A detached house - Pršianská terasa, Banská Bystrica

This detached house was built in Banská Bystrica, in the Pršianská terasa residential quarter. It is a medium-sized two-storey house with no cellar, type DECENTe, with an added garage. The ground floor is the part of the house for daytime use and the total built-on area of the house is 106.8 m² with 151.0 m² of useable area. The heating in the house is provided by a combination of Ecofloor floor heating and ceiling heating with Ecofilm films.

Description of the building
This detached house, type DECENTe, was selected by its users from the catalogue houses offered by APEX architektúra, with a minimum of change to the dispositions of the ground plan. The detached houses offered by this company fulfill the criteria set by STN 73 0540 (norm for energy requirements). 400 mm Porotherm without heat cladding was used for the peripheral masonry and the filling constructions are made of triple glass with a tinted film. The ground floor contains a mudroom and WC; the living room is connected with the kitchen and dining area. The first floor has a separate bathroom with a WC, a corridor with a staircase and three rooms.

Heating
The heating is provided by a combination of two methods, i.e. using Ecofloor heating mats and Ecofilm C ceiling films in a plasterboard suspended ceiling. This system is based on the principle of infrared radiant heating. In contrast with commonly used radiant panels, the output is spread along the surface of the ceiling construction and with a lower surface temperature (40-45°) it is lot more comfortable. As it is a radiant heating system being used, the distribution of temperatures in the rooms is completely even and the difference between the temperatures by the floor and by the ceiling is only approximately 1.5°C. On the ground floor of the house and in the living room, the Ecofilm C ceiling heating system is complemented with Ecofloor floor heating near the sitting area and under it for higher user comfort. In rooms with ceramic floor tiling, the main source of heating is Ecofloor heating mats which are placed directly under the tiling – this is the case mainly in the kitchen, the entrance corridor and the bathroom.  

The heating system is supplemented with a fireplace with an insert, which is also located in the living room. The fireplace mainly functions as a comfortable accessory during long winter evenings, but in the case of an unexpected power cut it can serve as an alternative source of heat.

Investment costs
The whole system was supplied at a listed price of 3 430.59 € (103 359 Skk) including 19% VAT. This price includes the supply of Ecofilm and Ecofloor heating systems with digital regulation, weekly regime and fuzzy logic.

The building was brought into operation before the heating season and the monitored period wasn’t typical of full winter operation at this location in central Slovakia. The winter period temperatures could be described as above-average to warm.

Operational costs
It needs to be pointed out that all the appliances in the household are adapted to the conditions of a fully electrified household and are used by a young three-member family (storage water heating, cooking etc.). 

Statistically, but also from the point of view of long-term monitoring of buildings of this character, 50-60% of the total consumption of electric energy is allocated to heating. With regards to the mild winter, we can estimate that this value will be at the level of 30-40%. The total yearly energy requirements of the building are 92 kWh / m². 27 – 46 kWh / m² from the total yearly consumption are used for the heating. It is obvious from these monitored values that the users of the detached house were afraid of the information presented by the media about the disadvantageousness of direct heating electric systems and that they used the supplementary source of heating – the warm-air fireplace – more substantially.

According to the statement of the owner of the house, the fireplace was used once to twice per week which means savings of 15 to 25%. Despite this fact, the consumption would be 57 kWh / m² per year which corresponds to an energy consumption of 41 W/ m². For low-energy houses, the top limit for the consumption is 50 W / m². This particular house is not a low-energy house because of the composition of its construction but it ranks amongst them as far as the specific heat consumption is concerned. We can conclude that high user living comfort and low operational costs can be achieved with the use of Ecofloor and Ecofilm low-temperature large-area heating systems. The investor executed the construction using sub-deliveries from various supply companies.