Eco Sky House offers a comfortable lifestyle | Close ties with the Earth | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Eco Sky House offers a comfortable lifestyle
Comfort, simplicity and energy saving
The Eco Sky House derives almost all of the energy needed inside the home from renewable sources. This is not just attractive from an environmental perspective. According to a family who lived in the model house for the experiment, using energy derived from the bounty of nature is also an extremely comfortable way of life.
Comfort
Besides well-insulated roof and walls, the Eco Sky House has an underfloor heat storage system. A solar ventilation system supplies fresh air to every room. Even in winter the temperature inside the house hardly varies. The lack of significant temperature differentials between rooms means that the house provides a pleasant living space for all. Every room feels fresh while also providing a suitable environment for drying laundry.
Simplicity
Although the Eco Sky House incorporates advanced technology, you don't need specialist knowledge to live in it. The passive solar system, which uses solar thermal energy to provide hot water and heating, has just the three settings of "summer," "winter" and "intermediate." To operate the cooling system, which uses heat pump technology to generate a stream of chilled air, all you have to do is turn the fan switch to the "ON" position.
Energy saving
The major benefits of the Eco Sky House are that it is comfortable to live in and also highly eco-friendly in terms of energy saving. This house proves that energy self-sufficiency is becoming a practical possibility.
What is the significance of high energy self-sufficiency using renewable energy?
Households account for approximately 15% of end-user energy consumption (Note) in Japan. The energy consumed by households continues to grow year after year. The breakdown of home energy usage reveals air conditioning, hot water and electricity consumption by electrical appliances each account for about 30% of the total. Reducing the energy consumption of households would be an effective way of helping to realize a low carbon society with low greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this, however, a comprehensive energy-saving policy approach is required to review the entire energy needs of the household sector.
In this context, homes such as the Eco Sky House that are capable of saving energy and achieving high energy self-sufficiency could play a key role in realizing the transition to a low carbon society. The achievement of this high level of energy substitution is not merely the result of utilizing renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic or solar thermal power. It also involves the use of energy-saving technologies, such as high-performance insulation materials, solar ventilation and heat storage systems, and the use of energy-storage technologies, such as lithium-ion batteries and heat storage systems. The important element in this super-energy-efficient house is the integration of energy saving and storage technologies. The 100% energy self-sufficient house is not far away.
(Note) "End-user energy consumption" is defined here as the consumption of electricity, gasoline and other energy by factories, offices, homes and in transport.
The valuable role of the Eco Sky House in a Smart Community
Action by households will be essential if the nation is to meet the greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for 2020 announced by the Japanese government of cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 25% compared with 1990 levels. The household sector still has a lot of room for improvement compared with the industrial sector, which was quick to introduce energy-saving activities. The Eco Sky House could potentially contribute to significant reductions in fossil fuel-derived energy costs for households through efficient utilization of renewable energy sources with energy-saving and storage technologies.
Efficient energy utilization means that the Eco Sky House could function as the smallest unit of a Smart Community.
V2H:Vehicle-to-Home H2V:Home-to-Vehicle
LRT:Light Rail Transit
To realize Smart Communities, we still urgently need to establish technology to integrate all of the energy management information relating to the who, when, where and how much of energy generation, coupled with the issue of where that energy is required most. Such innovation would enable the utilization of renewable energy over larger regions, which ultimately could help the entire global community realize the goal of breaking the link with fossil fuel dependence.
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