Smart house made of concrete – Eutymia, Poland.
The Smart Home Grenton system was used as the primary installation for the intelligent home Eutymia. When designing the house, the owners were primarily focused on its energy efficiency and functionality, which makes the building a perfect example that fits into the concept of modern homes of the future.
Concrete House Eutymia & Grenton Smart Home
The main integrations and functionalities of the smart home that were included in this project are:
- Lighting control
- Control of blinds, external roller shutters, and roof pergola
- Room temperature control
- Home ventilation management
- Integration with the alarm system and monitoring
- Multimedia management, including home cinema
- Integration with household appliances
- Control of the entrance gate, wicket, and garage doors
- Control of garden water pumps
- Intelligent courier box
- Multisensor – a set of 7 integrated sensors and an infrared transmitter, allowing to replace traditional remotes.
Concrete House Eutymia
The concrete, passive house Eutymia is located in one of the suburbs of Warsaw and measures 328 sq. m. Due to the dampness of the terrain, the building stands on over 50 piles and a foundation slab and does not have a basement. The house is characterized primarily by the fact that it is a monolith made of reinforced concrete. Thanks to the use of concrete as the main building material, the house has a large thermal capacity, which significantly reduces the energy consumption needed to maintain the thermal comfort of the house.
In accordance with the provisions of the Local Spatial Development Plan, the house harmoniously blends into the surrounding landscape due to its minimalist shape and subdued color scheme. From the outside, the building’s facade is finished with quartz sinter, brick, and red cedar. Inside, the walls of the house have been maintained in the raw atmosphere of architectural concrete with additions of wood and glass.
The house from the north side has a closed, massive structure, evoking a sense of security. On the southern side, there is a large glazed facade, which allows for maximum use of natural sunlight and opens up a view of the garden and pond. It opens literally, as the corner HS windows of the living room slide widely onto the covered terrace, and the absence of supporting beams creates an effect of merging the living room with the terrace and garden.
A house with the Grenton system is for both comfort from automation and tangible savings.
The Grenton Smart Home System is an advanced solution that automates many of the processes and tasks within the home. The system itself carries out tasks for the occupants of the house – for their comfort and safety. Additionally, when combined with the philosophy of a passive house, it allows for even greater energy efficiency and further savings.
Grenton manages lighting, roller shutters, temperature, recuperation, multimedia, gates, doors, and other devices and areas of the house. As a result, it allows for precise automatic adjustment of their operation and behavior according to current needs and conditions. An example can be a light scene, where the lighting in the home automatically follows a moving occupant. Or integrations in the “wake-up scene”, where the system sequentially: opens blinds based on data from an astronomical clock and a light intensity sensor, lifts curtains at a set time, turns on the mirror heating in the bathroom to prevent fogging, and warms up the coffee machine and cups in the kitchen. The system automatically closes the pergola during strong winds and takes care of watering the garden when there’s no rainfall forecasted.
Additionally, the Grenton system supports energy consumption optimization by controlling devices and systems based on data from home sensors and integrations. When there are no occupants, the system turns off devices or switches them to eco mode. It adjusts the intensity of lighting, heating, or cooling rooms depending on the presence of inhabitants. Automatically, based on the angle of sunlight, it also adjusts the level of roller shutters and the angle of blind slats – to naturally heat or cool rooms. As a result, the house becomes more energy-efficient, eliminating unnecessary losses and minimizing energy consumption.
Passive house – what is it?
Based on the definition by the Polish Institute for Polish Passive House Institute, a passive house, thanks to the appropriate technological solutions, is primarily characterized by low demand for thermal energy. This refers to energy used for heating the building, water heating, and the operation of household appliances. When comparing the annual energy consumption in passive houses, it does not exceed 15 kWh/sq.m., while in traditional houses it can range from 120 to 300 kWh/sq.m..
A passive house in its construction should be fully thermally insulated to prevent the escape of generated heat within its premises. The idea behind such buildings is to also harness the maximum amount of energy from the natural environment, such as solar energy. This is why, most often in such buildings, you won’t see many windows on the north-facing wall. On the south side, however, there will be large, spacious windows occupying the entire wall of the house to provide as much warmth and lighting as possible to the rooms located on that side.
The initial cost of building a passive house is usually higher than that of building a traditional house. However, in line with its philosophy, this cost is expected to pay off over time, especially given the constantly rising costs of electricity.
It’s worth noting that a passive house combined with a smart home system becomes even more efficient and energy-saving.
In the upcoming articles from the ‘Concrete House Eutymia’ series, you will learn:
- How to manage intelligent indoor lighting and its applications and capabilities,
- How smart garden irrigation works and how to manage outdoor lighting,
- How an intelligent courier box improves the comfort of the household members.