An experimental house on test at Cadarache

To face the challenges of energy efficiency in buildings, professionals want to maximize the use of environmental resources to ensure house’s thermal comfort. CEA-Liten, member of Carnot Energies du future institute, takes the challenge with the development of an experimental house with a wooden and concrete framework located in a platform of CEA-Tech in the South of France at Cadarache.

With the collaboration and support of various industrial partners (Trecobat, Atlantic, Velux, K-Line, Delta Dore and Vicat) Liten and CEA Tech‘s teams have contributed to design and build the first experimental wooden framework house with high thermal inertia’s concrete core. Operational for a few months at Cadarache in the South of France, the experimental house has delivered its first results.

To limit the increase of temperature in the house during the day, Liten has designed an original cooling system. A sliding window opens automatically during the night to an internal patio: cool air flows then in the whole house, refreshing the concrete framework before emerging from a VELUX located on the roof, which opening and closure are also monitored.

Tests have shown that fresh air’s natural circulation maintains indoor temperature in a comfortable level that doesn’t exceed 25°C during the day. Other approaches have been tested such as shutters’ automatic closing during the day to limit solar heat gain. “We have been able to prove that the effect of air circulation at night is more significant than solar protection during the day in that experimental house fitted with eaves.” explains Etienne Wurtz, research director at CEA.

Next step in this project: to exploit the crawlspace with the aim of evacuating the exhaust air (and heated air) from the house in order to extract heat using a pump. This test will be carried out on winter.

More information.