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Chapter 4: Passive Solar - Text Summary

Andreas Delleske is a member of a private group that built a "passive house" that uses only 1.5 litres of oil per square meter per year for heating. An architect and a biologist worked together to combine alternative energy and alternative waste management concepts. They found friends who were also interested and involved in energy topics. In the end sixteen members decided to build the home together in 1997. The house is composed of twenty units. The price overall of the building was only 7% higher than conventional new built homes. The house has a higher value since the residents pay very little for energy to heat the home. The entire structure required, which includes twenty units, each unit having about 90 square metres, and the annual utility bill was only 140 euros. Often people pay ten times this amount annually. By building with a group there are also savings in terms of sales and marketing costs.

Five important elements of a "passive house" include:

1. Orientation south with 70% of the facade facing south towards the sun
2. Thermal isolation or insulation of 35-40 cm of mineral wool
3. Windows with triple glazing and heat reflecting surfaces that trap visible light by turning it into heat
4. Air exchange system that has a heat exchanger
5. Internal gains from appliances, people and other internal sources. Humans produce 100 watts to contribute heat to the house. Unoccupied the home would require twice the amount of heating energy required.

Three additional features that were realized include:

1. Solar thermal collectors of 46 square meters that produce 60% of hot water required.
2. 3 kWh photo voltaic solar array for electricity generation that produces about 10% the requirement.
3. Cogeneration plant that, operated with natural gas, which produces 60% of the electricity required by the house and 100% of the remaining heating requirements.

This passive house also has an alternative sanitary system:

• Every flat has a vacuum toilet that uses only 1 litre of water per flush, saving water
• The low flush is required for the biogas plant that can process the remaining waste to produce electricity and heat.

The primary reason for the alternative sanitory system is to close the loop on waste even though this process also produces energy. Farmers will use the waste material to fertilize their fields while the biogas is used for energy generation. The energy problem is significant but the sun is available to solve this problem. Behind the energy problem is the resource limits which requires that we close all waste cycles.

The greenroof ensures that only 10% of the rain water goes into the drainage system.

 

For more information about John Wilson, the producer of this web site and documentary video, contact him at www.NaturalLifeNetwork.com or wilsonjd9@hotmail.com .