Case Study: Waterstraat

Short Description

This project demonstrates energy efficient design and building in Belgium and promotes energy efficient technologies in (social) housing. Prior to this project these techniques where considered to be expensive and little interest was paid to them.

The average annual energy consumption of a ‘standard’ Belgian home is 220 kWh/m². The target for this project is 50 kWh/m².

Other project objectives :
- Intergration of solar energy
- Lower water consumption
- Maximum use of healthy and sustainable materials

The Province of Antwerp, a shareholder of Zonnige Kempen, showed interest in the project and wished to communicate the results on a larger scale.

Many partners where involved in the project :
- KULeuven (Catholic University of Leuven) : efficient use of energy
- VITO (Flemish Institute for Technologic Research) : monitoring and evaluation
- Flemish Government : funding ANRE
- EU : funding GREEN

Some 10 years later, the principes and techniques are still current.

Key Elements

Environmental Design

Bio-climatic design: Pergola’s give shading on the south side of the dwellings.

Waste management: Collective storage for separated waste fractions and
waste reduction and recycling during construction.

Water Saving

Water saving shower heads.

Use of rainwater (tank of 60 000 litre) for flushing toilets, washing machines, cleaning.

Funding

Extra funding was provided by participation in an EU-project Thermie/GREEN and a Flemish support for practical research.

Main Results

The “Trias Energetica” was applied:

1 - Good external walls to reduce the need for energy

2 - Optimal use of natural energy sources

3 - Optimalization of applied technologies

Zonnige Kempen experienced the necessity of extending this to :

4 - Information, motivation, education for tenants.

An Ecoteam was set up in collaboration with ECOLIFE Leuven.

5 - Monitoring and evaluation

The impact of the different actions could be monitored :

220 kWh/m² - Compact construction, orientation

188 kWh/m² - Condensingboilers

160 kWh/m² - Extra insulation

80 kWh/m² - Double flux ventilation with heat recovery

50 kWh/m²

6 - Communication

Results are discussed with tenants and designers and are presented at seminars and information meetings.

Lessons learned

A reduction of the energy use of 70 % for space heating and 50 % for domestic hot water was possible by well considered actions and decisions during design and construction.

A compact architectural concept make collective heating and hot water more efficient then individual systems.