Fuel Poverty (Energy Burden)
Hundreds of millions of people around the world are affected by fuel poverty (energy burden). In the United States alone, it is estimated that nearly 50 million households live with a high or severe energy burden – that’s more than a third of all households struggling to afford the fuel required to provide adequate heating, hot water, cooling, lighting, and power for their homes – these being essential requirements to maintain a healthy and decent standard of living.
Smarter Energy Solutions for Sustainable Living
Behind these statistics are families, elderly people and vulnerable individuals who face difficult choices every day, having to prioritise between maintaining a healthy and comfortable home and paying for other essentials, such as food, clothing and healthcare.
At Noventum, we believe a warm and comfortable home should be regarded as a basic necessity, not a luxury.
We believe the solution to energy burden begins with the buildings themselves: by combining innovative construction methods, high-performance insulation and energy-efficient building systems, we aim to make homes built to the rigorous Passivhaus Standard more affordable and accessible.
Our construction methods dramatically reduce the energy required to heat, cool and power a home – delivering lower running costs, healthier indoor environments and year-round comfort. Crucially, by reducing construction costs as well as energy consumption, we aim to make these benefits available to more people.
Our aim is simple: to provide homes that cost less to build, less to run, and are more comfortable and healthier to live in – tackling energy burden by design.
Insulation
The key component in keeping a comfortable indoor temperature is insulation, and a good tight building fabric. Sealing the building from the elements, both hot and cold, humid or dry, helps to keep the energy needed to keep this comfortable homeostasis affordable and healthy. Controlled ventilation bringing fresh air in, and expelling stale air, allows the home to breathe.
Energy efficient systems
There are two key components to energy efficient systems employed by Noventum given the air tight nature of the buildings it builds. The first is Heat Recovery Ventilation, or HRV. This controlled air movement through heat exchange technology allows for the recovery of 80-90% of all the energy put into the air, keeping the energy needed to heat and cool spaces considerably lower than traditional housing.
The second key component is heat pump technology. By utilizing heat pumps on both the air and the water systems in the building, the annual energy to heat and cool the spaces is extremely small. The combination of these factors allows for small energy inputs to keep the buildings comfortable.
Solar energy generation
The final piece of this puzzle is generation. The solar energy revolution has allowed for the production and storage of energy to be extremely affordable. Given the extremely low energy consumptions of the Noventum home compared with a traditional home, a small amount of PV is all that is needed to achieve an annual net zero energy balance. This doesn’t mean that customers will see a zero-energy bill, because seasonal generation won’t match consumption perfectly, and standing charges from the energy supplier will still be on the bill. However, for the average consumer their total energy bill for the year will be 80-90% smaller than a traditional home.