Energy-efficient Building in Greenland: Investigation of the Energy Consumption and Indoor Climate

Recently, a brand new single family home was built in Sisimiut, Greenland. The building was constructed as a wooden house typical for Greenland. However, some non-traditional measures were implemented in order to reduce the energy consumption and improve indoor air quality. Assessment of the influence of these measures is essential for their implementation on a wider scale.

In particular, functionality of the state of the art ventilation system is of large concern as these systems have not been commonly used for their sensitivity towards the extremely cold climate. A detailed monitoring system was installed in the house. It enables the evaluation of the indoor air quality, as well as building's energy performance.

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the performance of the newly constructed house by and compare it with the performance of identical house built in a traditional way by using a computer model. The data obtained from the measurements in the new house were used to verify the model. Significant energy savings and improvements of indoor air quality were found in the new house when compared to the traditional one.

Moreover, all the extra measures have a feasible payback time despite high prices of labor and transportation to Greenland.