DOMOTIC TO IMPROVE ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ACCESSIBILITY
About this good practice
The project started on 28th March 2022. Initially, a team of Andalusian public universities created a prototype of a prefabricated, sustainable and self-sufficient house presented in the Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 competition and won winning second place. The Institute of Domotic and Energy Efficiency (UIDEE) has used it as a living lab for research and development to show all the systems that allow the control and energy savings of the usual elements of this type of installation. The houses’s courtyard is in charge of controlling the comfort conditions for its occupants. It defines a Mediterranean room whose natural light is modulated. It also controls humidity, temperature, smells and sounds. It is a piece formed by a glass cladding and an outer skin that simulates vine leaves domotically controlled. In addition, it also works with different solar chimneys that use the convection generated by hot air. These features make the courtyard function as a greenhouse in winter. In this NZEB house laboratory, sensors are installed to control all the environmental parameters, and new equipment has been installed to control doors, windows, blinds, and lighting. The house is also used to carry out studies that allow us to convert it into an accessible and adapted house free of barriers. The problem that led to the development of the good practice is, on one hand, to reduce the energy costs and eliminate the barriers of people with physical difficulties to live at their own home.
Resources needed
To assemble these systems, UIDEE provided low-cost commercial equipment that allows controlling the consumption and generation, as well as actuators or voice control. € 3.000 for the equipment and installation. The house was already built and used for the Solar Decathlon Europe competition in 2012.
Evidence of success
The Demonstration domotic house received more than 500 visits to date only since 01/02/2022 until now. Thanks to the technologies established in the experimental house, we obtained energy savings and the facilitation of the aforementioned people to be able to live in their homes independently. The NZEB house has an average monthly consumption of 240 KWh, 70% of which is self-generation; yearly savings around 2016 KWh/year; 1 tone of CO2 yearly avoided to the atmosphere.
Potential for learning or transfer
The use of housing enables engineering, architecture and social students to interact directly with new technologies and the configuration of spaces, allowing them to learn by doing and a place where they can experiment with new solutions. The students of the European campuses may also learn in situ sustainable houses adapted to disabled citizens. The Solar Patio 2.12 initiative can be implemented in other European sustainable campuses, specifically in Mediterranean areas.
The use of these technologies, by making it known to the bodies responsible for this type of services (faculty directors, university maintenance, social affairs, ...), makes it possible for them to vary their financial policies in such a way that resources are allocated to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and to use these systems to prolong the life of people with handicaps in their homes by enabling them to perform tasks that would be impossible for them without these systems.