By Katie Perkowski

After months of hard work and preparation by builders and designers, UK’s S-KY BLUE house finished ninth overall in the 2009 Solar Decathlon.

The Decathlon is a competition where 20 teams from colleges and universities across the globe compete to design, build and operate the most attractive, effective and energy-efficient solar-powered house, according to the event Web site.

There were ten graded categories: net metering, architecture, market viability, engineering, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, lighting design and communications.

UK finished in the top 10 in net metering (5th), appliances (7th) and home entertainment (8th), according to the Web site.

Jeffrey Kellow, a biosystems and agricultural engineering graduate student, said the team got 5th in net metering because the house was able to produce more energy than what it used. Kellow said there were several schools that were not able to do this.

Last week, the team was in 13th overall. Kellow said one of the main reasons the team moved up to the top 10 was because of its efficient energy production and use.

“We were a team who was able to sell energy back,” he said.

Ben Hobbs, a biosystems and agricultural engineering graduate student, said he worked a lot on the heating and air conditioning ventilation and the plumbing of the house.

Hobbs said he is satisfied with the team’s overall results, but was disappointed with the subjective categories and would have liked to have done better.

“I’m satisfied with what we did, but I wish it would have gone over with the judges better,” Hobbs said.

The results of the decathlon benefit the university in development and the concept of going green, Hobbs said. It is a step forward for the future, he said.

Kellow said allotting more time for testing the house after it was complete to make sure all the systems operated the best would have helped the team place higher.

There have been talks of competing in future decathlons but nothing has been decided for sure, he said.

“It’s a big deal that we finished top 10,” Hobbs said. “This is the first year UK’s ever participated and that’s a big accomplishment considering other schools that have participated before that, we beat.”