International Ice Box Challenge
comes to the Minnesota State Fair
Passive House Minnesota is holding a multi-week demonstration to show fair-goers how to stay cool, cost-efficient, and comfortable in the late summer heat.
MINNEAPOLIS—This August, up to 2 million people will attend the Minnesota State Fair, and all of them will have the chance to interact with a unique display that underscores the importance of high-performance design in our everyday buildings.
The Ice Box Challenge is an international exhibit that tests the extreme energy efficiency of Passive House building standards. Other organizations have held similar challenges around the world, including at popular public destinations in Belgium, Australia, Canada, and, most recently, India. This year, Passive House Minnesota, a Chapter of The Passive House Network, is bringing the exhibit to the Minnesota State Fair.
No matter where in the world the event is held, each challenge features a few common elements, namely two boxes, each holding 2,000lbs of ice. One box is built to the upcoming Minnesota residential code, while the other is built to the highly rigorous standards of Passive House. Fair-goers will be able to see both boxes outside of the Eco Experience building, presented by the MPCA and Minnesota State Fair and sponsored by Xcel Energy, where they will be left exposed to the sun–and the heat–for three weeks.
“Locating the Ice Box Challenge at the Minnesota State Fair, and more specifically at the EcoExperience with the help of Xcel Energy, enables us to expose hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans to the energy savings and comfort of Passive House,” said Tim Eian, founder of Passive House Minnesota. Eian is a Certified Passive House Designer and has designed many Passive House homes in the region with his firm, TE Studio. “Energy efficiency, utility cost savings, comfort, and indoor air quality are already topics on Minnesotans’ minds. Passive House combines all of these benefits and has a long track record of delivering them in our state, which is home to some of the first certified Passive House projects in the nation.”
The ice will go in the box on August 13th–before the Fair officially opens to the public–while the reveal will take place on September 2nd at 2 PM, where attendees will be able to see how much ice–if any–is left in each box. The amount left serves as a representation of how well each building standard keeps its interior at a comfortable temperature without air conditioning.
Keeping ice cool in the summer is more easily visualized than keeping a Minnesota hotdish warm. Insulation and air sealing work both ways in a building—whether that’s keeping the heat or the cold out. Therefore, keeping the ice intact for as long as possible illustrates the power of a super-insulated and air-sealed Passive House building.
In addition to visiting the exhibit and attending the reveal, there are plenty of ways for fair attendees to interact with the Challenge. Certified Passive House Designer and Architect Marcy Conrad Nutt and Certified Passive House Tradesperson and Union Carpenter John Notermann will schedule open hours during the fair to answer questions about Passive House. Attendees will also be invited to enter a contest to guess how much ice will be left in each box by the end of the demonstration. Successful guesses will be awarded with prizes, such as t-shirts and a Passive House design book.
The Minnesota Ice Box Challenge is sponsored by Xcel Energy.
