Energy Concept of the Renewable Energy House
The energy concept aims at:
Ensuring the implementation of a full range of energy-saving measures
Maximising the use of renewable energy technologies in the building in order to offer a showcase for the integration of renewable energy technologies in a listed building
The concept was designed on the one hand to reduce the annual energy consumption for heating, ventilation and air conditioning by 50% compared to a reference gbuilding and, on the other hand, to cover all the needs for heating and cooling by 100% renewable energy sources.
All the measures implemented contribute to reducing the energy consumption of the building with the benefit of increasing the comforts to its tenants, and to supplying renewable energy.
The building was equipped with a series of energy efficiency technologies (insulation of façade and roof, highly efficient double glazing, high efficiency lamps, ventilation with heat recovery).
100 % of the buildings heating and cooling demands are provided by renewable energy sources (biomass, wood pellet, geothermal heating and cooling, solar thermal heating and absorption cooling).
The building features the latest PV technologies (modules, thin-film, semi-transparent) for the production of electricity. In addition to this, the Renewable Energy House receives electricity from other renewable energy installations in Belgium (wind, bioenergy, CHP and small hydro plants) so that 100 % of the electricity consumption is provided by renewable energy making the Renewable Energy House 100 % renewable energy based.
Energy Efficiency
Any sustainable energy solution has to contain measures on both the demand and supply side, thereby taking into account energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. With the Renewable Energy House, this principle was carefully applied, although because the building is listed, some energy efficiency measures had to be excluded. In existing buildings there is much less flexibility in the design and layout of energy efficiency measures. Nevertheless, a good number of energy efficiency technologies have been implemented such as:
- Insulation of façade and roof
- Insulation of the exteriour wall on the back façade with 8 cm EPS (expanded polystyrene)
- Replacement of windows in the back façade with new windows with a total k-value of 1.5 W/m2K
- Addition of highly-efficient windows behind the existing single glazed windows resulting in a triple-glazing of the front-façade (total k=1.3 W/m2K)
- Insulation of the roof with 15 cm of mineral wool
- Low emission, sun-protecting glazing; Velux roof glazing with a solar factor of g=0,35
- Mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery wheel and ventilation system controls (occupancy, CO2 and thermal sensors)
- High-efficiency T5 fluorescent lamps with electronic ballasts and highly-efficient reflectors
Renewable energy technologies
