BASF - Energy efficiency and affordability
BASF, a major supplier of raw materials to the
construction industry, is working with customers and
partners in the UK to build an energy efficient and
affordable house, as part of the Creative Energy Homes
Project at the University of Nottingham’s School of the
Built Environment.
BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, is already
using show houses in Europe, Asia and the United States
to demonstrate that simple, cost efficient devices can
lead to more comfort, less consumption, savings in
energy costs and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
In designing The BASF House in Nottingham, BASF has
taken into consideration a number of issues currently
affecting the construction industry. A low carbon
emissions target has been set for the house. Energy
efficient products are being used to create a thermally
efficient home and renewable fuel will be used for
heating.
The cost of building an energy efficient house is being
balanced against the requirement to make the house
affordable to a first time buyer, and with available
building land in short supply, the BASF House design has
the flexibility to be used for semi-detached or terraced
houses.
The house will initially be occupied by University staff
or students and carefully monitored, but it has been
designed to function as a conventional dwelling.
The collaboration between the School of the Built
Environment at the University of Nottingham and BASF
started as part of a research and dissemination project
which explored the application of the German
‘Passivhaus’ Standard to other countries in Europe.
Design
Brian Ford, Professor of Bioclimatic Architecture and
Head of the School of the Built Environment, at the
University of Nottingham, says the basic strategy for
passive heating and ventilation has been followed in the
design of the BASF house. The environmental design
strategy proposed by his team varies from the Passivhaus
strategy in combining natural ventilation with a high
thermal capacitance interior.
“The two most significant aspects of our brief have made
the house different in appearance from more conventional
housing, “explains architect Derek Trowell. “Firstly,
the house is intended to be extremely energy efficient
and to have as near as possible zero carbon emissions.
Secondly, the house is intended to be extremely
economical and affordable. The key effect of these two
important briefing considerations is that the house has
a compact floor area and relies as much as possible on
passive solar design to keep costs down.”
The house will have highly insulated north, east and
west walls with the minimum number of openings
compatible with acceptable day lighting standards. The
southern elevation will consist of a fully glazed
two-layer adjustable sunspace with glazed screens that
can be opened or closed to facilitate heating or
cooling.
Construction
For the ground floor walls Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs)
will provide a cost effective and quick construction
material with high insulating properties. These
lightweight Neopor® moulded blocks are assembled to
create the shape of the building and the core is then
filled with concrete.
ICFs are becoming increasingly popular for many projects
due to the speed of construction, energy saving
benefits, design versatility and sustainability.
The BASF House will be built from LOGIX ICFs made from
BASF’s Neopor, an expandable polystyrene with a graphite
content which gives it considerably enhanced insulating
capacity. The ICFs will be filled with low energy
concrete, using BASF Construction Chemicals’ admixture
Rheocell® ICF, and waterproofed using a pre-coloured
render supplied by BASF subsidiary Relius.
Above ground floor level, will be Structural Insulated
Panels (SIPs), combining high performance Elastopor® H
polyurethane foam insulation, from BASF subsidiary
Elastogran, with oriented strand board (OSB) to produce
a predictable, resource efficient and cost effective
building product. Elastopor ® H boasts extremely low
thermal conductivity levels. The SIPs will be
prefabricated off–site using product from SIP Building
Systems Limited.
The roof is constructed of the same material, avoiding
the need for a separate roof structure, but also
ensuring consistency with air tightness and high thermal
resistance to the building fabric superstructure.
The first floor and roof required a lightweight,
durable, waterproof cladding. BASF has selected
Colorcoat HPS200® by Corus, which when used in
conjunction with Confidex SustainTM provides the world’s
first 'cradle to grave' CarbonNeutral building envelope.
Standing seam steel clad roofing, whilst not
particularly common in housing in the United Kingdom, is
widely used elsewhere in Europe and the USA. It is
similar in many ways to traditional lead rolled roofing.
For this particular project, the Corus Colourcoat
HPS200® pre-finished steel product uses BASF coil
coating incorporating pigments for solar heat
management. When energy radiated by the sun hits a
coloured surface it is usually absorbed, generating
heat, which is then transported by thermal conduction
into the material and by convection into the surrounding
air. Using predictions from their CoolSim® software BASF
has developed a range of colours that reflects rather
than absorbs heat from the sun, contributing to lower
temperatures in the coating and also lower temperature
strain in coating layers and for the substrate. This
results in a longer lifetime for the coated material and
enables the roof to be a traditional terracotta shade.
SmartBoard™ plasterboard, will be used on the internal
walls. This BASF innovation helps to regulate
temperatures, because it contains Micronal® PCM
phase-change material – microscopically small plastic
spheres with a wax core. When the temperature rises, the
wax melts and the phase-change material absorbs heat.
When the temperature drops, the wax solidifies, and heat
is emitted.
The house will also include thermally efficient,
engineered timber, external doors manufactured by Manse
Masterdor Ltd., and Leaderflushshapland internal doors,
both of which use BASF’s Permaskin® coating system.
PermaSkin® is a new and unique system for finishing of
three dimensional timber products using a weatherable
high performance thermoplastic film. This cost effective
system produces a long life, maintenance free finish in
a single step and retains the original appearance of the
wood grain.
One of BASF’s key partners in the project is Rehau who
are supplying their Awadukt Thermo® ground-air heat
exchanger system for controlled ventilation. Fresh air
is drawn through an underground network of pipes and is
then either pre-heated in the winter or pre-cooled in
the summer by exploiting the energy stored in the
ground.
Rehau has developed the first ground to air heat
exchanger with an antimicrobial inner layer which, as
well as saving both costs and energy, will ensure a
considerable improvement to the quality of the air.
Rehau are installing a Raurain® rainwater collection
system, as well as the windows and all the pipework
required for the house.
Solar power will provide an estimated 81% of the hot
water via Hoval’s Solkit® solar system with its
revolutionary LowFlow technology. The BASF House will be
thermally efficient, using its passive house design to
provide heat, but a biomass stove will also be installed
to ensure the comfort of the occupants. This will also
provide an additional hot water supply on winter days.
H2M8, a UK company, will be providing affordable home
automation products based on internet technology, to
enhance the living environment and provide energy
management for the house. WebBrick Controllers® will
control the heating, lighting and ventilation, while the
WebBrick Gateway® will provide a whole house use
interface with exception reporting to the occupants
through SMS, email and web access.
Nottingham University will use the same WebBrick®
technologies to monitor all aspects of power use and
dissipation within the home, to research how the various
energy efficient products used within the BASF House
perform.
“Many of BASF’s companies, employees, customers,
suppliers and partners will be contributing to this
project to translate energy efficiency and affordability
into the BASF House. From Hertel providing scaffolding,
fencing and support to Roger Bullivant’s team supplying
the foundation system, the network of competence and
support for the BASF House is absolutely tremendous,”
enthuses Claire Farrar, Project Owner for the BASF
House.
Email:
chris.wilson@basf-plc.co.uk
Arundel Jones Associates Ltd
Hill Farm, Linton Hill, Maidstone, Kent ME17 4AL
Tel : 01622 745333
news@buildingdesign.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales No. 07334149
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