The goal of the reconstructable house construction is to build a stable house with a minimal ecological footprint.
This includes
- minimization of the energy to build and eventually disassemble the house
- minimize the energy consumption
- optimize the construction for energy production
- using sustainable and reusable material
- avoid waste and land damage
The first installation already shows very encouraging results:
– The large window surface exposed to all sides allow heating within a couple of hours through direct sunlight.
– Only four panels installed on the roof are already able to run a heat pump.
– The isolation allows a good heat retention – with natural material only
The improvement to conventional building is hard to tell, because on the side of the reconstructable house we just started measuring. And on the side of conventional building there are almost no data available and it is also quite difficult to get the total energy consumption for a house as today sub contractors are doing a great part of the job. To define the energy they spent on a construction and on transport would be an immense amount of work.
However there are several studies that estimate the energy consumption for building to be 1/3 of the total energy consumption of the industrialized states. And construction contributes about 2/3 of the total waste ( 84% in Switzerland, as state in the official Swiss waste report.
But the basic figures of the reconstructable house are there:
- The material fits in a box and weighs a bit more then a ton and thus can be transported with a van.
- To assemble the house it needs four hands and 2 wrenches. No heavy machinery.
- All parts are designed for reuse so there is no waste apart from wear and tear
As mentioned there is no direct comparison possible yet. But if you observe only the drives on any construction site you can see that the energy consumption for a conventional building is an integral multiple.
In the near future this balance will further improve if we manage to turn the house into an energy plant.