Sustainable living without compromising on comfortBosch Thermotechnology to supply building technology for Eco Plus Home in Canada
Release Date: 2009-08-03
Family of six to live without oil and gas in the Eco Plus Home for one year
· Website will display energy balances and enable dialogue with the family
· Electric heat pump, solar thermal and photovoltaic technology to guarantee positive energy balance
Wetzlar/Bathurst – Can a family of six live their everyday life without using fossil fuels for a whole year? This question will soon be answered by the Eco Plus Home project in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada, which will see a family live in the fully fitted showcase house for one year starting this September. Energy balances will regularly be published on www.ecoplushome.com. The website launched on July 21 will allow the family to share their experience with the public.
A webcam and weekly video blogs in English, German and French will document the construction progress up to completion of the Eco Plus Home. The Kenny family – father Brian, mother Renee and their kids Tyler (14), Grayson (12), Shane (8) and Olivia (6) – plan to move into the house on September 13. “It's an experiment that we feel is very important to do and we want to really show that if a family of six can do without fossil energies, it can be achieved by every one,” said Renee Kenny.
The building technology for the showcase house in the Eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which consists of an electric heat pump, a solar thermal system and a photovoltaic system, will be supplied by Bosch, Germany. The solar thermal system will generate heat and hot water from free solar radiation, and the heat pump uses geothermal energy. While the heat pump needs electricity to run, the photovoltaic system will generate much more CO2-free electricity in the course of the year than the heat pump will consume. It is even planned to operate an electric car. Excess electricity will be fed into the public grid and withdrawn when needed. This way, it will be possible for the family to live comfortably in the house even through the harsh Canadian winter, when temperatures may drop as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius, and still achieve a positive energy balance. CO2 emissions from the Eco Plus Home will be close to zero, whereas a conventional home produces an average of eight tons of CO2 per year.
"This house is a logical continuation of our sponsorship of Darmstadt University’s entry to the 2007 Solar Decathlon project. While their winning house was essentially still a prototype model, the Eco Plus Home is now fully fitted with Bosch technology picked from our current product range. It demonstrates that complete reliance on renewable energies is feasible without people having to compromise on their lifestyles and that the financials work out as well. This approach will help end our dependence on fossil fuels and our exposure to constantly rising energy prices“, said Mario Gross, Project Manager at Bosch Thermotechnology.
The project is being spearheaded by Tight Lines Productions Ltd., Canada, in partnership with Maple Leaf Homes, a Canadian manufacturer of prefabricated homes, and project developers Kenny Group (no relation to the Kenny family who will live in the house). When planning the showcase house, emphasis was placed on sustainability without loss of comfort and on the price-performance ratio. Once the experiment is over, the aim is to offer the house in the US and Canadian markets at the price of a conventional home.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Url: | http://www.bosch-presse.de/TBWebDB/en-US/Presstext.cfm?id=4257 |