Architecture

Hungary's Odooproject prefab home produces twice the amount of energy it consumes

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Budapest University students have created an innovative solar-powered prefab home for the 2012 European Solar Decathlon
The Solar Decathlon Europe will launch in Madrid on 13th September 2012
This central zone creates a private terrace that allows its occupants to spend a large amount of their time in the open air
The home is kept cool during the summer
During the cooler months when the sun is lower, energy is produced by the south-facing wall
The innovative prefabricated model has been designed to enter the Hungarian marketplace
Odoo house features modern interior design
The prominent south-facing wall features a considerably large surface area that is entirely fitted with photovoltaic panels
A ceiling-integrated water cooling system the home can maintain cool temperatures during the summer
Odoo house features modern interior design
Odoo house features modern interior design
Dubbed Odooproject, the Hungarian team has created a modern and sophisticated home design that features an open central area
During the summer months when the sun is high, solar energy is produced by the roof panels
Odooproject members construct the home in Madrid
Odooproject members construct the home in Madrid
Odooproject mid construction in Madrid
The Odooproject team from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Odooproject model
A ceiling-integrated water cooling system the home can maintain cool temperatures during the summer
The sun's rays heat the interior during the winter
Odooproject floorplan
Budapest University students have created an innovative solar-powered prefab home for the 2012 European Solar Decathlon
The open central area is complete with a summer kitchen
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On the eve of the opening of the European Solar Decathlon, a team from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics is ready to present its innovative solar-powered prefab home, which produces twice the amount of energy than it consumes. The decathlon is an international competition among universities which promotes research in the development of energy-effective and light-structured residential buildings that only use solar energy. This year the prestigious competition is being hosted in Madrid, Spain and will see a selection of university entries from across Europe, including Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, The United Kingdom and Romania, and four more from China, Japan, Brazil and Egypt.

The Hungarian "Odooproject" team has created a modern home design that features an open central area, complete with a summer kitchen. This central zone creates a private terrace that allows its occupants to spend a large amount of their time in the open air, while also taking advantage of the sun’s energy. Drawing inspiration from traditional Hungarian folk architecture, the house features a darker outer shell, which forms a closed building that is suitable for its climatic conditions.

The open central area is complete with a summer kitchen

The prominent south-facing wall features a considerably large surface area that is entirely fitted with photovoltaic panels. During the summer months when the sun is high, solar energy is produced by the roof panels, while during the cooler months when the sun is lower, energy is produced by the south-facing wall. “Ultimately, owing to this system, the house generates twice as much energy in Hungarian conditions and three times as much in Madrid as the house itself spends,” the Odooproject team states. “This amount is able to serve two other house’s needs, or provide a 70-kilometer (43.5-mile) long travel distance – daily – for an electric car.”

By also incorporating a ceiling-integrated water cooling system, the home can maintain cool temperatures during the summer. This system cools the living area through the ceiling and is also able to channel out extra heat from the room. Because the house produces twice as much energy as it needs on a yearly scale, its heating can be addressed with only a slight electrical boost from the municipal grid during autumn and spring. However, for heating during the winter, the home relies entirely on grid-supplied electric energy.

A ceiling-integrated water cooling system the home can maintain cool temperatures during the summer

The Hungarian team ultimately hopes that its Odooproject home is a viable and innovative prefabricated model that can be successfully sold within the marketplace. “It is our long time goal to penetrate the Hungarian market after participating at the contest with the help of supporters and sponsors,” says the team.

Source: Odooproject, Solar Decathlon Europe via Inhabitat

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20 comments
Michael Mantion
LOL so dumb. it would be nice if they got rid of the PV and hooked up a wind turbine.
Garrett Ross
I love how they always leave out how much a single unit will cost real world. These concepts are complete crap till they have to stand up to real world conditions. Theres a very very good reason we never see these "State of the art" structure actually built. You put building cost, material cost, maintenance together and you will see why these buildings will never see the sun. A sad waste of time really, it would be far more impressive to see an actual structure make headlines that will actually be put into action.
Nick Heidl
Great, an outdoor kitchen for European weather.
Pikeman
The house is great except that anybody that can afford it won't settle for such a pathetic little house.
Alan Belardinelli
I really like the wheelchair ramp/stair up to the patio...Other than that, this looks like a design that could be replicated with far less expense by mod-ing a shipping container.
Brendan Dunphy
All of these appear to be individual homes when what is needed is high volumes of relatively cheap apartments to cope with the universal housing shortage. Time to change the focus of this and similar competitions?
bergamot69
@ Brendan Dunphy,
Well, they've got to start somewhere. No car manufacturer goes straight from the drawing board to production without making prototypes and doing test work, and if the competition is designed to produce houses on a mass scale, then competitions like this, with one-off designs, should be built and evaluated- this is the value of such competitions.
Back in the 1960's in the UK there was widespread slum clearances which resulted in the need for fast-build prefabricated structures on a unprecidented scale, and so our social housing in our larger cities became dominated by pre-fab tower blocks, which were badly build, badly designed insulated, and ventilated, and soon they were virtually uninhabitable, with extreme damp, and cockroach infestations. Other projects, more 'low built' but still promising 'walkways in the skies' became extremely isolating, especially for vulnerable people, due to the ease by which criminal and antisocial elements could dominate the estates.
Individual homes is the way to go- indeed, many of the 1960's experiments have had to be rebuilt entirely, with individual homes preferred over mass housing projects. And competitions are needed so that the best designs are put forward- some won't work, others are more feasible, and the best features can be combined in 'real world' developments.
As for the housing shortage, in the UK there are thousands of building plots that have not been developed because the builders are waiting for the market to pick up- no point in building a house that nobody can get a mortgage for. Obviously social housing would be the answer, but the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher knocked that on the head, and now only small numbers of Housing Association homes can be built- not fulfilling demand.
Mike Akulov
Not everything technologically possible is economically reasonable and even practical, not to mention culturally unacceptable aspects for some nations. And this is essentially one-storied construction is a very ineffective use of the land. Even if its energy efficiency is proven, actual costs of building and of maintenance for a year at least, will judge. Nice try though.
Randolph Lee
Dang, humans are stupid. So, we can replace all of our houses with these, AND, then we still have to completely rebuild our transportation infrastructure to use the electricity thereby generated. And it will take how much fossil fuels to build all those houses, and build a whole new transport system?
Wake up idiots, two words: nuclear fission. Or die. Hello?
Mark A
Mosquitoes must have designed this.