To build, it is not simply to pose a house on a ground. It is to integrate the jig in its immediate environment and to benefit from nature. It is what one calls bioclimatic architecture. This thousand-year-old, allied tradition innovating material and advanced techniques, makes it possible to gain in term of comfort of the habitat while reducing the energy expenditure.
How? By seeking the best implantation possible, able to collect the solar radiation. A free energy, nonpolluting and inexhaustible which can make you save up to 30 % on your invoice of heating! And this, without any specific installation, just by adhering to some simple principles of design.
Before launching out, it is essential to carry out a thorough study of the ground, because it is of these observations that you will deduce the best implantation for your house. Where is the south? How to organize the parts with living so that they profit from a maximum of sunning? Can the existing vegetation be used as sun visor the summer or constitute an effective rampart against the dominant winds and the cold? As many questions which make it possible to work out a less greedy dwelling in energy.
Natural radiators
With the , the glazed walls of the house do not have to exceed 1/6 of entire surface. Large openings bring heat thanks to the solar radiation, but can generate a negotiable instrument of overheating in summer if they too important and are badly protected. An entirely glazed house forwards two disadvantages: the summer, heat inside the dwelling imposes possibly the recourse to air-conditioning, and the winter, the occupants must heat more because of the less insulating properties of glass. It is advisable to find a happy medium to benefit best from solar energy.
- The picture windows are thus placed preferably vis-a-vis the south. In winter, heat enters the interior of the house easily and you can thus recover and imprison solar energy. On average, you will reduce by 15 to 30 % your requirements in heating.
- Avoid the large openings on the northern side, which bring little light and much of cold in winter.
- In the west and the east, it can be difficult to lock the departments of the sun, especially in summer, which is likely to involve an undesirable heat. Indeed, the departments which strike the panes are very low the morning (in the east) or the evening (in the west) and the blinds are in this not very effective case to prevent their intrusion.
- To protect itself from heat in summer. Choose a not very emissive glazing which returns towards outside the solar departments instead of absorbing them. Also think of the blinds, the glareshields, the flaps… and the vegetation: the shafts can be excellent sun visors. In front of picture windows, choose deciduous trees (especially not of conifers), which produce shade the summer, while letting pass the sun the winter when the leaves fell. Lastly, for the terrace which, prolonging the stay, is very often installed full south, prefer wood: it absorbs heat and avoids the reverberation of the departments on the fronting of the house. Trellis-work and pergolas can also protect the terrace and the windows while creating more intimate spaces.
- The veranda. Leant at the house, it accumulates heat throughout the day and restores it in housing. It is also used as buffer zone with outside, making it possible to reduce the thermal losses. To note however that it is preferable to choose an embedded veranda or in support of angle because three of the walls are in direct contact with the dwelling, thus guaranteeing the exchanges between them. Think of providing for an opaque roof or of installing a flap or a blind and a good split to prevent that your veranda becomes a genuine furnace in summer.
To follow the lifestyle
The design and the organization of the parts play a central role when it is about energy saving. A well studied plan makes it possible to protect spaces the greediest, called places of life or day, by the least greedy spaces, or parts known as cold.
In this spirit, buffer zones will be arranged northern side, like the garage, the storeroom, the wash-house, the corridors or the bathrooms. These spaces, little or not heated, behave like an thermo isolation and decrease the heat losses.
Distribute the various parts of the house according to your way of life and the race of the sun. Thus, one will install the show and the stay vis-a-vis the south, for a maximum natural contribution of light and heat. The kitchen must be also quite exposed (south or south-east). The rooms will find their place in the east in order to benefit from the sun to the alarm clock while remaining fresh in end of the day.
Losses? not!
To limit the thermal losses, triple watchword: compact house, powerful insulation and inertia of materials.
The heat losses are proportional to the heat-transferring surface with outside. The more compact the form of the house is, the less there are walls in contact with the outside, and the less there are thermal losses. As of the design of your future dwelling, do not forget that for the same volume, the same surface and with same materials, a more compact house consumes less energy.
A good insulation also makes it possible to decrease the heat losses. For example it is useful to strengthen that of the opaque walls (in particular in north) and to abolish the cold bridges. A well isolated house prevents heat from evaporating habitat in winter and locks its input in summer.