INDIANAPOLIS: What if you could change your decades-old house into a modern, comfortable, energy-efficient home in less than ten days without having to move out or pay extra? Does it sound too good to be true? That’s exactly what a consortium of construction companies and social housing corporations are doing.
Innovations include:
– A prefabricated energy module contains all equipment necessary to sustainably provide heat, hot water, power, and ventilation. The energy module is optimized for the equipment (e.g., it is insulated to limit noise from the air-to-water heat pump). The relatively small three-cubic-meter (~100 cubic feet) module is placed in the backyard where it can be quickly connected to the house and easily reached for maintenance. In this way the house is equipped with the newest installations without having to maneuver the installations into the house and lose living space.
– A prefabricated roof with integrated PV and prefabricated insulated facades are attached to the existing roof and facades. Demolition of the existing roof is limited to taking off the roof tiles. The demolition of the facade is limited to removing the existing window frames.
– The house switches from using gas and electricity to all-electric, freeing up the money otherwise spent on the gas connection.
– The bathroom, kitchen, and toilets are renovated in the same go, using prefabricated glass panels over the old tiles. This limits demolition and dust during installation and leads to lower maintenance costs in the longer term…