Solar-home construction competence
The Sonnenhaus concept centres on the use of renewable energy sources for space heating and hot water, because solar energy is free, so solar homes cost very little to heat, as they consume much less primary energy than other homes.
The declared near-future objective is to get the Sonnenhaus concept established as the standard form of construction for new homes in Austria, hence sustainably protecting both the climate and the environment for generations to come.
At present, Austria‘s standards, regulations and residential construction promotion models still see the energy efficiency of buildings solely in terms of their space heat requirements, but that only accounts for energy lost via the building envelope. One of the main concerns of Initiative Sonnenhaus is to quickly achieve the conversion or supplementation of the energy efficiency target values of the country‘s building code and housing subsidy programmes away from the building‘s space heat requirement in favour either of its total energy requirement less any gains in the form of solar or geothermal energy, or of its residual primary energy requirement.
Members and partners in competence
In the coming months, the initiative‘s main activities will revolve around recruiting new members and holding high-quality training courses and seminars.
