IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Implementing Agreement Task 13
Encyclopedia
IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Implementing Agreement - Task 13 (Solar Low Energy Buildings) was an international effort organised by one of the International Energy Agency
's Implementing Agreements to build several solar low-energy house
s. This took place between 1989 and 1993(?). The Implementing Agreement for a Programme to Develop and Test Solar Heating and Cooling Systems is one of 40 research and development and deployment programmes, which are at the core of the IEA's International Energy Technology Co-operation Programme.
The idea behind Task 13 was to push construction
technology towards its limits to achieve the lowest possible total purchased energy consumption. Task 13 was part of the IEA
Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, to test the designs and techniques, and to monitor their performance.
In addition there was an average solar contribution designed to average 37 kWh/m², from a combination of passive solar gains, active solar
, and photovoltaics
.
The buildings were constructed to be airtight, be superinsulated
to roughly double normal standards, and to minimise thermal bridge
s. Masonry
and several timber framed methods were represented, along with a novel steel
strengthened polystyrene
block walls were used. The Berlin "Zero Heating Energy House" included a 20m³ (700 cubic feet) seasonal thermal store
.http://wire.ises.org/wire/doclibs/EuroSun96.nsf/id/F7DE064B758101BDC12565E6003737C3/$File/paper.pdf
For a report on the Task 13 findings, see Energy Design Update, December 2003.
International Energy Agency
The International Energy Agency is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis...
's Implementing Agreements to build several solar low-energy house
Low-energy house
A low-energy house is any type of house that from design, technologies and building products uses less energy, from any source, than a traditional or average contemporary house...
s. This took place between 1989 and 1993(?). The Implementing Agreement for a Programme to Develop and Test Solar Heating and Cooling Systems is one of 40 research and development and deployment programmes, which are at the core of the IEA's International Energy Technology Co-operation Programme.
The idea behind Task 13 was to push construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
technology towards its limits to achieve the lowest possible total purchased energy consumption. Task 13 was part of the IEA
International Energy Agency
The International Energy Agency is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis...
Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, to test the designs and techniques, and to monitor their performance.
Design
On average, the houses were designed to required 44 kWh/m², 75% lower than the average 172 kWh/m² that would have been required had the houses been built to normal standards. (Analysis of 11 of the houses in use indicated that total savings made in practice was actually 60% http://www.forskningsdatabasen.dk/cgi-bin/egwddf2/6969/screen.tcl/host=ddfcat&host=ddf&gattr1=parseOp&v=1&fe=10&e11=indoor&f11=all&l11=and&s1=sortkey&page=28&name=show_record&norec=1&ppage=30&lposddfcat=7&lposddf=24&service=ddf%32&context1=b&lang=eng).The 44 kWh/m² resulted from:- ElectricityElectricityElectricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
– 18 kWh/m² - Space heatingSpace heatingA space heater is a self-contained device for heating an enclosed area. Space heating is generally employed to warm a small space, and is usually held in contrast with central heating, which warms many connected spaces at once...
– 14 kWh/m² - Water heating – 11 kWh/m²
- Cooling – 1 kWh/m²
In addition there was an average solar contribution designed to average 37 kWh/m², from a combination of passive solar gains, active solar
Active solar
Active solar technologies are employed to convert solar energy into another more useful form of energy. This would normally be a conversion to heat or electrical energy. Inside a building this energy would be used for heating, cooling, or off-setting other energy use or costs. Active solar uses...
, and photovoltaics
Solar cell
A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
.
The buildings were constructed to be airtight, be superinsulated
Superinsulation
Superinsulation is an approach to building design, construction, and retrofitting that dramatically reduces heat loss by using much higher levels of insulation and airtightness than normal...
to roughly double normal standards, and to minimise thermal bridge
Thermal bridge
A thermal bridge, also called a cold bridge, is a fundamental of heat transfer where a penetration of the insulation layer by a highly conductive or noninsulating material takes place in the separation between the interior and exterior environments of a building assembly .Thermal...
s. Masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
and several timber framed methods were represented, along with a novel steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
strengthened polystyrene
Polystyrene
Polystyrene ) also known as Thermocole, abbreviated following ISO Standard PS, is an aromatic polymer made from the monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry...
block walls were used. The Berlin "Zero Heating Energy House" included a 20m³ (700 cubic feet) seasonal thermal store
Seasonal thermal store
A seasonal thermal store is a store designed to retain heat deposited during the hot summer months for use during colder winter weather...
.http://wire.ises.org/wire/doclibs/EuroSun96.nsf/id/F7DE064B758101BDC12565E6003737C3/$File/paper.pdf
The buildings
The homes in the programme were:- Pleiade Row House, Louvain-la-Neuve, BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
- Brampton Advanced House, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
- Waterloo Region Green Home, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
http://wire0.ises.org/wire/doclibs/EuroSun96.nsf/5e0a56caccf2d7f8c1256927007e99bf/0a62da4514aed139c12565e600372fe6!OpenDocument - Kolding Row House, DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
- IEA 5 House, Pietarsaari, FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
- Ultrahouse, Rottweil, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
http://www.retscreen.net/download.php/ang/98/3/PSH05-C.pdf - Zero Heating Energy House, Berlin, Germany http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/umwelt/klimaschutz/berlin_spart_energie/en/bauen_wohnen/nullheizenergiehaus.shtml
- Wish House 3, Iwaki, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
http://wire.ises.org/wire/doclibs/EuroSun96.nsf/5e0a56caccf2d7f8c1256927007e99bf/e709bc2f0e842a82c12565e6003737a2!OpenDocument - Urban Villa, Amstelveen, NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
http://wire.ises.org/wire/doclibs/EuroSun96.nsf/5e0a56caccf2d7f8c1256927007e99bf/3d3df9e54fb54c10c12565e600373dad!OpenDocument - IEA Task 13 House, Hamar, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
http://www.ntnu.no/arkitekt/Bygningsteknologi/Prosjekter/IEA_lavenergi.html - Roskar Low Energy House, SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
- Duplex in Gelterkinden, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
- Exemplary House, Grand Canyon, USA
- Exemplary House, Yosemite, USA
Lessons learned
Among the lessons learned were that:- Airtightness was difficult to achieve
- Ventilation systems could suffer from noise and draft problems
- Care was needed to design out summer overheating
- Simple installations and systems were easier for the residents to understand
For a report on the Task 13 findings, see Energy Design Update, December 2003.
See also
- List of pioneering solar buildings
- Passive housePassive houseThe term passive house refers to the rigorous, voluntary, Passivhaus standard for energy efficiency in a building, reducing its ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling. A similar standard, MINERGIE-P, is used in...
- Low-energy houseLow-energy houseA low-energy house is any type of house that from design, technologies and building products uses less energy, from any source, than a traditional or average contemporary house...
- Zero energy buildingZero energy buildingA zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy building, Net-Zero Energy Building , or Net Zero Building, is a popular term to describe a building with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. Zero energy buildings can be independent from the energy grid supply...
- Energy-plus-houseEnergy-plus-houseAn energy-plus-house produces more energy from renewable energy sources, over the course of a year, than it imports from external sources. This is achieved using a combination of microgeneration technology and low-energy building techniques, such as: passive solar building design, insulation and...
- Sustainable developmentSustainable developmentSustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...