Energy performance of the low-energy house in Greenland

The object of the low-energy house in Sisimiut in Greenland was to build a house with an energy consumption less than 80 kWh/m² corresponding to half the energy frame of the coming building code. Therefore the focus in this project has been on large insulation thicknesses, windows with high net energy gain, efficient ventilation system with heat recovery and solar heating. In this paper the results of a calculation of the energy consumption of low-energy house is presented. The calculation was done using the program BSim2002 [1] and a new weather test reference year based on climatic data measured over the last ten years in Sisimiut [2]. The calculations have shown that the 200 m2 double-family house has an annual energy consumption less than 80 kWh/m2, which is 50% lower than the requirement by the revised building code for 2005. The low energy consumption is attained primarily by ventilation heat recovery (90% efficiency) specially designed for arctic conditions, by using thicker insulation in walls (300 mm) and roof/floor (350 mm), and by using solar hot water heating (3250 kWh/year). The building is intended to enhance sustainability in the building sector in Greenland.