Very Low Energy Houses - ebook

With the ever-increasing attention on environmental protection and energy prices, the once exclusive low energy dwellings are now getting more and more popular in Europe.

There are presently more than 6 000 such dwellings in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria alone. Nevertheless, the term 'low energy houses' covers a large variety of concepts and technologies which need to be placed into their proper context. This is the subject of this article.

Since the Rio Conference and the Kyoto Protocol, many have become aware of the problem of global warming. Energy is the cause of 85% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Efforts have been made, but two sectors keep increasing: transportation and buildings. The current energy situation further strengthens the case for low energy construction. This article demonstrates that, although technologies and design play an important role, individual behaviour has a great impact on two levels. The ¯rst is on the selection of technologies, which is always the result of a human choice. The second is on the manner in which the technologies are used day-to-day, in real life. It is therefore extremely important to focus on the training of inhabitants in low energy houses. Retro¯t remains a critical point, since Europe has a very large number of older dwellings, which are not at all e±cient. NegaWatt mentions that, for France only, reducing energy consumption in every pre-1975 building to 50 kWh=m2:y would require the retro¯tting of 450 000 buildings per year for 45 years.

One point remains unclear: the local capacity to build such low energy dwellings, as well as the cultural acceptance by the building industry. We demonstrate that construction materials and processes need massive improvement. How ready are construction compa- nies to accept these changes in their work today? How can local regulations be adapted to encourage best practice regarding energy, as has been done with electrical appliances in the past?

33 pages