FINAL PRESENTATION

CARBON SAVING

As you ask me for, I will try to put some figures about Carbon Savings related to A+HOUSE. You ask me to use as baseline a new building as Part L home in the UK. The fact is that I have studied this regulation deeply, and I can not present rigorous results to you, since I would need to define the project in detail, use UK climate variables, use SAP2009 software and obtain previous figures from a similar house.

What I have done is to calculate CO2 emmision of one possible A+HOUSE typology located in Madrid, following the new law about Spanish Energy Performance Certification and Official Calculation Software “CEX”. Then I have made some comments and comparisons with Part L regulation. I have located de A+HOUSE in Madrid, because it is a place where temperature is really high in summer and very low in winter. Therefore we will see how effective the A+HOUSE is.

 This is the A+HOUSE typology that I have used to make calculation.

CO2 figures obtained, have into account all thermal transfer and hot water production that occurs in the house, as Part L regulation does, but house lightning. CO2 produced by A+HOUSE lightning has been calculated aside.

 As you can see in the Official Label obtained after applying the software, CO2 emmision is (kgCO₂/m² year), what means that it is quite below A qualification figures.

Some data that you could find interesting are:

                                   Global U value Part L regulation.

- Roof                         0,19 W/m²K                0,20 W/m²K

- Walls                        0,16 W/m²K                0,30 W/m²K

- Floor                         0,20 W/m²K                0,25 W/m²K

- Party walls                0,15 W/m²K                0,20 W/m²K

- Windows                  1,50 W/m²K                2,00 W/m²K

- Air permeability < 5 m³/hm² (50Pa)

Standard facilities.

- High efficiency (air to air) water heater. Performance 340%

- High efficiency heating and cooling system. Performance 420%

- Solar (thermal) contribution. 70% hot water and heating demand.

CO₂ produced by lightning

In A+HOUSE, only LED lights will be used. In our example the house includes 20 LED lamps, that means an average of 0,01825 CO₂ Tons/year per lamp that result in 0,365 CO₂ tons/year in the house. House surface is 101m2, what means a total of 3,61 CO₂ kg/year m².

Then, global CO2 emmisions are 7,48 CO₂ kg/year m²

The equipment chosen for this example are standard ones, and from this baseline, figures shown can be improve. For example adding:

- Photovoltaic panel in order to get the electricity consumed in the house.

- Solar (thermal) contribution, to improve cooling performance in summer.

- Blinds or other solar control measures to be used in summer to low cooling demand.

Now that we know energy performance of a single A+HOUSE, let me talk about how ideas and inventions that I have already included in this competition would help to even improve this performance. We have to be aware that some energy aspects are not taking into account when calculating CO₂ emmision (DER and TER in Part L), such as electricity used by appliances in the house, or standby mode consumption, but obviously, as they consume electricity they produce CO₂. This is why I have included some inventions that help to reduced electricity consumption.

- “You´ve been green today”, the device that monitor every energy consumption in the house, will alert the owners when it´s being using more energy than needed. (Part L regulation states that, owners should be trained about how to use the house and its facilities in order to get the best performance possible and the lowest energy consumption)

- “Standby off”, the sockets that will alert when any appliance is consuming in standby mode. (Even not being included in DER and TER calculation, it will help to reduce energy consuption)

- “Lightwall”, will clearly help to reduce CO2 produced in the house by the reduction of artificial lightning needed.

- “Smartdrain” and “Smarttap” are two devices that apart from saving water, will reduce the amount of energy needed to heat the water that is to be used in the house.

- “Algae lamp”, or other CO2 eater appliances, will contribute to reduce the global CO2 emmision of the house.

- “Saving foot”, will save tons of water, cold and hot, what means less heating energy needed.

- “Smartwindows”, when completely develop, will contribute to adapt solar contribution and isolation level of the house windows, what will also reduce energy needed to cool or heat the house.

All this devices and others that already can be introduced, some of them already seen in this competition, is what turns a High Energy Efficient house in a new concept called A+HOUSE. 

TWO IDEAS MORE

Very few days left to finish this competition, but I couldn´t help but showing you two Ideas that will complement A+HOUSE. One is called “Saving foot” and the other “Smartglass”. They are really two existing technologies, that I have found really interesting in order to apply in a house to save energy without losing confort.

 “Saving foot”.

Some entries in this competition have been related to save water when using sinks and basins. It has to be said that saving water is also saving energy when we are using hot water.

Please find this figures (approx. % of water wasted at home when...)

- Washing hands and face:                   50%

- Shaving:                                            70%

- Brushing teeth:                                  50%

- Washing the dishes:                           40%

All this water is lost because people do not close the tap, all the time that water is not being really used. It happens because normally because people have their hands occupied with dishes, soap, scourer, razor, towel, etc.

But, their feet are free. Then the solution is to use already existing “pedal sinks”. This is a kind of tap that works by steping over one or two pedals. Then people only step over the pedal when water is needed, and due to the fact that this is an active action, people will free the pedal naturally when they do not need water to be running. We just have to adapt this technology to home sinks and basin taps.

Tons of water will be saved and therefore, tons of CO₂. And it is so simple...

“Smartglass”

 Recently it has been published in the frontpage of Nature magazine, a window that has been recently developed, with amazing properties, that can be applied at home in order to easily save a lot of energy.

 Just read what it is written by the Nature Magazine.

“The panels of the window shown on the cover represent the three limiting optical states of a new smart coating: full transparency, selectively near-infrared (NIR) blocking, and darkened against both visible and NIR light transmission. Glass windows let in light and keep out extreme heat and cold, but with the advance of the field of electrochromism — the reversible change of optical transmittance in response to electrochemical charge and discharge — they could do much more. Delia Milliron and co-workers have made a step towards producing windows that can greatly reduce lighting and heating costs with the demonstration of a composite film composed of tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals embedded in a niobium oxide glass matrix. By varying an applied voltage over a 2.5-volt range the charged nanocrystals selectively block NIR light, while the glass strongly modulates visible light owing to its reconstructed bonding near the nanocrystal–glass interface. Practical ‘smart windows’ and other devices are still some way off, but this solution-processed nanocrystal-in-glass approach is modular and permits extensive tuning of structure and composition, and so provides a solid platform for further refinement.”

This is the kind of development that would make us step forward in energy saving at home. Hopefully, this technology will be commercialize soon and A+HOUSE, will be there to include it in its homes.

PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION.

Now it´s time to justify a little about Practical Implementation, as you ask me for. First of all, I will briefly justify practical implementation of the small devices that I have invented to be included in A+HOUSE. At the end, I will try to briefly summarize practical implementation of the A+HOUSE itself. It will not be easy to be done in one entry, since this is such a big project, but I will try.

Standby off (a simple device that let users to disconnect any electrical appliance without unplugging it, alerting visually when any appliance is consuming electricity even been off), can be install in any house world, new or actual. In the same way Algae Lamp (a lamp that lights while consuming CO₂), can also be used in any house.

Smarttap (an autonomous system that saves a lot of water, in hot water demand, by simply recirculating water until hot water reaches the tap) and Smart drain (a system that saves energy by preheating cold water before entering into the heater, by using hot water coming from showers, sinks, etc), can be installed in new houses easily and in actual houses with some changes in plumbing installation.

Selflight walls ( a system that lets sunlight enters to any room in the house, no matter where it is located, daytime or even if it is a no-window room), is something a little more complicated to do as an standard product out of A+HOUSE.

A+HOUSE itself is a major project. It´s a whole new concept. The concept is about designing, promoting, distributing and building worldwide, customizable High Energy Efficiency Modular Houses.

The idea is that, based on a catalog of  housing modules that can be combined however customers want, anyone can design a house according to its preferences, budget, urbanism law and soil available. This product will be distributed by an e-commerce platform, and it will be all based on a website, where customers will personalize their house, get budget, consult technical documents, etc.

A+HOUSE modules are thought to be build by a group of factories located in different countries, depending where the houses are to be sold. There are a number of factories that are specialize in precast building products. Those factories have all facilities needed to make this modules. (Please, visit this link in order to see some precast products that are already been commercializing in Spain. http://tabiclicksystems.com/. This is not A+HOUSE idea, but I find it interesting).

A+HOUSE, assembly will be done in some phases. First one, based on geotechnical report, foundations will be calculated. Then foundations can be done in-site or also be transported at the same time than the modules. Modules will be done off-site, and then they will be assembled by certified workers. A+ HOUSE will offer a whole pack of professionals that could build the house from the beginning to the end. But, customers can also hire local workers, that will be assisted by A+HOUSE architects and engineers, as if a normal precast building process it was. Interested companies, could be certified by A+HOUSE, as certified workers, that means that they have received specific training about the A+HOUSE product.

A+HOUSE has, apart from the standard project documents and plans, an additional document called “step by step”, that gives precise information about the steps to be followed while module assembling, as those that IKEA attach to any piece of furniture they sell. This document, will give specific assembly instructions to each house sold.  That is something new, that any building project nowadays has, but A+HOUSE, considers, that, the assembly should follow an standard path in order to get the best outcome possible.

Once the house is finished, A+HOUSE staff will visit and certified it, as an original A+HOUSE.

A+HOUSE modules are designed to be mostly transported by trucks or ships. I have thought a lot about adjusting the size of the different modules, in order to not require special size means of transport. Then every module in the catalog could be transported by standard flat bed trucks.

I have thought in UK and central and northern countries in Europe as the most suitable target market to launch this product. Then, the first factory will be placed in the UK or Central Europe, and depending where the house is to be placed, transport will be done only by truck or also by ship. Australia and the US seems to be also a good place to move this business.

MODULAR CONCEPT

First of all, it has to be said that A+HOUSE is a whole new modular housing concept. Far from tradicional modular houses, A+HOUSE gathers High Energy Efficiency, Awesome Design, High Quality, it is Customizable and based on E-commerce.

It can not be said that modular houses hasn´t been successfully commercialized so far. The fact, is that from the 60´s, thousands of houses have been made this way. The problem is that until now, modular houses have been sold as “low quality houses” and most of the time they have been installed as “social houses” or “temporary homes”.

But there are a lot of advantages about modular houses over in site houses:

-         speed of construction and return of investment. (reduction the overall completion schedule by 50%)

-         Indoor construction. (Independent of weather, increase work efficiency)

-         Ability to serve remote location. (Not many facilities to be move to assembly)

-         Low waste. (Industrial process with optimal material control)

-         Environmentally friendly construction process. (Reduce time, waste and noise in site)

-         Environmental benefits.(Uk goverment, recognize modular houses as extremely enviromentally friendly compared with a new equivalent manufactured house.)

-         Flexibility. (easily to extend or to change its configuration)

-         Healthier. (Indoor and controlled process prevent from risk of mold, mildew, rust and sun damage and human respiratory problems. Risk at site are also much lower.)

Then it can be say that if we can cross the psychological barrier that already exists about modular houses, and we can present it as a High quality product, full of advantages, and in this case, with A+HOUSE, High Energy Efficient, a great future could be waiting for this product.

Some steps has been done, and in UK (out of major cities) and in Australia, modular houses are being accepted. In china there is a company that is rising whole precast building in record time ( http://www.idealista.com/news/archivo/2012/01/10/0379973-como-construir-un-edificio-de-30-pisos-en-15-dias-video)

It is time to place A+HOUSE in the market with a modular concept full of advantages and with an innovative design, customizable, and high energy efficient houses.