Energy Concept of the Renewable Energy House
The energy concept aims at:
Maximising the use of renewable energy technologies in the building in order to offer a show-case for the integration of renewable energy technologies in a monument-protected building
Ensuring the implementation of a full range of energy-saving measures
All measures implemented contribute to reducing the energy consumption of the building with the benefit of increasing the comforts to its tenants, as well as to supplying renewable energy.
The following measures were implemented, resulting in the reduction of the annual energy consumption for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning by 50 % compared to a reference building. 100 % of the building’s 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 and was equipped with a series of energy efficiency technologies (ventilation with heat recovery, insulation of façade and roof, highly-efficient double glazing, high-efficiency lamps). In addition to this, the remaining electricity required will be bought from renewable energy installations so that 100 % of the electricity consumption will be provided by renewable energy making the Renewable Energy House 100 % renewable energy based.
Renewable energy technologies
- Solar thermal heating and absorption cooling system
- Geothermal heating and cooling system
- Solar Electricity production with Photovoltaic modules
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 monument-protected some energy efficiency measures are 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 7 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 in front of (inside) 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
- Installation of a ventilation group with a high efficiency heat recovery wheel (heat recovery efficiency of 85 %)
- High-efficiency DL5 fluorescent lamps with electronic ballasts and highly-efficient reflectors
