European madness or a method?
Created Sep 12 2007 by W., M.
NOPE. It is not what you may think it is. It isn't the
underground oil tank on the picture here. It is "the ultimate German €4000 rain
barrel"!
Not within
our area of expertise but it seems so cool not to waste a drop of
drinking water to waste? Bravo EUROPE!
But then again:
it's taxed there! Oh, EU!
Turns out that it is not exclusively European idea.
Look down
under!
Then again, for water conservation - perhaps. What about
much more pressing issue:
ENERGY ?
For this you do not have to look that far.
Radiant electric floor heating is by definition - a very clean
technology. There is no oil tanks to inspect, no chimneys to clean and no
maintenance whatsoever.
It is the perfect system to have especially if you will
ever consider going...
SOLAR! (NJ)
SOLAR!
(NY)
SOLAR! (CA)
SOLAR!
(FL)
...or Million
other places!
IN THE NEWS:
Green housing in Europe.
The European Commission wants to make better use of renewable
energy sources in buildings, and it has funded a multi-national research group
to look at how building regulations can be used to make it happen.
The group includes experts in "green" housing from Belgium,
Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the UK. It is led by Milou Beerepoot from
the Technical University of Delft, and the UK member is Linda Sheridan, Director
of Studies of the BA Architecture in the School of Architecture.
Linda Sheridan and Milou Beerepoot want to promote
the use of renewable energy sources in real houses as well as student projects
like this one.
Ms Beerepoot visited Liverpool in January for
preliminary discussions about the 2 ½ year project, and will spend three months
here in the early summer.
Ms Sheridan explained: "In the last 30 years, building
regulations have proved to be the most effective means of improving efficiency
in the use of energy in new housing in Europe, but using them to stimulate the
use of renewable energy resources in both new and existing buildings has still
to be fully explored.
"The aim of this project is to define a European Union model
building code to incorporate renewable energy sources in new and existing
housing. We want to formulate building regulations which encourage the use of
renewable energy such as solar power instead of fossil fuels."
Ms Beerepoot added: "The principle of the project is for
countries to learn from each other, because some countries are already doing
things to encourage the use of renewable energy sources. In Denmark, for
example, you cannot put your house up for sale without having an energy
calculation made to show potential buyers. In Finland, householders are required
to use renewable energy sources above a certain heating level. In the
Netherlands householders are offered substantial subsidies if they invest in
solar heating or photo-voltaic generation of electricity. Similar schemes could
be adopted throughout Europe."
Low Energy Technologies
The building sector has in the last few years experienced a
swift development in the area of low energy technologies, which have proven to
be highly feasible, both environmentally and economically.
The key idea
behind sustainable urban housing is integrated building design, which focuses on
energy saving and flux optimization opportunities, in terms of building sitting
and synergies between building components; such as windows, insulation, and
heating, air-conditioning, and ventilation systems architectural and social
integration of urban housing.
Low energy technologies connected to
building and construction are diverse, still many are not aware of the technical
potential commercially available today.
EGCN focuses on three main
groups that stand out as the most important in regard to energy performance and
environmental impact: energy supply, solar technologies, and building
materials.
Kuopio, Finland
Pirtti Elementary School -
Energy efficient technology and modern architecture
The city of Kuopio is continuously retrofitting and
constructing educational buildings, which by volume represent about one third of
all public buildings. In order to establish environmentally sound building
practices in the public sector, the new school project of Pirtti Elementary
School has been established. The school demonstrates an advanced energy
efficient design and energy saving technologies and products implemented in
modern architecture, durable and low emission materials, and energy efficient
building services systems and advanced control technologies applied in a
comprehensive school building project. The advanced and integrated control
technologies compensate the rising costs of modern architecture in new public
buildings, increasing electrical devices and rising demand of lighting and
indoor air quality and comfort.
As Finland is situated in one of the
coldest, and in wintertime one of the darkest regions of Europe, energy for
heating and lightning is the key issue of sustainable building practices in this
area. Hence the school has put much effort into a total energy solution for the
building. The system operate according to the needs and conditions in every room
of the school, and therefore suitable for buildings where the loading changes
significantly such as schools, offices, meeting facilities, restaurants and
hotels.
It is designed to utilize incoming solar radiation and to
minimize transmission losses by extensive insulation, however it is particularly
two other energy solutions that are salient for this project:
Modelwohnbau Radstadt West, Austria
New Identity
for urban area:
The municipality of Radstadt near Salzburg in Austria wanted
to elevate the living standard of a newly developed urban area by introducing a
new traffic concept and renewal of the common green areas. The SIR (The SIR
(Salzburger Institut für Raumordnung und Wohnen) developed a total concept for
the area, which included this sustainable housing demonstration project. GSWB
Housing Association is the builder of the 36 solar low-energy dwellings, which
aims to minimize the total energy consumption for both construction and
operation of the buildings. This objective is achieved through exact calculation
of the life cycle costs of the construction, as well as an analysis of the
environmental impact. Consequently several innovative technologies are
implemented in the buildings. The domestic hot water is solar heated, rainwater
is collected and reused and the air ventilation works with heat
recovery.
The completion of the 36 solar low-energy dwellings in
1998 provides the residential area with a new identity, which can contribute to
an improved quality of life for the local inhabitants. The attraction is
environmentally sound dwellings based on ecological materials and minimized
energy consumption for the buildings' total life cycle.
The
Austrian Radstadt project is based on economic and ecological life cycle
analysis, which has resulted in an optimal combination of construction,
materials, and heating system. This combination enables housing with low
environmental impact and promotes the use of renewable resources without
compromising the comfort of living or rentals. As depicted in the figure below,
the energy demand was lowered considerably in comparison to other, more
conventional dwellings in the area. The energy reduction scheme is based on
minimizing transmission losses and the implementing of a central heating system
supplemented by solar energy. Transmission losses were reduced through
comprehensive insulation of walls, roofs, and windows, as well as energy
optimized design of the building.
The Green Housing Block project was dealing
with local demonstration of best available solar low-energy technologies in
L'Isle d'Abeau (F) and in Portsmouth (UK).
EU - Green Housing
Block
The project was realized in connection with
the "European Green Cities" co-operation.
Description of
work:
Hillsley Road, Portsmouth (UK)
The idea was to develop an
existing redundant urban site to provide 10 new houses, 2 apartments and a
retail shop to serve the local community. The objective of the project was to
use the following items in an architecturally and environmentally optimal way:
-
a general passive design for the houses to avoid nearly all
heating demand.
-
solar generated heat.
-
wind/PV generated electricity.
-
counter flow heat recovery ventilation systems with 85%
efficiency.
-
ventilation air heated by solar gins and fans driven by
wind/PV generated electricity.
-
recycled rainwater/gray waste water.
buffer zone
integrated as part of house plan to address noise generated from motorway.
L'isle d'Abeau (F)
A retrofit programme of 110
dwellings in 3 social housing buildings with a very important action about
energy and water savings. The main objective was to demonstrate the possibility
to retrofit dwellings with renewable energies like photovoltaic panels and solar
collectors for domestic hot water. The architectural integration of solar energy
was an important aspect. The following innovative measures are included:
-
solar energy - photovoltaic modules.
-
total environmental approach.
-
innovative retrofit programme.
-
education of end users.
-
Common activities.
It was aimed to compile experiences on how to organize
sustainable solar low energy building in practice as part of a sustainable urban
management process. This included use of the "Greenbuild" tool by the partners
including introduction of local criteria, as a way to promote a sustainable and
energy efficient building design, as part of an urban ecology planning process.
Besides the "Optibuild" tool can be used as basis of lifecycle costs
optimization.
The project is coordinated by Green City Denmark, Cenergia
Energy Consultants and Metec&Saggese Engineering Srl.
A certain
extent of co-operation took place between the two projects Green Housing Block
and Green Solar Regions.
The Green Housing Block project was supported by
the EC - DG for Energy and Transport.
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