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This report is of technical character and treats how to plan a small building in Borlänge, Sweden. The technical components that have been treated in the report are the construction, foundation, installations and thermic abilities of the house. In addition to planning this house the report also contains a part that deepens in net zero energy buildings. The purpose of the report is to investigate if the house in Borlänge can be constructed to meet net zero energy building demands. Energy efficient houses such as passive- and net zero energy houses are showing more frequent on the market in Sweden. Ongoing climate changes and growing consciousness about the environment in society have contributed to that the environment is a well discussed topic. To consume small amounts of energy and at the same time produce local energy is therefore something that lies in the future and future houses. Production of local and environmental friendly energy is a great challenge and demands significant knowledge. In this report we have aimed the focus on environmental friendly sources of energy such as sun energy, wind power and biomass of pellets. Based on knowledge from our earlier studies within our programme we have investigated the possibility of planning a net zero house in Borlänge. It turns out to be difficult to plan a net zero energy house in Borlänge. The research shows that the planned house does not pass the demands for a passive house and therefore it does not pass the net zero energy demand either. The planned house has a high shape factor which indicates that a significant amount of internal heat passes through the climate shell. To meet the passive house demands we would have to give the house a different shape to obtain a lower shape factor which would increase the ability of the house to keep internal heat. Because of the fact that Borlänge is situated in climate zone II in Sweden it needs heating during main part of the year. In addition to this there are few hours of sun during the winter and the conditions to create energy from wind power are relatively poor. Due to this it is difficult to produce more energy than the house will consume.

The scope of this investigation is to decide how and to what extent the energy consumption of a passive house is affected by the users’ knowledge and habits. To achieve this a literary study has been made and as a complement the planning of a passive house was completed. The result of a primary study of the rules and regulations that effect passive houses in Sweden shows that the user’s influence on passive houses is a completely unregulated area. Even though there is no regulation, a need for some general knowledge of the passive house concept has been expressed. To further investigate how the users’ knowledge and habits affect the energy consumption and if there is a difference between different households’ energy consumption , three main factors have been identified. The factors are as follows:  Indoor-temperature  Hot water consumption  Consumption of electricity for household appliances After the study of factors that influence unwanted user behaviors, different tools that can help to reduce user-related energy consumption has been investigated. As pointed out earlier a need for some knowledge of the passive house concept has been expressed as, if not necessary, at least very useful to the user in a passive house. That knowledge is transferred between builder- buyer, buyer-seller, landlords -tenants during different stages of a passive house’s life. The following means of communication are used:  Meetings  A user’s guide  Interactive – displays  Knowledgeable technicians What concerns the planning of the passive house, the house did not reach the Swedish passive house requirements, but none the less it was an important tool to gain further insight to factors that can affect the energy consumption in a passive house.

The number of people of getting allergic symptoms is increasing and the reasons are considered to be many. The human have changed their habits and spend more time indoor. In combination with new building technologies where denser housing constructions and new materials this causes bad indoor climate contributes to a higher occurrence of allergies There are several courses of action to deal with this problem. One action is by choosing allergy-free interior surface materials. An allergy-free material emits low concentrations of harmful substances resulting in a great indoor air quality. An allergy-free living demands a frequently cleaning and resistant material are required. As a consumer today, it is difficult to assess how allergy-friendly building materials are and the national requirements. The report summarizes the most common types of surface materials and their properties of functioning and emissions. Emissions are releases of harmful substances from the material. The harmful substances studied are VOC's, formaldehyde and phthalates. The studies have shown that there is small amount of available information about allergy-friendly materials. There are general guidelines in "Svenska miljömålen", "Boverkets byggregeler" and "Kemikalieinspektionens föreskrifter". The guidelines are difficult to apply when there is no information about specific properties of materials. It is possible to note how suitable different types of materials are relative to each other. The materials considered appropriate in an allergy-free living are a base of gypsum board and finishes of tiles and plain wallpaper. When selecting materials, it is important to consider in what environment material is used and what factors might affect it. Some materials may degrade properties while get in contact with moisture. Increased moisture increase emission of harmful substances and therefore sensitive materials should be avoided in environments with high moisture. For consumers to make informed choices of allergy-friendly surface materials a classification system is needed. For this to be applicable building materials should be labeled by this classification system.

This bachelor thesis aims at investigate how a specified house can optimize its energy consumption. Today the house often stands for the major part of the energy consumption in a consumers’ life, whereas an energy optimization creates economic as well as environmental advantages. It is important to make old houses more energy efficient, but putting high energy demands on new houses could be argued to be more important. The installations functions as both the heart and brain in a house, thus making it important to energy optimize these. Since the background describes the importance of energy efficiency and optimization in a house, the focus area of this report will be an investigation of different types of heating systems in order to be able to choose the one most suited for the house. Aspects considered when choosing the heating system was how economic the system is both in service- and investment costs and how environmental and operational friendly the system is. Through literature reviews there were sufficient information gathered that served as a foundation when comparing and choosing between the four systems - district heating, pellet-fired boiler, geothermal heating and solar heating. The comparison aims at investigate which of the systems that will suit the house best, based on given conditions. Solar heating could be eliminated since the angel of the roof is too flat. Pellet-fired boiler was deemed too demanding for the consumer since it requires constant maintenance – something which is not desirable given that the house is designed for a family. Depending on what is combusted in the district heating the environmental impact could either be minimized or maximized, but even with the environmental impact minimized district heating is still more expansive in the longer run than geothermal heating. This led to that geothermal heating was considered the most suitable heating system option for the house, a cheap system that requires no maintenance and does not affect the environment.

The purpose of this of this essay is to explore the construction of a conservatory that is livable all year around. When you build a conservatory there are several factors that need to be regarded that usually are of no importance when you build a regular conservatory. The glassed facade needs to have a very good U-value and all the parts of the facade need to be isolated and the construction needs to prevent thermal bridges. In this essay we will start by looking at the shape of the conservatory. Due to the façade consists of glass the conservatory will need to have a good ratio between the area and the façade so that the heat losses will be at a minimum. However, due to the fact that one of the sides of the façade is connected to the warm house, you quickly realize that the shape of the conservatory is of no importance. There are two common ways to build a foundation for a conservatory, a molded concrete foundation and isolated wooden beams. The molded concrete foundation is usually recommended but if you have a difference in heights on the ground the wooden beams are a good solution. The frame of the conservatory usually consists of gluelam; however there are some exceptions where the frame consists of aluminum. It is very common for the roof of a conservatory to consist of polycarbonate which is a very good at isolating while the price is still relatively low. Depending on how much time of the year you want to spend in the conservatory the thickness of the polycarbonate while differ. It is recommended that the minimum thickness of the roof of a conservatory that is to be used all year round should be 32 mm. The price of the conservatory varies greatly depending on how much time of the year you want to use it. A regular conservatory can cost around 33 000 SEK for an area of 10,5 m 2while the same conservatory would cost up to 127 000 SEK. The difference in price arises due to the fact that the demands on a conservatory are higher it is to be used all year round. While a regular conservatory might have a U-value of 6,7 W/(m 2*K) the U-value of an all year round conservatory is 1,1 W/(m 2*K). The biggest increase in price comes when you go from an almost all year round conservatory to an all year round conservatory. The U-value decreases with 31 % while the price increases with 152 %. This is probably due to the complex process of preventing thermal bridges by installing plastic between the aluminum profiles. In today’s market there are three different categories of facades: sliding facades, folding facades and fixed parties. Even within the different categories there are different facades, they vary depending on how many glasses they consist of. These differentiate in price, this price difference is directly correlated to how much of the facade that you can open. The more you can open, the more expensive the price is. Also, we examine two different ways of heating the room, stoves and floor heating. Floor heating is a popular alternative for all year round conservatories because they usually have a molded concrete foundation. It is rather difficult to install floor heating in isolated wooden beams. That is why we examine another alternative, stove that run on ethanol. Apart from the heat they also add an esthetic appeal. At the end of the essay we will design our own conservatory that is adapted to the house. The final price for the all year round conservatory lands at a whopping 313 300 SEK.

The following article consists of two parts; one part is about house construction and the other is a specialization about radon. The house construction part describes how to project a house from start. It contains the conformation of the house, the installations needed, calculations considering the strength of the construction, energy calculation and what materials were chosen. Calculations considering the costs of building and operate the house has been carried out. The result showed that the house would cost approximately two million Swedish kroner to build and thirteen thousand kronor a year to operate. We feel very happy about the resulting house and content about the fact that it fulfills all the demands of BBR19. The specialization about radon is integrated in the article as a report from a consult considering the radon emanation in the house. The report has a wide informative base about what radon emanation is, how it works and what laws there are in the subject. The specialization of the report is about a quite current topic; when we have stopped using aerated concrete in houses, are there still risk that ordinary concrete emanates radon and gives of radon gas in our homes? Is it possible to reassure that this does not happen? What we have concluded is that it is very likely that the concentrations of radon in a room will be high if the wrong kind of ballast is used in the concrete. It is possible to reassure that this does not happen, but at the moment there are no clear guidelines about tolerated values from building materials. Also there is yet no money to earn by doing quality controls on ballast. If the demand for radon safe ballast increases due to a gathered effort to lower the requirements considering radon concentrations, the development of quality controls will go faster.

In this report a study has been done regarding different heating systems on which are the most comprehensive with solar heating systems. The report has also been focusing if solar power can be used as a primary heating source for supplying more than 50 % of the buildings total heating production. The University of Dalarna constructed a demo-house for this purpose and according to calculations the total solar usage is more than 50 %. This house has been made for reference regarding the design of the heating system of property 5:37. Further studies have been made to compare different heating systems that are compatible with a solar system, where the compared systems purpose is to be independent of direct using electricity. A system of this design is regarded as sustainable according to environmental as economic issues. The following heating systems have been analyzed in combination with solar energy; Geothermal heating, long- distance heating and bio energy heating. The result of text study shows that the design of the heating system should be installed with an accumulation tank as a central component for distribution of heat. The positioning of the house is to be as to the south as possible and the solar panels should be installed with an elevation of 70 degrees for better use of the spring and autumn sun. Vacuum panels should be installed instead of plain panels since they have a better utilization factor during spring and autumn. The efficiency of the accumulator tank is dependent on how well the warm and cold water in the tank is separated. The water flow circulating the system should be as even as possible with low speed which keeps the water in the tank separated. Research shows that installing a separate heatexchanger for the tap water serves for an improved separation of water in the tank. As a result of the text study the design of the heating system at property 5.37 has been made. Nine solar panels are to be installed of a total area of 20,7 m 2 and with an 70 degree angle on the southern roof. Three accumulation tanks with a total volume of 2250 liters have been installed to store the solar heating energy during longer periods. A separate heat-exchanger for the tap water has been installed as well.

In connection with the property crises in many countries, caused by the financial crises, people are now more aware of the risks involved in poor property-investments. The unusually cold winters along with extreme prices of electricity in Sweden in recent years has also contributed to increased interest in energy-efficient buildings. The process of developing a modern family home in Kiruna, Sweden is presented the first part of this paper. The house has been designed to withstand very high stresses from snow, low energy consumption as well as a high standard of living comfort. Aspects of the house covered here involves everything from construction, heating and ventilation to sanitation. Each of these areas is presented based on their underlying, scientific methods or theories. The purpose of this approach is to enable that the results presented here can be used as reference in other housing projects. Non-standard solutions for some of the areas are used in the development of this house. One example of this is the use of Masonite beams, which proved to be very useful in the roofs and floor structure between the two levels of the house. The beams simplify access for ventilation pipes and waste water pipes, as well as the use of thick isolation. They also enable large spans. The second part of this paper involves small wind turbines designed not to require permission from the authorities. The wind conditions as well as the choice of a suitable wind turbine are investigated from a scientific and economic stand point. The results concluded that a vertical axis wind turbine is the better choice considering the limitations of rotor diameter along with the lower wind speeds in Kiruna. The final choice was a vertical axis wind turbine with 4 kW rated power. The yearly production of electricity is estimated to 4000 kWh, which was not enough to generate profit. In the last part the possibility of using a filtration system for electricity prices in the future is investigated. This is based on the developed house’s energy performance and the wind turbine’s production. The assumptions made is that the wind turbine is equipped with a large battery and that private individuals have access to the same kind of debiting system that companies in Sweden have today. The model used in this simulation is self-made and enables variable energy consumption for the house as well as variable energy production for the wind turbine to give a truthful representation of the variations which occur naturally during a year. The results concluded that there are profits to be made in the range of 10 % of the value of the wind turbine’s yearly production.

This report aims to examine the design of a passive house. The design addresses the selection of material, sizing and selection of both building services systems and building technical features such as load-bearing framework and moisture control. Interior layout is designed for a family of two adults and one child. A big part of the report is devoted to an in-depth comparison of three different wall constructions of passive house standard. The structures that have been compared are a lightweight timber structure, a heavier concrete structure and a sandwich wall of the brand Weber Leca. The report covers various aspects such as air flow, wall thickness, the risks associated with the construction, U-value, thermal bridges, power consumption, price, and assembly costs. The purpose is to decide what kind of wall that would be the best option for the house. To give a satisfactory answer to this, two other questions first needed to be answered; "what is a passive house?" and "what is the difference between a passive and an ordinary house?" . It doesn´t exist a clear definition of what a passive house is, however, Forum för energieffektiva byggnader (roughly translated in to the Forum for energy efficient buildings , referred to in the text as: FEBY) has developed a specification for low energy houses. The specification contains specific numbers on how much power and energy a house can consume and still be called a passive house. The main difference between an ordinary house, and a passive house turned out to be precisely those numbers. It is worth noting that no specific requirements, except requirements for U-values of windows, is required by the design itself to be called a passive house as long as you meet the energy and power specification (Erlandsson et al., 2009). The final analysis for the three wall structures were made using a weighting table and the result was that the concrete wall was the best suited for this purpose. When the house was planned with this wall structure it manage to accomplish the FEBY requirements that have been addressed in this report and thus can be presented as "projected for Passive Houses accorded to FEBY" (Erlandsson et al., 2009).