In order for a house to be energy-efficient and require a low resource consumption for heating, five basic criteria must be simultaneously met.
Heat losses can be significantly reduced by creating a full thermal insulation of the building. The thickness of the thermal insulation layer is determined according to the climatic specifics of each area, in particular. When insulating the building, there are not used any thin materials, as well as no uncovered areas are left, as they favour the loss of heat. Efficient thermal insulation also ensures an increased thermal comfort throughout the whole year, the interior of the building being warmer during winter and cooler during summer.
Materials used: Limestone stone ("slate stone"), mineral wool (or polystyrene), ytong or brick, gypsum board.
Windows are a very important component of the energy-efficient house, contributing significantly to its thermal insulation. In order to be as efficient as possible, windows have to have a low heat transfer coefficient and a higher insulation capacity.
Technical details: 5-chamber air-cooled windows with 120mm construction depth. The space between the thermopan or tripan windows is filled with an inert gas, such as argon, krypton or xenon. Three sealing gaskets stretched around the frame provide with additional protection.
The energy-efficient house ventilation system allows about 90% of the heat from the indoor air to be recovered as fresh air enters the house. The ventilation system ensures constant room air freshening, filtering dust and pollen, and maintains low levels of carbon dioxide and other emissions, as well as of humidity.
The building’s envelope layer must be watertight to prevent heat leakage and condensation, which over time affect cooler areas and layers. By ensuring tightness, the damage caused by moisture penetrating between cracks and between the walls and the envelope layer is prevented. Last but not least, the tightness of the building contributes to the increase of air quality, on which both the health and concentration capacity of the tenants depend.
Each break in the thermal insulation layer causes heat loss and temperature fluctuations. The thermal bridges are both geometric, located in the corners of the buildings (which create a difference in surface between the inside and the outside, thus favouring the condensation and mould), as well as the balconies that are part of the building’s structure and interrupt the thermal insulation of the building, allowing the accumulated heat to reach outdoors. In order to ensure a lowered energy consumption for heating, such bridges need to be completely eliminated, which is done by building independent terraces.
