User:Mswkom1/ModelHOME 2020

Model home 2020 project

The model home 2020 project is an international experiment aimed at enhancing public knowledge about how to build, optimise and live in carbon-neutral homes. The first phase of the project, started in 2009, involves the construction of six homes in five countries across Europe. Once built, volunteer families live in the homes and help researchers and project partners collect information on how sustainable building standards, architectural quality and liveability factors like fresh air and maximal daylight can be combined to create sustainable, healthy buildings.

Background

The Active House Alliance has developed a set of principles for "active house" construction, which focuses on achieving a balance between energy, indoor climate and the environment.

The model home 2020 project test how many of these principles perform under real-life conditions. The project is backed by the VELUX Group in cooperation with multiple local and regional governments, suppliers, architects, engineers and researchers. The knowledge derived from the projects will be documented and used to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings.

The Projects

• Experiment # 1 Home for Life in Denmark built in 2009. The Home for Life is a single-family home. 50 percent of the home’s heating needs are met through passive solar heat from the energy-efficient windows alone. And the home’s solar collectors ensure that renewable sources cover the rest of the home’s energy needs.

• Experiment # 2 Green Lighthouse in Denmark built in 2009. This project is unique from the others in that it is not a "home" in the tradional sense, but a home to meeting facilities, faculty offices and student services for the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Science. Green Lighthouse opened in late 2009 as a showpiece for Copenhagen’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP 15).

• Experiment # 3 Sunlighthouse in Austria built in 2010. Sunlighthouse is Austria's first ever carbon-neutral, single-family house. The home’s design was the result of a competition between nine up-and-coming Austrian architects, and the winner was Hein-Troy Architekten. . VELUX Austria is monitoring the project along with our partners at Danube University Krems and the Institute for Healthy and Ecological Building (IBO). Sunlighthouse is the recipient of the Austrian State Prize for Environment and Energy Technologies

• Experiment # 4 LichtAktiv Haus in Germany built in 2010. LichtAktiv Haus is a unique renovation project, in which a box-like, closed structure has been transformed into an open group of spacious rooms flooded with natural light.

• Experiment # 5 CarbonLight Homes in UK will open during 2011. This semi-detached home in Kettering, Northamptonshire is the first designed and built to meet the UK government’s ‘zero carbon housing’ standard. It also achieves ‘Level 5’ of the UK Code for Sustainable Homes.

• Experiment # 6 Maison Air et Lumière in France will open during 2011. Maison Air et Lumière is a flexible, environmentally friendly home that focuses on the comfort and health of the family within. Based on a modular architectural concept with a pitched roof, Maison Air et Lumière’s size, layout and orientation can be adapted to a number of different settings. The pitched roof has a long, rich history in France, with variations in steepness throughout the country’s regions and climates. In Maison Air et Lumière, however, the roof’s angle and orientation also maximise the home’s intake of daylight and solar energy. And for further flexibility, the home’s modules can be combined to create custom layouts and a wide range of interior spaces that meet the needs of today’s families.

The Challenges

The EU has adopted a comprehensive package for European energy policy up to 2020. It entails that EU member states are to reduce their total energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 20 %. Moreover, all EU member states must document that 20 % of their total energy consumption comes from renewable energy sources. According to EU statistics:

• We spend 90% of our time indoors in the EU today.
• Buildings consume over 40% of the EU's total energy consumption.
• Up to 30% of the building stock does not contribute to nor provide a healthy indoor climate.

External links

• Ecobuild blog [1]
• European Commision - Energy 2020 [2]
• Model home 2020 website [3]
• Story from UK about model home 2020 [4]
• Film about Green Lighthouse [5]