- Title: Dutch team prepares for world solar house contest
- Date: 4th September 2018
- Summary: EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS (RECENT - JULY 25, 2018) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF LINQ SMART HOME LINQ FACADE TEAM MEMBERS WORKING ON ROOF 3D PRINTED CONCRETE SEATING AND GRASS FACADE, PAN TO TEAM MEMBERS ON ROOF TAMAR HENQUET, COMMUNICATION MANAGER, FOR TEAM VIRTUe, WALKS INTO HOUSE AND SHUTS FRONT DOOR SINK TAPS HENQUET POURS GLASS OF WATER HENQUET WALKS AROUND CORNER TOWARDS CENTRA
- Embargoed: 18th September 2018 17:13
- Keywords: smart home LINQ Eindhoven University of Technology Dubai Solar Decathlon
- Location: EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS / DUBAI, UAE
- City: EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS / DUBAI, UAE
- Country: Netherlands
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA0018WCLTGB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Student designers from across the globe are making final preparations for this year's prestigious Solar Decathlon in Dubai.
Twenty-one teams from 16 countries will compete for the 2.3 million euro ($2.67 million USD) prize to build the most innovative and sustainable future building.
In accordance with the competition's environmental theme, the teams must ship their materials to Dubai, before assembling them at designated sites.
Among the favourites is the VIRTUe team from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). The team has 53 members, also containing students from Fontys University of Applied Sciences, has already constructed its design - a residential building called LINQ on its Eindhoven campus.
The team allowed Reuters to film LINQ while its interior construction was being completed in July. LINQ will be dismantled and shipped to Dubai in September. The team will have 10 days to rebuild it in the UAE city in November.
Among LINQ's innovations are an interactive clock indicating energy consumption, the use of direct current (DC) to save energy, and an exterior vertical garden to cool the interior.
"We've placed all technologies within a core central module, such as the large water tank for cooling systems, boiler and all AC (air conditioning) vents," VIRTUe communications manager Tamar Henquet told Reuters.
"The smart system tells the user how much water and energy they've been using but also gives suggestions. For example, if the weather forecast will be good in two hours it will advise you to put your laundry on in two hours," said Henquet.
She added: "In normal houses you have AC (alternating current) network because the transportation of electricity in DC costs a lot of energy loss. So that's why you convert it to AC but because we produce the energy locally and we also use it locally we don't have to make this conversion; we can use it directly in DC which saves us about 10 percent of the energy conversion."
The complex consists of several floors, with shared kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry, to increase efficiency and encourage a 'sharing economy' for residents.
The house contains a solar panel roof, designed at the optimal slope to maximise energy yield and coolness.
"Our focus is not on active cooling but on finding passive solutions. One of the ways that we do this is by making the southern facade slanted at a 15 degree angle, so the facade casts a shadow on itself and reduces the solar in-fall."
Resources manager Puck Ten Hoope, a co-architect of LINQ, said the house is constructed partly from biocomposite material. He said: "We use flax, but also grass materials. There are jeans in the material. You make paste out of it, pour it all together and put it in a mould and the mould presses it. That makes the tiles which we designed for two of the facades."
Seating outside the building is made using 3D-printed concrete made on the TU/e campus.
The team will spend seven weeks in Dubai. Successive student teams will enter the contest again in 2020-2021.
The Solar Decathlon assesses each building design in ten different categories, such as architecture, energy consumption and innovation. Each category has its own winner, while the most sustainable and innovative house overall will claim top prize. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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