Energy conservation, reducing pollution and global warming seems to be at the top of the global agenda these days. In Athens, Greece, Chromagen and its Greek partner have developed an energy autonomous building. This is the first such building with energy efficient solutions that provide an environmentally friendly viably alternative for both residential and commercial use.

A broad range of technologies were used to create this self sufficient building. These include solar thermal collectors, solar field design, geothermal energy source, thermal storage, absorption cooling and various automations.

The building includes a central solar thermal field of high efficiency solar thermal collectors for hot water, stored in three non-metallic tanks with a total volume of 200 m3. In the winter, the hot water is used for heating the building, while in the summer the hot water drives an absorption chiller which produces cold water for cooling.

The revolutionary design incorporates the basic principles of solar bioclimatic architecture. The building is externally insulated, using new environmentally friendly materials. The windows are constructed of aluminium panels, utilising thermal interruption and special glass with solar radiation membranes and argon. The result is a substantially reduced thermal and cooling loads.

Geothermal heat exchangers allow for pre-cooling of the building via central ventilation units, the underfloor and wall heating system, as well as for the cooling of the absorption chiller and of the geothermal heat pump.

The entire building is operated and monitored by a Building Management System (BMS), that records all the necessary data, such as temperature, solar radiation and energy production for further evaluation.

Photos: An array of solar thermal collectors on the roof along with an array of solar PV panels behind the image of the Titan Prometheus.