I’m actively trying to seek out new information about designing as environmentally sustainable buildings and systems as possible so I dug up something I’d tagged a long time ago meaning to write it up but somehow never managed to do until now.
The Vaasa Housing Fair which ran from 11.07.08 to 10.08.08 last year is very interesting because it put sustainable living at the top of it’s agenda. The housing fair consisted of 3 blocks of flats and many detached and semi-detached houses, and was almost entirely self sufficient in power and heating using two key strategies.
The first was that of a heat pump system linked to a set of seabed pipes which help to heat the houses in winter and cool them in summer.
The average temperature of the sediment at a depth of a couple of metres was measured at 8-9°C, even in the middle of winter. This was twice as high compared with sediments on dry land. The seabed sediment stores the sun’s warmth efficiently, thanks to its composition and the body of water on top of it…. In the summer, the devised system can be used conversely to cool down buildings.
The second is an energy plant for the new housing that is the first SOFC fuel cell power plant in the world and it is powered by methane gas from an nearby rubbish dump. 30% of the energy from the plant is converted into electricity and some 60% into heat. Wärtsilä the company that makes the new system hope to be selling them on the market by 2010.
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The Carbon Trust (UK) website (CarbonTrust.com) has lots of information on designing green buildings and greening existing building stock! Check it out.