Ecological new buildings with solar energy utilization
In ECO-HOUSE 99 in Kolding, Denmark, 59 ecological low energy terrace houses were constructed. The houses are designed as ecological buildings with emphais on total economy based on low operation and maintenance cost, energy conservation and passive/hybrid solar utilisation.
During the spring of 1996, the Ministry of Housing and KAB arranged 'Økohus 99', a competition connected with future ecological house building design. Nielsen, Nielsen & Nielsen M.A.A. were the architects, Højgård & Schultz were the contractors and COWI were the consulting engineers who, in cooperation, won this competition. An agreement was made with KAB to construct 30 town houses with both one and two storeys in Hvidebæk, as well as ca. 65 houses in Kolding. The aim was to produce an energy frame which should be about 25% below the energy consumption demands of BR95. This energy saving was achieved by the use of low energy windows, optimal window sizes and orientation, extra insulation, ventilation to fit actual needs, solar walls and heat recovery. Solar walls are placed at the south fronts of the buildings. The walls are constructed differently in order that a measuring and analysis programme (carried out by DTU-IBE) should be able to determine the most efficient ways to construct solar walls in connection with ecological houses. The following solar wall constructions are considered: Naturally ventilated solar walls (low pressure inside the house), unventilated solar walls and ventilated solar walls with integrated heat accumulating storage in the partition wall, ventilated solar wall in combination with heat recovery and a solar wall that is ventilated at its upper part and with integrated heat accumulating storage at its lower part. In the communal house for social activities constructed in each area, a solar unit will be established primarily for heating hot water for the washing machines. A rain water reservoir will be installed to catch rain water from the roofs. The water will be filtered before use. The results from the various constructions, as well as the measuring results, will later be published in a report
In the project there is a number of ecological initiatives. The houses are oriented against south for optimisation of solar utilisation, and they are better insulated than the standard demand to reduce the heat loss. To reduce the demand of fresh water, rainwater is collected from the roof and used for washing in a central washeteria. Also active solar utilisation is used in the project. Besides solar collector for preheating of the rainwater to the washeteria, each house has a solar facade for space heating with an area of 6 m2 or 8.4 m2. To optimise the energy utilisation from the solar walls, the energy is stored internally in building integrated heat storages. Two different new type of prefabricated heat storages are built into the houses. One is an internal concrete wall with embedded ventilation pipes, and the other is a hollow concrete element with integrated stone bed. The heat storages are mainly designed to store solar energy from the day to the evening and the night. In the first year of operation, no problems with the solar facade systems have been observed. Because the solar walls and the heat storages have been a part of the design process from the start, the additional expenses are as low as 30-140 Euro/m2 solar facade compared with alternative facades. This is far less than what it costs to add a solar wall an existing building. Measurements over one year show that the yield of the solar walls is in the range of 114-124 kWh/m2/year as expected. In general, the system is both an economically and an environmentally healthy investment. The conclusion is that if it is considered during the design process to use environmental healthy building materials and to include solar facades or other energy savings techniques as a part of the building, it is possible to construct well functioning and profitable ecological buildings at a low additional price
Key figures
Category
Participants
| Partner | Subsidy | Auto financing |
|---|---|---|
| Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU) |
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