The CO2-Neutral Public Building of the Future Has Now Opened: Green Lighthouse

    COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, November 18, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Of a total of six CO2-neutral houses in five countries in Europe, the second experiment; Green Lighthouse, has now opened. All the houses are part of a VELUX Model Home 2020 concept. Green Lighthouse is located in Copenhagen, Denmark and leads the way for the next generation of CO2-neutral public buildings. Green Lighthouse is Denmark's first CO2-neutral public building.

Today the construction industry is facing great challenges for future construction work. Figures from the EU Member States show that 90% of our time is spent indoors, and in buildings that account for 40% of energy consumption. The VELUX Group considers it our duty to enter into a solution-oriented dialogue to meet this challenge. Model Home 2020 is part of the VELUX Group strategy to actively participate in the development of future sustainable buildings, designed to ensure balance between energy efficiency, the indoor climate, daylight, architecture and front-line clean tech-solutions.

The VELUX Group has built Green Lighthouse; the first CO2-neutral public building in Denmark, in cooperation with the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation, the City of Copenhagen, the University of Copenhagen and VELFAC. The house is a lighthouse for the major UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December, COP15, and it is open to visitors. Green Lighthouse is part of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, and will contain a student service facility and a faculty lounge.

CEO of the VELUX Group, Jorgen Tang-Jensen, said at the opening of Green Lighthouse: "Green Lighthouse provides an excellent indication of what we can accomplish in future construction work. The lighthouse shows that we can do something for the climate without compromising user comfort and health. We have built a climate-friendly building with fresh air and amazing daylight conditions. And we were able to build it using products already available to us."

An experiment is worth more than...
The VELUX Group has a long tradition for working with experiments, and Model Home 2020 is a continuation of this tradition. The founder of the VELUX Group, Villum Kann Rasmussen, once stated that: "An experiment is worth more than 1,000 expert opinions." Each of the six houses in Model Home 2020 constitutes an experiment with ideas for future construction work based on different requirements for climate, architecture and daylight conditions and offering new inspiration for new standards for CO2-neutral buildings.

The Green Lighthouse is also input for the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December. The house is displayed here as a lighthouse for CO2-neutral public construction work and as a unique public-private partnership.

The sun constitutes the central point and primary energy source of Green Lighthouse. The house is 950 m2 and it has been erected in accordance with the "active house" principle, which means that it generates energy. The house has its own energy supply consisting of an unprecedented combination of solar energy, heat pumps and district heating. Green Lighthouse is an energy-efficient construction work of high architectural quality and with a large intake of daylight. The house is filled with plenty of fresh air deriving from natural ventilation, which ensures a healthy indoor climate.

By means of the building's energy design, the building has cut down 3/4 of its energy consumption in relation to Danish building standards. This means that the building is better than other buildings in Low Energy Class 1 under the EU standards applicable since 2006. These standards are expected to apply across the EU for all new construction work by 2020.

"In cooperation with our partners we have built an energy-efficient house that is comfortable to be in, beautiful to look at and which is focused on the future approach to energy. We are exploiting renewable sources in the form of solar energy in completely new ways. We do not merely use our products to draw light and heat into the house during the day; we also limit heat loss from the house during the night while operating and controlling the indoor climate," says Jorgen Tang-Jensen.

Green Lighthouse has set up a visiting service, which in the coming year is to ensure that interested parties can look and learn from the house and building process.

Conditions for daylight and indoor climate in the Green Lighthouse
• A good indoor climate is important for the health and wellbeing of the people living and working in our buildings. Unhealthy buildings may cause headaches, fatigue and depression as well as more severe health problems such as allergies and asthma. Aspects such as fresh air, light and a window view help make it nice to work, study and live in a building. This is also apparent from studies of absenteeism due to sickness among employees in an enterprise.
• Daylight is the primary light source in the Green Lighthouse. Technically, the daylight aspect must be a minimum of 3% for all workplaces and a minimum of 2% for corridors and similar. This means that daylight will be visible from all rooms. Automatic venetian blinds/window blinds are shaped so that they reflect sunlight right into the core of the building.
• Natural building ventilation ensures fresh air. The top-end part of the windows opens and closes automatically to let in fresh air. The heated air rises up through the central atrium and out through the skylight windows. The solutions chosen for heating and cooling help keep a pleasant temperature in the building all year round.

This is how the Green Lighthouse minimises energy consumption
• The base form of the building is cylindrical, ensuring the optimum relationship between minimal surface-area and maximum volume.
• The base form reflects the sun as the dominant energy source in the house, e.g. the venetian blinds in front of the windows adjust themselves in relation to the sun to ensure optimum energy recovery.
• The building is generally cooled through natural ventilation and concrete flooring that absorbs the heat. The natural ventilation derives from the top-end part of the windows, which open automatically to let fresh air into the building without using ventilation machines. The heated air rises up through the central atrium and out through the skylight windows. The skylight windows are also used to cool down the house during the night during the warm part of the year.
• Tight constructions and highly insulated walls and a roof minimise the need for heating. Thermal material will ensure that the house keeps warm during the night.
• Efficient windows with highly insulated window frames and differentiated thermo glass minimise the heat loss and at the same time ensure that the sun heats up the building during winter. Base lighting of the building is carried out with LED lighting, which has a long life and low electricity consumption. The energy for base lighting is supplied by the building itself. A manual has been prepared for the users with instructions on how to use low-energy products.

Renewable energy sources in the Green Lighthouse
• The shape of the roof faces South in order to use the sun as the primary energy source. The roof surface is coated with solar cells and solar heating panels.
• The solar cells generate all the necessary current to operate the pumps, base lighting, heat pumps etc., which are part of the normal operation of the house.
• The solar heat panels create warm utility water and heat for the building. The heat is accumulated so that it can be used in a thermo-active deck on the ground floor which is the only "radiator" in the house during winter, and which can also be used to cool the building during warm summer days. During the summer the panels generate surplus heat for use during the winter.
• The varying intensity of the sun is integrated into the entire energy system of the house. During the summer surplus solar energy is stored underneath the building to be used when the strength of the sun subsides.

Facts about Green Lighthouse
Green Lighthouse is Denmark's first CO2-neutral public construction work. The house is a 950 m2 round, green building for the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Copenhagen. Green Lighthouse is the students' house.

Green Lighthouse is the result of a public-private partnership between the University of Copenhagen, the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation, the City of Copenhagen, the VELUX Group and VELFAC.

• Contractor: The Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation
• User: The University of Copenhagen
• Turnkey contractor: Hellerup Byg
• Architect: Christensen og Co. Arkitekter A/S
• Engineer: COWI
• Size: 950 m2
• Year of construction: 2008-2009

More information
At the VELUX website: www.velux.com/modelhome2020, you can read more about Green Lighthouse and the Model Home 2020 concept.

More about experiment # 1 Home for Life
Home for Life was developed by VELUX and VELFAC in cooperation with aart arkitekter and Esbensen Consulting Engineers. Home for Life is the result of an interdisciplinary project to incorporate the issues of energy consumption, comfort and architecture into a holistic entity, with these parameters being mutually complementary and maximising quality of life in the home and the world around it. Home for Life is the first of six buildings in Europe to be constructed by VELUX as part of the Model Home 2020 experiment.

You can read more at www.velux.com/modelhome2020

About Model Home 2020
Model Home 2020 is an experiment launched by VELUX as part of our strategy to contribute actively to the development of future sustainable buildings. This is our vision for how daylight and fresh air can render buildings of the future climate-neutral while providing a good indoor climate and being attractive to reside in. The project supports the ideas of the coming generation within building design - often called "active houses". The purpose is to create a balance between energy efficiency and an optimum indoor climate by means of a building that dynamically adapts to its surroundings whilst being climate-neutral.

Model Home 2020 covers six out of eight demo-houses financed by VKR Holding A/S; the owner of the VELUX Group VELFAX A/S, Sonnenkraft and a number of other manufacturers of building materials. The two houses in Denmark were constructed by VELUX and VELFAC.

At VELUX we are convinced that experiments are better than a thousand expert opinions. Each house must reflect and take into account different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions in the countries where they are erected. The houses will remain open to the public for 6-12 months after construction, and then sold. They will be tested and monitored to show how the experiments work in practice. The two houses in Denmark - Home for Life in Arhus and Green Lighthouse in Copenhagen - as well as the house in Austria will be finished during 2009, and the houses in the UK, Germany and France will be ready in 2010.

About Green Lighthouse
Experiment # 2 Green Lighthouse
Green Lighthouse was developed by a strategic partnership consisting of the University of Copenhagen, VELUX, VELFAC, the Danish University and Property Agency and the City of Copenhagen. The building was designed by Christensen and Co Architects A/S, with COWI as engineers. The project aims to be CO2-neutral and to experiment with renewable energy applied to an office building. Green Lighthouse is the second of six buildings in Europe to be constructed by VELUX as part of the Model Home 2020 experiment. You can read more at www.velux.com/modelhome2020.

About VELUX
VELUX creates better buildings providing daylight and fresh air through the skylight. The product portfolio contains a wide range of skylight windows etc. as well as solutions for flat roofs. Moreover, VELUX offers many types of decoration and solar screens, venetian blinds, building installations and fittings, remote-control products and thermal solar collectors fitted inside the roof. VELUX, with production companies in 11 countries and sales companies in about 40 countries, is one of the strongest brands globally in the building material industry, selling its products worldwide. About 10,000 people are employed by VELUX, of whom about 2,500 are employed in Denmark. The head office of the VELUX Group is in Horsholm, north of Copenhagen, and in addition the VELUX Group has production, administration and development departments throughout Denmark. The VELUX Group is owned by VKR Holding A/S. VKR Holding A/S is a fund and family-owned limited company.

You can read more at www.velux.com.

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Keith Hobbs - Business Services Associates, Inc. - 9413 Greenfield Drive -
Raleigh, NC 27615-2306 - Phone - 919.844.0064 - E-mail - [email protected]

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