Onderwijs

Open House at Pret-a-Loger

TU’s entry for the Solar Decathlon competition 2014 has been built and is open for visitors on Saturday May 22nd. Alternatively, you can wait until after summer.


In the town of Harbrinkshoek between Almelo and Oldenzaal the Pret-a-Loger Dreamteam has built a life-sized house. It is Delft’s entry for the biannual competition in sustainable and energy-neutral building. In June, the house will be shipped to Paris where it will be rebuilt in Versailles for the Solar Decathlon event. And in July the house will be transported to Delft as the first building of the Green Village on the south-side of the campus.


Team captain David Jacome Polit and team advisor Prof. Andy van den Dobbelsteen gave a presentation of their project for the Delft Energy Club last Friday.


The team’s unique selling point is retrofitting an existing terraced house with a smart skin. Other teams tend to start from scratch, but if you really want to make an impact in energy saving, you’ve got to deal with normal existing houses. At least, that’s the team’s philosophy. What’s more: the refurbishment should allow people to stay in their house as it is upgraded to energy-neutrality.


Van den Dobbelsteen showed the principle behind this typical Dutch combination of a terraced house (of which 1,4 million exits in the Netherlands) and a greenhouse.


Walls and windows will be thermally insulated to reduce heat demand. On the south-side, a large conservatory is added to the house. It serves to harvest heat (which is stored in a vessel) and electricity by means of integrated PV cells. In the summer, a hatch may be opened to let the heated air escape and create a cool draft. The installation also includes a heat pump and a heat-exchanger for ventilation. An underground duct cools incoming air in the summer, while preheating it in the winter.


Calculations indicate a reduction of the energy demand from 8.062 kilowatthour to 1.700 kwh (80 percent reduction), which is less than the solar cells produce.


After the competition in Paris (28 June – 14 July) the ‘Home with a Skin’, as the French call it, will be transported to Delft to be the first building on the Green Village.

There it will function as a living lab and a sustainable exhibition for the duration of two years. At least, if the team gets a building permit. “We’ve built it Harbrinkshoek and in Paris, but we’re still waiting for a permission from Delft”, said Van den Dobbelsteen.

 


Reportage (10 minuten, Nederlands) van Radio Almelo

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