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Self-sufficient houses

11 de July de 2016 | | , Blog

Previously we were talking about the Tiny House movement and minimal house concept, today we are going to talk about something that usually has much in common with that concepts and even though people tend to connect them, not necessarily have to be together. Today we are going to talk about self-sufficient house, passive house or pasivhaus.

To develop that theme we will deal with some points that are necessary to understand the concept. We are going to start (1) with a small definition in which we will situate in a particular frame, (2) some principles, (3) programs and organizations that develope and support that concept, (4) which is the final gate of those self-sufficient houses and (5) the Spanish situation.

Self-sufficient house is a concept that started to be used in Germany, and later in the English-speaking countries in 1988, so they are also named as pasivhaus or pasive houses. A self-sufficient house is a house model that pretends to have its energy efficiency to the maximum, it is the base of its existence, that is, the minimum energy it uses, reusing it to the maximum and producing the necessary amount by its own for the activity inside the house.

To achieve these objectives there are two main factors which are the production of renewal energies for self-consumption and the need of have an isolation system with a good tightness (for humidity and air tightness -air flows- of the building) and thermal transmittance, above all in the external layers, where there are usually lots of thermal bridges (specific places where energy goes out of the building, such as doors and windows).

Puente térmico

To achieve this goal, some bases are needed. Those are the principles: (1) simplicity; (2) a correct orientation of the building; (3) thermal isolation -low thermal transmittance in the cover, exterior walls, pipes, and floors; (4) correct air circulation -that is avoiding accidental air circulation, because even if we are not conscious it can increase up to 15 % the energy needed by the installation; (5) expoitation of solar energy with system for hot water and solar wafer, trying to avoid traditional fuels; (6) use of rainwater; (7) and the use of shutters and isolation systems because they reduce heat losses.

Nowadays there are some programs and organizations that help existing houses to develop to a more sustainable and self-sufficient architecture, with helps for rehabilitations of houses built before 1981 for improve energy efficiency. Ministerio de Fomento is about to inform most people as possible what are sustainable buildings based on plans for rehabilitating buildings where finance up to 35% of the price of the refurbishing.

So the final gate of the named self-sufficient houses is finding an ideal comfort for the people that use them. It is done reducing thermal transmittance, achieve a watched constant temperature, monitoring humidity and use every resource we have on hand.

Of course, to achieve this end, as we have said, theres an investment the owner has to do that traditional houses that do not safe energy have, increasing, some times the refurbishing budget or the new house budget. Thats why we can talk about mortgage energy because in most of the cases recovering those pursache costs can take over 8 or 10 years.

Lastly we are going to talk about Spanish situation, because not just there are being plans that encourage energy efficiency, because there is the one of the first self-sufficient houses of the world there. This is Casa Martina, designed by José Vaquero, placed about 40 km from Madrid, in which there is set out alternative energy in base.

Casa Martina

That house is completely independient in energy, reached through some named systems, achiveng the essential principles. Something to stand out is that there is a HVAC system that we have not talked about yet in that blog, but we will talk about it, thermal regulation, that consists in connecting the house to the ground to make the most of the continuous themperature in a determinate deep, that is usually the average temperature of the place.

Finally we can say that the passive house or self-sufficient house is not just theoretically viable and recommendable, its a reality that benefit everyone, in an economical and an enviromental way.

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