Air Tightness and Energy Performance of an Arctic Low-Energy House

• Main Authors: Rode, Carsten, Vladyková, Petra, Kotol, Martin
• Format: Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Energie und Umweltzentrum am Deister GmbH (e.u.[z.]) 2010
• Subjects: Low-energy house; building envelope; heat exchanger; air tightness; blower-door test; /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/affordable_and_clean_energy; SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy; Arctic; Greenland; Sisimiut
• Online Access: https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/7b9876e0-7e8b-47b7-800c-decd5857794d; https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/5213127/BUILDAIR2010_Rode_Fullpaper_engl.pdf; http://www.buildair.de/homepage.html

A low-energy house has been built in Sisimiut, Greenland, five years ago. An ambitious target was set for its low energy consumption for heating: 80 kWh/(m2∙a). But unfortunately, the house has used more energy than planned, approximately 140 kWh/(m2∙a). Although higher than anticipated, this is still for Greenland a very low energy consumption. The purpose of the work presented in the paper has been to analyze the energy consumption of the house and to understand why it was different than anticipated. One significant lesson learned is that the house was not built with sufficient air-tightness and that it was one of the main reasons for its higher energy consumption.