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House Design
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House Design Description
The above illustration shows
the general arrangement of the rooms in the proposed dwelling for the fuel cell
trial. This is annotated to show that higher standards of thermal insulation are
to be used, in combination with a managed “passive stack” ventilation
system.
The dwelling will be built
utilizing locally produced structural steel-frames so that a very high standard
of air-tightness can be achieved.
The thermal insulation,
managed ventilation and airtight construction minimise the amount of heat needed
in the winter.
Other design features, e.g.
the insulated fridge space and low-energy lighting are intended to reduce the
electrical load as well.
The adoption of steel-frame
construction provides the space and easy-access for installing, maintaining and
changing the services routes, e.g. hot-water pipes and electrical wiring.
Although the automotive
industry is migrating to 48-volt electrics from (12v electrics) there are no
domestic appliances available yet that can run on 48v electricity. It is not
practical therefore to run the dwelling directly from the 48v battery store. If
it were, the high cost and complexity of a special interface with the
mains-electricity grid could be avoided.
The steel-frame system does
enable a later conversion to 48v systems when they become available.