AM Teams Up With Nottingham University To Build Europe’s Most Effective Energy Efficient Home

AM Profiles, UK’s leading composite window manufacturer is supporting Nottingham University in its entry into the final of the first International Solar Decathlon competition. AM will be providing PassivHaus compliant windows and doors for the energy efficient, zero carbon, solar powered home which students are required to design and build for the final that takes place in Madrid 18 to 27 June 2010.

The Nottingham H.O.U.S.E (Home Optimising the Use of Solar Energy) has been designed by students from the University’s Department of the Built Environment. Demonstrating how low energy architecture can lend itself to the mass market, it features an L-shaped, modular design so versatile it can be worked into terraces, rows or stacked as apartments to create a highly marketable, zero carbon starter home – a major requirement in the UK.

The innovative timber aluminium clad or composite windows produced for the project by AM Profiles are manufactured near Chesterfield in the East Midlands of England. The PassivHaus window features Pine on the inside, a PVC central core and low maintenance powder painted aluminium on the outside. Not only does the whole window, Uw in W/m2K, have to be below 0.8, the frame members also have to be Uf [W/(m2K)] 0.8 or below to meet PassivHaus. The sealed units for the Nottingham H.O.U.S.E are being supplied by Solaglas Saint Gobain and the 36mm triple glazed unit specification is PLANILUX / Krypton 90% 12mm cavity / PLANITHERM TOTAL / Krypton 90% 12mm cavity / PLANITHERM TOTAL giving a Ug of 0.5 W/m2K.

The Nottingham H.O.U.S.E will compete against teams from 19 universities from around the world, including the USA, Brazil, China, Mexico, Germany, Finland, France and Spain, in the final, which is expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors.

Students will have to live in the home during the final to demonstrate its effectiveness and energy efficiency. Entries will be judged on ten separate areas including architectural merit, market viability, construction, solar systems, electrical energy balance, comfort conditions, communication of the project to a wider audience, household functionality, innovation and sustainability.

For further details on the Nottingham H.O.U.S.E please visit www.solardecathlon.saint-gobain.co.uk.