Originally published November 29 2005
Finland makes strides in reducing heating costs for citizens
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, has developed a technology that cuts heating costs in flats by 70 percent.
Research on low-energy building in Finland has mainly focused on single-family houses.
VTT is now co-ordinating work aimed at creating the prerequisites for the productization of low-energy building.
VTT has been supervising research and development activities in which the requirements set for apartments clearly exceeded the current living comfort and technical building (construction) standards.
VTT and a network of several companies have designed exterior walls, sauna elements, balcony doors and windows with excellent thermal insulation properties, as well as an integrated ventilation-heat recovery system that removes the need for radiators in the apartment.
Low-energy building only increases the construction cost by some two or three per cent, which will be soon covered by long-term savings in heating energy consumption.
Compared with building construction according to current standards, the savings in heating costs achieved in one block of flats built with low-energy technology would total 50,000 euro in ten years, if energy prices continue to rise by three to six per cent annually.
The low-energy apartment built in Espoo exploits the heat generated by the occupants and the household equipment.
This heat is recovered with the new ventilation-heat recovery system.
Thus external energy, produced with the same system, is only required for heating during two or three months a year; in the summer the apartment is kept cool as a combined result of structural solutions and ventilation.
The placement of the kitchen and wet areas in the low-energy apartment helps avoid the heat losses due to the customary long pipelines.
Particular care was taken during construction to make the joints between the building elements, windows and doors airtight and avoid thermal bridges.
The project also received funding from the National Technology Agency of Finland (Tekes).
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