SKOPJE (Macedonia), March 2 (SeeNews) – Macedonia's capital, Skopje, will be among the region's few cities to get one of the first passive buildings, an ultra-energy saving residential facility whose energy needs will be reduced to little more than one-tenth of a conventional home, the designer of local investing firm Civkon Agi said.
The building, known as Vodnjanka, is located under the slopes of Vodno Mountain in Skopje, and will be ready in March 2016.
Huge energy savings, ultra-comfort and environmental benefits are the main facets of this type of construction which has already been accepted as a standard in developed countries, the passive house designer, Andrej Andreev, told SeeNews in an interview.
A conventional 100 sq m apartment needs 15,000 KWh of cooling and heating energy annually, on which about 60,000 denars ($1,100/976 euro) will be spent. Consumption of cooling and heating energy on an apartment in a passive building, on the other hand, is reduced to an annual 1,000 KWh, equal to 4,400 denars, Andreev explained.
The initial outlay on the construction of a passive building is higher than on a conventional one, but payback is expected within five to seven years. Therefore, the price per apartment can be higher by at least 150 euro per sq m than for a conventional home, he added.
Conventional construction materials can be used for the method, with additions of high quality insulation elements, Andreev explained.
Specific elements include windows with high thermal coefficient, and special glass, which generates up to 30% of the energy needed for heating from the sun’s rays throughout the winter.
Air tightness, or almost full hermetic isolation of the facility, is another stipulation that must be heeded because there must be no uncontrolled exchange of air between the inside and outside, he explained. Due to the air tightness, there is a need for a so called cross ventilation system, which is the most specific part of these buildings, a system that is extremely economical, but also provides moisture control and air purification from allergens, smog and dust.
Andreev said that there is a huge and constantly rising interest in the construction of such buildings, even though at the beginning it is difficult for people to understand the concept of living in an apartment without air conditioning, heating or other conventional energy systems.
Slovenia is a pioneer in the region in this segment; there is one such building in Croatia while, in Bulgaria, a huge expansion is underway with several buildings currently being constructed there. Yet, overall, the whole region is far behind in the segment mainly for financial reasons.
The world's first passive houses were built in the 1990s. Andreev learned of the concept 15 years ago in Sweden and he has been involved in the construction of several such facilities ever since. Andreev became a licensed designer from the Passive House Institute Darmstadt in Stuttgart, Germany.
"I expect demand for such facilities to rise rapidly, as people’s awareness about the need for lower energy costs and gas emissions in the atmosphere, also grows," Andreev told SeeNews.
If a building like Vodnjanka can reduce CO2 emission by 23 t per year, with power consumption reduced by an annual 110,000 kWh, then the benefits from this kind of construction will be huge.
Taking this as a reference, if only 10% of Macedonian households were renovated on the same scale as a passive house, CO2 emissions would be reduced by 400,000 t per year, Andreev said.
This standard can also be applied to industrial and commercial buildings.
(1 euro=61.5069 Macedonian denars)