The Concept of the Solar Eco House
Abstract
Buildings as a shelter are the necessary condition for humans' existence, but the use of resources for construction and buildings' operation becomes a serious environmental problem. Buildings consume ?40% of the European primary energy for their operation; lots of energy is used for production of construction materials. Awareness of the environmental problems created conditions for the development of the concepts of the green house's, passive building's, zero energy buildings', zero carbon buildings' and others, and also for political decisions, such us Directive 2010/31/Eu on the energy performance of buildings enactment. The usage of the solar architecture principles is one of the tools in order to reduce energy needs for buildings and save resources. Ecococon concept was developed with the purpose to minimize embodied and operational energy of the house. Made from straw bale panels, designed using solar architecture principles, ecococons are healthy and warm surrounding for living, recreation or other purposes. This paper presents the concept and temperature monitoring of the experimental ecococon built near Kaunas (Lithuania).