Renewable energy demand reduction strategies for the Solar Decathlon Europe Nottingham H.O.U.S.E

The Solar Decathlon Europe is an international competition for universities to design sustainable zero carbon dwellings which are only powered by the sun. Thus, solar thermal and photovoltaic systems were employed. The emphasis of this competition lies on energy efficiency and energy sustainability. The Nottingham H.O.U.S.E is the participating candidate designed by students from the University of Nottingham. This paper describes novel energy demand reduction strategies, implemented to increase the energy efficiency and to keep the comfort conditions at a high standard. Several measurements, including light, temperature, air quality and energy consumption, are giving feedback into an active control system, which then actuates lights, windows, sockets, etc. over the wireless protocol ZigBee. Furthermore, a passive control method of monitoring the energy consumed on an interactive screen has been employed. The aim of this study is to experimentally verify novel strategies for a wireless power control system to reduce energy consumption.