January 2015

ZEB Pilot House Multikomfort Larvik

Residential show case - centre of competence. The building material supplier Optimera and
Brdrene Dahl has jointly developed and defined Multikomfort, to increase knowledge about
future energy technology, building systems and materials, and to facilitate the selection of
solutions and products for homeowner, building and plumbing.

The volume of the house describes a single family house, however, the building is intended for
use as a demonstration platform to facilitate learning on building methodology for plus houses
with integrated sustainable solutions.

ZEB Pilot House Multikomfort Larvik

GENERAL
Name: Multikomfort-House Larvik.
Owner: Brdrene Dahl AS and Optimera
AS.
Designer: Snhetta architects.
New/retrofit: New.
Use: Residential show case.
Location: Larvik, Norway.
Climate: Class D. Continental /
microthermal climate. (Kppen Climate
Classification).
Heated area: 202 m2.
Investment cost: 5,8 million NOK.
Certification: Not certified yet.
Awards: Nominated for Mies van der
Rohe Awards 2015.
Info: www.multikomfort.no

The ZEB Multikomfort House is a cooperation

between Snhetta, Scandinavias largest
independent research body SINTEF, ZEB
partner Brdrene Dahl, and Optimera.

DESIGN
Approach: Positive Energy, ZEB O&M. The building's
renewable energy production compensate for
greenhouse gas emissions from operation and
production of its building materials.
Construction typology: Mainly wooden construction,
built on site. Carrying construction in glued wooden
beams, delivered precut. Conscious choice of materials
with as little concrete as possible and reuse of old
bricks. Old railway sleepers was used in the
construction of the garage.
U-values W/K/m2: Walls: 0,111, roof: 0,084, windows:
0,74.
Air tightness: 0,30.
Ventilation: Mechanical 242 m3/h.
Passive heating strategies: Very well insulated and
extremely airtight building envelope.
Passive cooling strategies: passive(shadow) solar
protection on bedroom windows and other windows
placed away from the sun.

ENERGY
Primary energy need: 16387 kWh/y.
Final energy consumption: 6900
kWh/y.
CO2 annual emissions: 6,24 kg CO2/y.
Energy rating: Not rated yet.
The 200-square-metre Multikomfort
House covers its own energy needs,
and generates enough surplus energy
to heat the swimming pool and even
charge the familys electric-powered
car.

RENEWABLE ENERGY
Sources: Solar PV, solar thermal.
PV installed power: 23 kWp.
Solar thermal installed power: 16 m2 , flat plate
collector (Hewalex).
Annual RES generation: 19200 kWh/y from PV. (100 %
coverage Primary energy need).

The house is a plus house. By using high-tech solutions it

produces the energy required for daily operation. Energy
is collected from the sun and groundwater. Moreover, it
has full utilization and recovery of energy from waste
water.

GENERAL
ZEB Pilot House Multikomfort Larvik

BUILDING
Name: Multikomfort House Larvik.
Use: Residential show case center of competence.
Users: Open for both professionals and non-professionals.
Completion year: 2014.
New/Retrofit: New.
Type of ownership: Private.
Building/community: The Norwegian architecture company Snhetta worked to develop a single family house
that generated more energy than it consumed. The house focuses on offsetting carbon emissions and on the
choice of sustainable materials, from the outset. The concept of the project was to create a center of excellence
to develop repeatable solutions for sustainable living.

GENERAL

BUILDING
Building description:
The volume of the house describes a single family
house, however, the building is intended for use as a
demonstration platform to facilitate learning on
building methodology for plus houses with integrated
sustainable solutions.
Area and volume:
Gross floor area : 202 m2.
Heated area: 202 m2.
Cooled area: 0 m2.
Faade area: 229 m2.
Glazed area: 59 m2.
Floor height: 3 m.
Gross total volume: 610 m3.

LOCATION
Location: Larvik, Norway.
Population: 43132.
Site: Rural.

GENERAL

CLIMATE
Climate description: Class D. Continental / microthermal climate.
(Kppen Climate Classification). Reference climate, Sandefjord
Torp.
Heating degree days: 4105 (Basis 17 C, N1961-90).
Cooling degree days: Yearly sunshine hours: 4275.
Mean annual temperature: 7,6 C.
Solar radiation: App. 1100 kWh/m2/year.
Microclimate: Mild and windy costal climate.
Source: www.eklima.no

ACTORS

&

AWARDS

Owner: Brdrene Dahl AS and Optimera AS.

Designers: Snhetta architects.
Construction company: Espen Staer AS.
Supporting actors: Bergersen Flis, Geberit, Glava,
Grohe, Gustavsberg, If, Porgrund, Intra, Lyngson,
Nilan, Oras, Oso, Pipelife, Schneider Electric, Uponor,
Villeroy&Boch, VPI, Grundfos, Lighthouse Company,
Aubo, Barkevik, Bergene Holm, Boen, Elfa, Fischer,
Gyproc, Isola, Moelven, Natre, Paslode, Velux and
Weber.
Awards: Nominated for Mies van der Rohe Award
2015.

GENERAL

COSTS

&

FINANCING

Construction Cost: 675.000 Euros.

Extra nZEB cost: 116.000 Euros.
Standard cost in the region: 560.000 Euros.
Financing scheme: Paid by owners and supporting
actors.
Public aid: None.

USERS
User behavior: At the moment the house is only used
for demonstration purpose, and therefore have no
inhabitants.

COMMISSIONNING
Energy commissioning: Extensive energy metering, on
all electrical consumption, thermal energy production
and consumption for heating and hot water.
Gap: Just opened, no data yet available.
Comfort commissioning: Not yet evaluated.

IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation process: The house in the garden has
a characteristic tilt towards southeast and a sloping
roof surface clad with solar panels and collectors.
These elements, together with geothermal energy
from energy wells in the ground, will serve the energy
needs of the family house and generate enough
surplus to power an electric car year-round!
For this to become a successful reality, architecture
and technology must come together and ensure
optimization of both comfort and energy use.
Source: www.snohetta.com

DESIGN
ZEB Pilot House Multikomfort Larvik

DESIGN APPROACH
Approach: Positive energy.
Goals: ZEB-OM, Zero Emission Building - operation and
materials. In addition the building should supply
enough energy for the family's electrical car.
Design methodology: Since embodied emissions has
been a part of the energy/emission calculations the
materials has been an important part of the design
phase.
Motivation: Aim of the project is to show that the
housing of tomorrow can be built today.
Key points: Focus on material use, and energy supply
design.

CONSTRUCTION
Construction typology: Mainly wooden construction,
built on site. Carrying construction in glued wooden
beams, delivered precut.
Daylighting: Daylight autonomy 60% ( 300lux, 8 am-8
pm.

DESIGN (version2)
DETAILS

Facade: Wall with double timber

frame and cavities. Wall seen
from outside. 19 mm cladding.
36 mm studding, 23 mm coils, 9
mm Glass Rock Storm sheathing,
36 x 098 mm timber frame, 150
mm cavity, Vapor barrier 0.15
mm, 48 x 098 mm timber frame
supporting wall, 100 + 150 + 100
mm Glava X 33 mineral wool.
Interior lining. U-value 0,111.

Windows: Wooden frame,

transmittance 0,61 Uglass 0,44,
Uwindow0,74.

Roof: Isolation Mastertekk. 19

mm rough panels. 2 x 48 mm
cross battens. Tyvek sheathing.
48 x 500 mm S-beam from
Moelven (glulam), 500 mm
Glava X 33 mineral, Vapor
barrier 0.15 mm, 30 x 048 mm
battens, Interior lining. U-value
0,084.

Thermal bridges: 0,03.

Ground floor: 48 x 500 mm

beams S-beam from Moelven
(glulam) , 500 mm Glava X33
mineral, Sheathing: Tyvek
sheathing the crawl space, 25
mm thermo chipboard from
Forrestia as under floors and
heating / underfloor heating, 6
mm rehab plasterboard, 10 mm
Boen Prestige parquet. Fully
adhered. U-value 0,08.

Thermal inertia: Brick wall on

one wall going through both
floors.

PASSIVE STRATEGIES
Passive heating: Very well insulated and extremely
airtight building envelope.
Passive cooling: Passive(shadow) solar protection on
bedroom windows and other windows placed away from
the sun.

DESIGN

AIR QUALITY
Air tightness: 0,30.
Design rate: 242 m3/h.
Type: Mechanical ventilation.
System: Nilan Compact P, balanced ventilation with
heat recovery 85% and a heat pump in the extract air
producing hot potable water.

ENVIRONMENT
Water: Rainwater from the roof is collected in an 6m3
tank and used in toilets and for garden.
Waste: During construction all waste has been sorted
and delivered to recycling.
An outdoor atrium with fireplace and furnishing opens
for outdoor dining from early spring to late fall. A
feeling of cabin life, in one of the worlds most
advanced family houses, in a room with walls of
stacked firewood and bricks.
Source: www.snohetta.com

INNOVATIONS
Technology: Design follows the environment. The
house needs a large roof for solar panels, and this
influence the design. In addition great effort has been
put to combining comfort with energy efficiency.
Other: The design process is changed when building
this kind of building, and the engineers designing the
technical solutions where involved from the
beginning.

ENERGY
ZEB Pilot House Multikomfort Larvik
ENERGY INDICATORS
Primary energy need: 16387 kWh/y or 81
kWh/m2/y.
Net energy need for standard building: 120
kWh/m2/y + 1600/m2 heated area.
(TEK 10: Current building technical regulations in
Norway).

LIGHTING & APPLIANCES

Lighting: Only LED lamps. - Large roof windows for
good and natural lightning.
Appliances: Dishwasher(using hot water), washing
machine(using hot water) and dryer. In total an yearly
consumption of 15,8 kWh/m has been used for
simulations.
Total consumption (lighting and appliances ): 5581
kWh/y.

COMFORT
Temperature set point (heating): 21 C.
Waterbourne floor heating covers the 1st floor.

ENERGY

ENERGY DEMAND
Heating demand: 4236 kWh/y for heating and
ventilation (solar heating, energy recovery from grey
water and geothermal heatpump).
Cooling demand: 0 kWh/y.
DHW demand (domestic hot water) : 6445 kWh/y
(3223 kWh/y after grey water energy recovery).
Lighting demand: 1765 kWh/y.
Total electricity demand: 6900 kWh/y.
(Simulated values).

ENERGY SYSTEMS
Heating system: The heating system for this house is
designed with basis in a Nilan Compact P Geo 3 with
an integrated 3 kW ground source heat pump. The
heat pump can retrieve energy from either an energy
well of 100m or an earth circuit at 150m. It is intended
to cover 80% of the energy demand for heating.
According to the test conducted by the Danish
Technological Institute in accordance with EN 14825:
2012, the heat pump has a SCOP of 5.17. The
remaining 20% of the heating comes from 16 m of
solar collectors from Hewalex mounted on the roof,
which supplies hot water to the heating system. The
heat is accumulated in a 400 l tank from Oso, and
distributed in the house with underfloor heating from
Uponor throughout the 1st floor and in the bathroom
on the 2nd floor. In addition, it is installed a large
radiator from Lyngson on each floor. Heat distribution
is designed to use only part of the system at the same
time, and this paves the way to test how the system
can be optimized.
Cooling system: Energy storage: OSO EPTRC 400 accumulator.
Control and Automation: KNX controlled heating and
lighting, delivered by Schneider.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES - RES

ZEB Pilot House Multikomfort Larvik
RES
Total RES installed power: 22,5 kW.
Total RES generation: 19200 kWh/y.
Renewable energy sources:
- Solar thermal.
- Photovoltaics.
RES cost: 1830 /kWp (total investment cost of RES).
Feed-in-tariffs: 0,02-0,12 /kWh (no feed-in tariff,
only spot is offered).

SOLAR PV
Installed power: 23kWp.
Annual generation: 19200 kWh/y (goal).
Investment: 1830 /kWp.
Maintenance: Recently installed.
Panels Surface: 150 m2.
System: Battery bank with capacity for one summer
day, and grid connected through an inverter.

SOLAR THERMAL
Annual generation: 4000 kWh/y (goal).
Maintenance: Recently installed.
Collectors surface: 16m2.
System: Flat plate collector, Hewalex.

BIOMASS
Outdoor fireplace. Not installed inside yet.