EFdeN Signature solar home - Romania's entry to Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018 contest in Dubai

The new solar home EFdeN Signature, the brainchild of a team made up mainly of students, is Romania's entry to the Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018 international contest taking place this November in Dubai. 

Featuring a modern design, energy efficiency, intelligent and automated equipment, the house was unveiled on Wednesday at an event organized in Bucharest, in the presence of President Klaus Iohannis, US deputy chief of mission David Schlaefer, Rector of the Bucharest Technical University Radu Vacareanu, and Rector of the "Ion Mincu" Architecture and Urban Planning University Marian Moiceanu. 

"In the year of the Centennial we hope to return victors from Dubai and more than that, happy and proud of being Romanian," the project's general manager Mihai Toader Pasti said at the event organized in the parking lot of a Bucharest mall where the EFdeN Signature solar home was mounted. 

"Why EFdeN? It comes from the math functional notation f(n), because we follow nature in our design and building work. In the last two years an extraordinary team of young people has made superhuman efforts to build the EFdeN Signature home. With this concept EFdeN will represent Romania at the most important dedicated international competition - the Solar Decathlon. (...) It's the world's toughest such contest, not everybody makes it, it's an international Olympiad of solar homes. (...) The contest starts in Dubai on November 14 and will have 18 teams from 13 countries presenting a home each," said Mihai Toader Pasti. 

Designed for two, the house has 75 sqm of usable floor, and the layout includes a dining and living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen, said Pasti. 

He also explained the annual energy output of the house is higher than its consumption, but that in certain months it still cannot ensure its own energy consumption. The house is equipped with a voice-controlled automated system that operates temperature and humidity conditions, the light and door system. 

Mihai Toader Pasti also said that the price of the house amounts to 300,000 euro.