Product category:
Insulation
News Release from: BASF | Subject: Zero-heating cost house
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 02 July 2007
Zero-heating cost house makes business
sense
BASF products and other components can be used to construct or modernise buildings and apartments to save energy.
The zero-heating cost house in the Pfingstweide district of Ludwigshafen demonstrates, that energy-efficient construction and modernization is not only technically feasible, but also makes a lot of business sense Nearly one third of Germany's primary energy production goes into heating private households
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 8 Jun 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
High-quality insulation under the plaster
For the first time the potential of Neopor is being fully utilized, now that BASF's silver-gray plastic granules are used in new high-performance insulating materials.
Construction chemicals for long building life
Buildings and structures are expected to have a considerably longer lifetime, according to BASF and its construction chemicals division goals reflect this.
The average older apartment building consumes more than 20 litres of heating oil per square metre every year.
And this has consequences, both for the tenants because they have to pay ever higher heating bills, and for the environ- ment, because heating produces considerable amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO 2 ).
But something completely different is going on at the zero- heating cost house in the Pfingstweide district of Ludwigshafen.
Further reading
BASF podcast on worlds longest railway tunnel
New edition of BASF's innovation podcast "Chemistry of Innovations" talks about the applications of construction chemicals for extreme conditions.
Energy efficiency and affordability
BASF helping build an energy efficient and affordable house, as part of Creative Energy Homes Project at University of Nottingham's School of the Built Environment.
New generation of highly fluid concretes
BASF's Smart Dynamic Construction concept allows the ready-mix industry to reach increased energy efficiency, higher concrete durability and better construction process economy.
The apartments there don't even have conventional radiators, not to mention stoves.
Instead, a sophisticated compound system with innovative insulation and ventilation ensures that the residents always enjoy comfortable temperatures and that hardly any CO 2 is released.
Both the design and the modernisation work were done by BASF's housing company Luwoge and its subsidiary Luwoge consult, a consulting firm for energy-efficient construction.
For several years now, Luwoge has been showing that BASF products and other components can be used to construct or modernise buildings and apartments to save energy.
In 2001, for example, the company modernised a 1950s-era building into a low-energy house - making it the first building from that period to be trans- formed into a 3-litre house.
Since then, the annual heating oil requirements for this building have remained below three litres per square metre of living space.
According to Karl Arenz, the director of Luwoge's Competence Center for Housing Construction and Modernization, "We have lots of expertise in transforming old buildings into modern low-energy houses".
"Our 3-litre house was just a pilot pro- ject".
"Back then we wanted to show what was technically feasible - the profitability aspect was secondary".
"Now with the zero-heating cost house, we're demonstra- ting that energy-efficient modernisation of buildings also makes a lot of business sense." In order to actually eliminate heating costs, a multi-stage compound system is used.
First of all, the building is well lined with thermal insulation panels made of Neopor .
In the insulation sector, the newcomer Neopor has far outpaced its From the 3-litre house to the zero-heating cost house Innovative ideas from BASF reduce CO 2 emissions and keep heating costs down.
It contains tiny graphite particles that reflect thermal radiation and give the material a silver-grey hue.
The windows in the zero-heating cost house also provide the best possible protection against energy dissipation - they are triple-glazed and contain an inert gas filling between the panes.
Another component in this building's energy-efficient strategy is its actual heating system.
There isn't a single radiator in the entire building - although the "zero-heating cost" house is not a "zero-energy consumption" structure.
Although this may look like a paradox, it simply means that the building earns its own (low) heating costs.
To do so, it uses solar energy.
Solar cells on the roof generate electricity, which is fed into the municipal grid.
Revenues from this contribution cover the costs for keeping the apartments warm.
The zero-heating cost house also takes care of its own hot water needs - with solar panels on its southern side.
As Karl Arenz explains, "A controlled incoming and outgoing ventilation system with thermal recovery ensures excellent air quality and also makes optimal use of the heat in the outgoing air".
The ventilation system extracts used air from the kitchens and bathrooms, and uses it to temper the cool incoming fresh air via a heat exchanger.
More than 80 percent of the heat in the outgoing air can be used in this manner, which also means that a continuous stream of fresh air is always flowing into the house.
The heating system itself is so well hidden that one doesn't notice it at first - it's integrated into the windows.
The inner pane of the triple-glazed windows is furnished with an extremely thin and invisible metal coating which conducts electricity.
When a low-voltage current is applied, the coating heats up like a resistance heater which enables the windows to radiate warmth.
In order to prevent heat loss to the outside, the outer pane has a heat-reflective coating.
Moreover, the spaces between the three panes are filled with an inert gas that conducts heat less efficiently than air.
This quickly produces a pleasant interior atmosphere, and uses less energy than conventional heating systems.
Window heating is not designed for long-term usage, however, but rather for when outside temperatures are extremely low.
T here are around 36 million residential units in Germany, of which about 24 million were built before 1979, i.e before energy-efficient construction had entered general awareness.
The huge amounts of CO 2 emissions that can be saved by simple insulation alone are clear from the following example.
If a multi-unit older building that uses 25 litres of heating oil per square metre per year is modernised down to a 7-litre standard, not only do the residents of an 80 square metre apartment save 1,440 litres of heating oil a year, they also reduce CO 2 emissions by 4.6 tons a year.
Private households are responsible for around 14 percent of the total CO 2 emissions in Germany, or a good 120 million tons per year.
Currently, the German Energy Saving Order stipulates maximum annual consumption limits of 7 litres per square metre for new buildings, and 11 for older buildings.
The pro- jects discussed here demonstrate that we have the technical knowledge and conditions to do considerably better.
As Karl Arenz notes, "Around 600,000 residential units are up for modernisation every year".
"If all of them were modernised to the 7-litre standard, we would save an additional 3 million tons of CO 2 every year and nearly 1 billion litres of heating oil".
"Furthermore, this would also support the job market." From the 3-litre house to the zero-heating cost house.
The 3-litre house pilot project: Luwoge launched its 3-litre house pilot project in Ludwigshafen's Brunck Quarter in 2001, by modernizing a building from the 1950s into a low-energy house.
It achieved this by means of comprehensive thermal insulation with Neopor , triple-glazed windows, a controlled ventilation system with 85-percent thermal recovery, and the latent heat storer Micronal PCM.
Integrated into gypsum boards or wall plaster, latent heat storers absorb heat during the day to keep the apartment cool on hot summer days.
The 3-litre house has since attracted considerable attention and emulation worldwide, and its energy values have even exceeded expectations.
Average consumption in the 3-litre house is 2.6 litres of heating oil per square metre per year.
Interior insulation for modernising old buildings: Even buildings more than a century old need not continue to waste energy, as Luwoge showed by modernising an old residential house in 2005.
Built in 1892, this duplex in the BASF employee housing district known as the Alte Kolonie now consumes only 6 litres of heating oil per square metre per year.
Superior thermal protection measures were used to lower energy needs, with a new generation of Neopor plasterboard panels as interior insulation.
New 1-litre row houses: Luwoge has built 46 new row houses in the Brunck Quarter of Ludwigshafen.
Here, too, the key to their energy efficiency lies in comprehensive thermal insulation.
Neopor panels up to 60 centimetres thick and triple-glazed windows filled with inert gas ensure that no heat is wasted.
In addition a controlled ventilation system with thermal recovery is needed to achieve this.
A small block-type thermal power generator covers any additional heating needs for all 46 units, and provides the 1-litre houses with electricity and hot water.
• BASF: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Buildingtalk email newsletter
• Buildingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
