Performance of the Low-energy House in Sisimiut

A low-energy house was built in Sisimiut, Greenland in 2004-05 and since its inauguration in April 2005, its performance and operation have been object of study for researchers and students. The house is characterised by a highly insulated building envelope, advanced windows and a ventilation system with heat recovery, which should cut the energy consumption of the building to only half of what in 2006 became the permissible value in the Greenlandic building code.

In addition to this, the house is equipped with a solar collector that supplies heat to the domestic hot water system and delivers auxiliary heat to a room in the building. The paper briefly introduces the design and technology of the house before reporting on the performance results until date. It has been a challenge in some aspects to introduce new technologies which have not been commonly used before in an Arctic environment, and the paper illustrates some of the experiences in this regard.