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    Novostroy-M, 23 August 2019
    Energy efficient home: saving energy and money for residents

    Ksenia Pashkevich

    Some experts say that residents of energy-efficient houses save about 50% on utility bills. The main problem is that the residential complexes that are being massively built today, for the most part, do not meet the standards of energy-efficient housing. Ksenia Pashkevich, Lead Architect of Metropolis, spoke about the issue of energy-saving technologies in Russia specially for Novostroy-M.

    Energy saving is an extremely relevant trend for the construction industry. This industry traditionally acts as one of the main consumers of energy, absorbing about 40% of the world's energy resources. At the same time, 2/3 of the energy consumed by real estate objects goes to heating, ventilation and air conditioning of buildings. Unfortunately, not all the energy consumed by buildings goes to their maintenance. There is such a thing as heat loss. In real estate properties, heat losses vary depending on the characteristics of a particular house, for example, its height and construction technology. In the worst case, they can reach 90-95%, so the vast majority share of the heat entering the building will go outside. Most of the losses occur through the building envelope (walls and windows) - up to 75% of the heat consumed. In order to reduce heat losses, energy-efficient technologies are increasingly being used in the construction of buildings, aimed at saving energy and replenishing the energy consumed.


    For the first time the world community thought about building energy-efficient buildings was after the 1974 global oil crisis. Then such technologies already existed and were tested in practice. The first energy-efficient high-rise building was built in 1972, a seven-storey office center designed by architects Andrew and Nicholas Isaac. Later, the British architect Norman Foster made a significant contribution to the development of energy-efficient buildings. Designed by him in 1997, the Commerzbank high-rise building in Germany revolutionized high-rise construction.


    In Russia, these technologies began to be used quite recently, after the adoption in 1996 of the federal law No. 28-F3 "On Energy Saving". One of the first Russian facilities built using energy-efficient technologies are experimental 17-storey residential buildings of the 111-355 MO series built in 2001 in the Moscow microdistrict Nikulino-2. The main renewable energy source for them is the heat of the soil, the secondary one is the heat of ventilation emissions. Heat pumps use these energy sources for the hot water system. Thanks to these technologies, it was possible to almost halve (by 46%) the consumption of energy resources by the buildings. Thus, the experimental construction of the 111-355 M series can be considered successful.


    Another example of energy efficient construction is located in the city of Sergiev Posad. The residential building of B++ energy efficiency class was put into operation in 2015. It is equipped with solar panels that help illuminate common areas, and the outer walls are made using the Plastbau fixed formwork technology. As a result, savings in thermal energy in the building is 50%, electricity - 20%, and savings on utilities for residents is 20% per square meter.


    In the same 2015, another medium-rise residential building was put into operation in the Klin district. It has an energy efficiency class "A". The outer walls of the building are made of ceramic porous block POROTHERM 25 10.7 NF with a finish associated with the NEOPOR 35 130 mm insulation system. In terms of engineering systems, 3 heat pumps for the heating system, 48 vertical geothermal probes and 1 heat pump for the hot water supply system are designed in it. Savings on utility bills per 1 sq. m for heating is 65%, for hot water supply - 70%. In general, in Russia there are about 150 residential buildings of medium and high-rise buildings built using energy-efficient technologies. However, energy-efficient technologies have not yet found permanent application in mass construction.


    Read the full material on Novostroy-M website.