Ecological construction and Renewable Energy
Ecological building
We pursue consultancy in the area of energy savings and material selection in all stages of construction. We apply civil engineering in practice on an experimental level and thus verify some innovative construction methods. We gather and share contacts to skilful architects, designers, engineers and craftsmen who feel their own responsibility for the devastation of the environment by buildings. In the area of ecological building we particularly deal with passive houses and utilization of straw bales in construction which we have used in our four realizations.
Passive house
Passive house is a house built so well that it affects the environment much less than other houses in the course of their lifetime. It is called passive most probably because most heat needed for the conservation of thermal comfort get into the house in a rather involuntary way - in a passive way, from people, from the use of domestic appliances, from the sun coming through windows. One part of the energy requires more activity, namely mechanic ventilation, which ensures a recuperative heat gain from exhaust air and from the earth by ground collectors. The active element - the heat source, supplies the house with a very low amount of heat, for a short period of time in the year, by means of heating fresh air. The building of the Centre Veronica Hostětín built in 2006 is a passive house.
Economical lighting
We also pursue the questions of economical lighting and protection of night air partly for reasons of energy saving and climate protection, and partly from the perspective of light pollution of night atmosphere and its impact on animals as well as human beings. In Hostětín, a model project of environmentally friendly public lighting system has been installed in 2006.
Solar programme
We have been cooperating for a long time with partner organizations from the Czech republic and Austria on the project Solar Network which has been broadly promoting the development of solar thermics in the Czech republic. Within the project we have helped to install tens of self-help solar collectors in the White Carpathians.