A green milestone: This home is designed by a young family that was concerned about the questions of ecology and energy conservation.
In the beginning of the construction of their home, the young family intended to lower the house operation costs, to build a house with low energy consumption for heating, hot water and airconditioning. However, the expenses for construction should not be too high. The architectural solutions ensure energy efficiency of the home. Due to a compact form and because the basement is sunk but is used as a full-fledged apartment floor, the ratio between the enclosing structures area and usable floor area of the house is less than in traditional houses. Thus it has become possible to reduce the enclosing structures area which loses heat.
The design solutions help to avoid energy consumption for cooling in summer season and use solar energy for heating in winter season, which means that environmental sources are used for the building upkeep the year round. Quality thermal insulation of house is the basis for building low energy consumption houses. All structures in the Green Balance home are well insulated, the emphasis was made on avoiding the thermal bridges, as should be the case in buildings with high thermal performance. The windows enable maximum use of daylight in premises at any season which allows to save on artificial illumination.
Heating and hot water supply in the Green Balance home is provided by an individual boiler-house, a combined solid fuel boiler with possibility of installing a high power efficiency gas or diesel burner. Briquettes are used as fuel. In a cold season the necessary air exchange is performed by the ventilation system with minimum power consumption with heat recuperator: the air removed from the house passes through the heat exchanger (recuperator) and heats up fresh air coming to the premises. Only fresh air is supplied to dwelling rooms, the equipment provides necessary level of ventilation in each room. The recuperator efficiency is 85%. Such system helps to maintain the necessary humidity and reliable removal of polluted air.
