dept of Energy Solar Decathlon, The Stevens Institute of Technology's SURE HOUSE is a residential prototype for a truly sustainable and resilient home for the New Jersey shore. This student-designed and -built home uses 90% less energy than a typical New Jersey home through Passive House measures, is flood-proofed using a high-performance plastic and fiber-composite protective shell, and is fully solar powered. These measures combine to create a home which seeks to reduce its contribution to global climate change while also bracing for the effects of rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms.