Endohousing - Endothermic technology for energy efficient housing in the EU - United Kingdom

Type: CaseStudy

Website: www.endohouses.com

Summary

Endohousing is a three year 4 M€ demonstration project with 1.91 M€ awarded by the EC under the Energie Programme. The project started on 1st June 2003 and aims to use solar-assisted heat pumps to provide the full thermal energy to meet space heating and cooling and hot water requirements for domestic houses in different regions of the EU throughout the year. The project innovates by delivering higher performances, improving the overall cost effectiveness and enhancing the general public's perspective on the acceptability of solar-assisted heat pump systems by the use of dual-purpose endothermic energy collectors that integrate with the building to form its entire roof. The collectors blend into their surroundings and do not appear as "add on" after thoughts and are expected to reduce primary energy consumption by 30-50%.

Six demonstration houses (endohouses) will be established and equipped accordingly across the latitudes of the EU from 35º-62º and monitored for 12 months. The sites will be in Cyprus, Southern Italy, Northern Italy, Central Germany, South England and Central Sweden as shown in Figure 1. Remote monitoring will be used for collection of results which are to be generalized to the European level.

Figure 1: Endohousing demonstration site locations and latitudes

The project is coordinated by Endoenergy Systems Ltd from the UK and comprises a consortium of 13 partners consisting of universities, research establishments, specialist equipment manufacturers, civil contractors and developers, engineering and private business companies from six EU countries.

Results

The project is in its early phases and hence the major results still need to be determined. The results obtained to date relate to the energy requirements at the EU level. In addition three optimized endocollector profiles have been designed (flat, rolled bold and pantile). The plank profiles are being finalized in conjunction with aluminium extruders to incorporate the constraints of manufacturing the collectors.