Efficiency House Plus with Electromobility
The construction sector possesses one of the greatest development potentials with regard to sustainable economics and climate protection. After all, buildings represent more than one-third of energy consumption, being the largest energy consumer in the public sector and therefore one of the sectors responsible for CO2 emissions. Solving the task of creating a new generation of houses, the University of Stuttgart with the Werner Sobek Office realized the concept for environmentallyneutral buildings, trying to create possibilities to combine highly efficient homes with the futureoriented technology of electromobility.
Energy -Saving Construction Development in Germany
Nowadays, it is not artificial shortages such as was the case in the oil crises during the 1970s, but rather increasing demand which makes energy more expensive than ever in Germany. Germany possesses a long tradition of reacting to these challenges. Since the first Heat Insulation Ordinance in 1977, regulative laws have been of particular significance. They are intended to enforce sustainable ecological construction, to provide a public service and to contribute to the introduction of new techniques and technologies in the field of structural thermal insulation and facilities for building services on the construction site.
Particularly after the introduction of the EU Directive on Energy Performance of Buildings, the complete energy balance of all structures became a standard. In Germany, this directive was implemented by the Energy Saving Ordinance, which, particularly aside from structural insulation, also assesses factors such as the equipment technology and the utilization of renewable energy. Despite the ordinance having been tightened on numerous occasions, standard structures remain energy consumers for which energy particularly from fossil sources must be made available.
The updated EU directive requires that, as of 2021, only homes which utilize only as much energy as can be produced from renewable resources be constructed. The builtup area must not only exhibit higher efficiency, but, in future, must also be able to generate energy itself. This demands research into options for the long-term establishment of “efficient and environmentally-neutral buildings”.
Model developments of the Research Initiative for Future Construction of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) present this new generation of buildings such as, for example, the “World Solar Master” of the Darmstadt Technical University in 2007 and 2009. These represent structures with a positive annual energy balance. That is, these buildings annually create more energy than is needed to operate the buildings.
At the conclusion of development work on numerous components and after the examination of the initial models, the BMVBS intends testing such a structure under actual conditions, using the “Efficiency House Plus with Electromobility”1, while simultaneously gathering recommendations concerning energy management through to electromobility. For this, synergies between the new generation of buildings and transport (electric home and electromobility) are to be examined with respect to their sustainability, suitability for daily use and market suitability.
The public architecture and university competition awarded in 2010 was won by the University of Stuttgart with the Werner Sobek Office. The Fraunhofer Society will carry out a series of scientific examinations of the home and will provide scientific support for the project as a whole.
The intention of the development is to provide demonstrative proof that energy supplied to two central living areas solely from renewable sources is already possible even today and suitable for daily use according to the motto: “My home – my filling station”. Simultaneously, the Efficiency House Plus with Electromobility represents the established construction of the archetype of the new construction promotion program presented in August, 2011, by the BMVBS, and intends to support the broadest-possible introduction of this new design generation throughout Germany. The newly created network is intended to test the latest components under conditions of continuous operation, to prepare recommendations for their ongoing development and to further improve the economy of similar projects.
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Materials provided company Werner Sobek, Universit y of Stuttgart, Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design
(ILEK ), Stuttgart, Germany. Text by Professor Werner Sobek, Petra Mikaeli.