TOM DE BRUIJN DAVID WIJNJA GERWIN VELTMAN CASPER OUKES. 2013/2014 The BOX

Transcription

1 TOM DE BRUIJN DAVID WIJNJA GERWIN VELTMAN CASPER OUKES 2013/2014 The BOX

2 Content Introduction... 3 Chapter 1: Geographic Where can The BOX be realised? Dutch cities with a shortage of student accommodations Water? The BOX in Groningen The BOX in Amsterdam The BOX in Utrecht In which European cities can our plan be realized? An international problem Student housing problems in Belgium Why is The BOX on water? Rising sea levels The BOX a response to spatial pressure in The Netherlands? A movable home Living with water Ruimte voor de Rivier Chapter 2: Design and Durability What is the design of The BOX? Sizes and layout Design outside How do we make The BOX float? Archimedes Principle Stability Design Concrete Hull FlexBase FlexBase or concrete hull? Durability Electrical Savings Heat Savings Insulation Calculations of the heat pump and insulation Saving Water

3 2.3.6 Conclusion Chapter 3: Economical Will The BOX pay off? Problem with economics Decentralized energy production and centralized energy production The freedom of choice A heat pump or a pellet stove? But is a pellet stove that bad? Total costs Costs of water Costs of electricity Costs of insurances Costs of materials Funding The Box Rental contract Conclusion Sources Attachments Attachment 1: Calculating maximum weight of house on Flexbase Attachment 2: Calculating the maximum weight of buildings for new Flexbase hull (for the model) Attachment 3: Calculating the maximum weight of buildings on the model Attachment 4: Rental Agreement Attachment 5: Onderzoeksvragen & Plan van aanpak

4 Introduction As PWS we have done the YES-project. We ve chosen the subject Climate and Energy Research science. Our assignment was to look at what science and technology can contribute to stop climate change in the Netherlands and the European Union. We ve chosen to extend our field of research by adding an economical and geographical section. So in our PWS we ve chosen to combine different researches: an economical, a scientific and an illustrative research. With our different curriculums we can clarify our PWS from multiple angles. Each of us has taken on a different section; Casper has done the geographical section, Gerwin and Tom have done the section about the natural sciences and David has done the economical section. After a lot of twisting and turning and a brainstorm-session as to what the objective of our PWS should be, we ve come up with the following objective: Developing durable and innovative student rooms on water. We ve chosen this objective because we wanted to tackle a problem that is present nowadays and that seemed appealing to us. As we re all going to study next year (if all goes well) and we all want to have a room in the city the university is in, we wanted to tackle the shortage of student rooms. At the same time we had to involve the climate because that is such a hot topic at the moment. The next thing that popped into our mind was the abundance of water in the Netherlands, combining this with the ever-rising water levels and the climate change brought us to the idea of building a durable student room on water called The BOX. In the following pages you can read our reports on the various subjects: Geographical, Design and Durability and Economical. Together they will form the conclusion about our design. 3

5 Chapter 1: Geographic 4

6 1.1 Where can The BOX be realised? In the period the total amount of students on Dutch colleges and universities will increase by 48,000 (1), according to the latest figures of Kences. This student-housing organisation expects that the amount of students - living in rooms in the city where their college or university is located - will increase by 13,000. In addition, more students from foreign countries are going to study in the Netherlands. This considerable group of 5,000 students must be taken into account. In total, around 18,000 additional students are going to search for rooms, apartments or studio s in the Dutch student cities. Currently, many of these cities are already struggling with heavy shortages of student accommodations. In the period of time, from now to 2021, some substantial measures must be taken if the government wants to cope with this growth of students. An example of a solid, enforceable measure which the government could consider is a large-scale realisation of The BOX. But before the government is able to start solving the problem, the Dutch shortage of student accommodations must be mapped out. Therefore our first, descriptive sub-question is: Where can The BOX be realised? Dutch cities with a shortage of student accommodations The Netherlands has got 63 cities containing a college or university. The size of these institutions differs. There are institutions with over 30,000 students (2), such as the University of Amsterdam but there are also institutions with not even a hundredth of this amount, such as the Maritime Institute Willem Barentsz (3) on the island of Terschelling. Therefore, the lack of student accommodations is a problem that only a few cities have to deal with. In many Dutch cities the housing possibilities are sufficient to meet the demand of students, year after year. Mainly, the larger cities or cities with multiple colleges or universities have to deal with heavy shortages. This is clearly reflected in table 1 below. If you compare the second with the fifth column, you can see that the shortage mainly occurs in larger student cities, such as Amsterdam, Utrecht and Groningen. Table 1 If you look at 2013, the shortage of student accommodations is clearly shown in the fourth column of the table. Here you can see that there are several Dutch cities in which a large number of students indicate they rather live in that city, but aren t able to find accommodation. Note: data from the cities of Maastricht and Enschede are not included because of insufficient inquiry responses Notes: 1. Kences; Rapport Studentenhuisvesting Wikipedia; UvA 3. Wikipedia; Maritiem Instituut Willem Barentz 5

7 From now until 2021, the total amount of students who are looking for accommodation will increase gradually and spread over the Netherlands. Therefore, the figures of 2013 (table 1) are a reliable yardstick on which you can determine in which cities additional accommodation in needed the most. In this sub-question we will focus on the two Dutch student cities who deal with the largest shortages (Amsterdam and Utrecht). Besides these two cities, we also look at Groningen, because it is the only real student cities in our own region (the North of the Netherlands) and because of the fact that this city is comparable to the other three big student cities in the Netherlands. Total amount of students looking for accommodation in 2013 (per city). According to the latest figures of Kences the amount of fulltime college-students will increase from 368,000 in 2013, to 396,000 in 2021 (1). In the same period of time, the amount of fulltime university students will increase from 231,000 to 252,000. This means a joint increase of 48,000 students in the next eight years. Figure 1 Concretely, this means that each year, around 6,000 new first-year students are going to search accommodation. This increase is clearly shown on the prognosis of Kences for the next eight years (table 2). Table 2 By realising The BOX on a large scale in the Dutch cities in which the shortage of student accommodation is the largest (Groningen, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Eindhoven), the arising problems of this sizeable increase of students can be solved. Notes: 1. Kences; Rapport Studentenhuisvesting

8 1.1.2 Water? The BOX is a compact and flexibel disign: it occupies little space and it can be built and placed almost anywhere. Actually, there is only one major external component needed for the realisation of The BOX in the Dutch student cities: there has to be water in (or around) the city. Luckily, for the cities of Groningen, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Rotterdam and Nijmegen, the lack of this component is no issue. In all of these cities enough water can be found for a realisation of our plan. The questions about the specific locations of where The BOX could be placed is answered in the next sub-paragraphs. Nevertheless, not every water is suitable. Some waters are too busy in use by ships and carriers to realise The BOX on its banks. A large-scale realisation of The BOX could cause a deterioration in the discharge of water. Besides this, the realisation of The BOX could cause some social problems and obstacles, because not everyone is looking forward to have a student district in his or her front yard. Last but not least: we try to maintain nature- and recreational areas as much as possible. A huge plus would be if the banks on which The BOX is located is on open waters. In many cases it is economically attractive to build on an external location and subsequently replace The BOX to its designated location. In the third paragraph ( Why The BOX on water? ) we are going to sum up the pros and cons further. We set up five guiding questions for the determination of the location of The BOX in Groningen, Amsterdam and Utrecht: Is the location heavily used? Is the location part of important waters allowing The BOX to cause a deterioration in the discharge of water? Is the location part of a nature- or recreational area? Is the university or college easily accessible from the location? Is the location connected to open waters? We chose these particular five guiding questions, because with these questions you can measure both the economic, social as physical effects for an area. Setting up these guiding questions leaves us determining the exact locations in Groningen, Utrecht and Amsterdam. We are going to do this in the next three subparagraphs The BOX in Groningen With 189,000 inhabitants, Groningen is the largest city of the North of the Netherlands and the seventh city of the Netherlands (1). Groningen has got enough water for a realisation of The BOX. In total, 29,600 students live in this city, which study on the Rijksuniversiteit van Groningen and the Hanzehogeschool Groningen. Some faculties of the university and almost all the faculties of the Hanzehogeschool are located at the Zernikecomplex in the North of the city. Therefore, we searched for a suitable location near the Zernikecomplex, because then, the accessibility of the university and the college is optimal. As a positive external effect, the public transport issue of Groningen (2) is partly solved. Each morning, students form seventy percent of the total amount of people using public transport in the city. This causes delays and overcrowded busses and trains. By housing the students near the university and college, lots of these students will no longer have to use the public transport within the city. Notes: 1. Wikipedia; Groingen (stad) 2. De Streekkrant 7

9 Figure 2 Groningen: Zernikecomplex As you can see in Figure 1, there need to be realised 1,900 new student accommodations. The annual growth of 6,000 students in the Netherlands must be added to this number. The biggest part of this growth will move to one of the six largest student cities. This means that in Groningen around (1, ,000 =) 2,900 rooms must be realised. Of course, at the end of a school year, every city have to deal with an amount of graduates. With 2,900 additional rooms you should be somewhere in the middle of the balance between a shortage and a surplus of accommodations. Four students can be housed in one BOX. Therefore (2,900 / 4 =) 725 BOXes are needed in the city of Groningen. The best location to realise The BOX is on the waters of the Zernikecomplex (Figure 3). We found this location by answering our five, guiding questions: Is the location heavily used? No; the location is on enclosed, shallow waters. Is the location part of important waters allowing The BOX to cause a deterioration in the discharge of water? No. Is the location part of a nature- or recreational area? No. Is the university or college easily accessible from the location? Yes; the location is right on the campus. Is the location connected to open waters? No, building and placing The BOX has to happen on this location. In Figure 3 you can see a map of the water on the campus. If you place The BOX as we pointed out on this map, there is on the horizontally disposed water enough space for 43 BOXes (260 meters 2 rows BOXes / 12 meters per BOX). On the vertically disposed water there is space for 125 BOXes (((187 meters meters 2) + (80 meters 8)) = 1508 meters / 12 meters per BOX). In total ( =) 168 BOXes can be located right on the Zernikecomplex. The other ( =) 557 BOXes must be placed somewhere else. 8

10 Figure 3 The other BOXes can be placed in the most efficient way on the Van Starkenborgh Canal. Here, there are more disadvantages than on the water on the campus, but it s still a very good option. Is the location heavily used? Yes, the Van Starkenborgh Canal connects Groningen and Leeuwarden. Occasionally, larger ships use this Canal. On the location where we want to execute The BOX, the canal is at the least six meters wide, so ships still have enough space to manoeuvre. Is the location part of important waters allowing The BOX to cause a deterioration in the discharge of water? Not really. The Van Starkenborgh Canal is a canal and not a fast flowing river. Is the location part of natural or an recreational area? No. Is the university, or the college good accessible from the location in question? Yes, the campus is close to the area. Is the location in question connected to the open waters? Yes. As you can see in Figure 4, the location is not ideal. Still, this location (except the water on the campus) is the best second choice. The Van Starkenborgh canal offers enough space and water. Because of this, the location provides from economic advantages with the placement of The BOX. This is discussed in sub-question 1.3. If 9

11 you place The BOX as is shown in the map above, you can place (3340 meter 2 lanes of BOXes / 12 metres per BOX =) 557 BOXes. Figure 4 On the water at the campus and of the Van Starkenborgh canal together, fit ( =) 725 Boxes. On this way, we can provide (725 Boxes 4 students = ) 2,900 extra student houses. With this amount, we can solve and reduce the current shortage and future growth of the lack of student accommodation The BOX in Amsterdam Amsterdam is by most people known as the cultural city of the Netherlands. With her 810,000 inhabitants (1), it is the largest city in the Netherlands. Also, it is an important city on economical areas. The city is located in the most important economic region in the Netherlands: the Randstad and has with her airport, Schiphol, a major part in the Dutch Gross Domestic Product. Amsterdam has a whopping 29 colleges scattered all over the city (2). Despite this fact, the largest amount of students in Amsterdam has lessons on one of the two universities in Amsterdam: the University of Amsterdam (UvA) with about 28,000 students (3) and the Free University (VU) with about 19,000 students (3). The colleges and the faculties of the UvA are scattered across the centre of the city. Notes: 1. Gemeente Amsterdam 2. Gemeente Amsterdam (onderwijs) 3. Wikipedia; Amsterdam (onderwijs) 10

12 De faculties of the VU are, on the other hand, placed in one area. All faculties are located on the Boelelaan in the area called Buitenveldert, in the South of Amsterdam. To make the accessibility as good as possible, The BOX can be placed the best near the faculties. However, to determine the location, we had (except for the Boelelaan) no appointed location of the faculties: they are all scattered across the city. This is the reason why the accessibility reaches its highest point, when The BOX is placed in the district: Buitenveldert. This is not only close to the VU, but it is relatively close to the centre of the city and the Boxes are reachable with the bus, the underground, the tram and the train. Figure 5 Amsterdam: Buitenveldert As you can see in Figure 1, in the year of ,900 students weren t able to find rooms. With the growth of more than a thousand students a year, we get a total of 8,900 extra rooms, who have to be realized in a short time. This means that in the city of Amsterdam (89,000 extra rooms / 4 persons in a BOX =) 2,225 BOXes have to be placed in short notice to reduce the shortage The most ideal place to place The BOX on a large scale is at the Bosbaan. This is a rowing lane located in the Amsterdam forest. This is actually the only place in Amsterdam where student rooms can be placed on a large scale. This location has been found through five targets: Is the location in question heavily used? No. The location is on enclosed water and is not used (except for some hobbyist and rowers). Is the location part of important waters allowing The BOX to cause a deterioration in the discharge of water? No. The location is on enclosed waters and not a part of a river. Is the location in question part of natural or a recreational area? Yes. The Bosbaan is a rowing lane and thus a recreational area. Is the location in question good reachable from the college/university? Yes. The VU is located at a distance of one kilometre Is the location in question connected to open waters? No. The building and placing of The BOX on this location can be an issue. 11

13 Figure 6 On this location (Figure 6) it is possible to place (1,950 metres / 12 metres per BOX 2 rows of BOXes) + (2,000 metres / 12 metres per BOX 8 rows of BOXes =) 1,658 Boxes. In total, you can house (1,658 4 students per BOX =) 6,632 students on the Bosbaan. The other 2,268 students, divided over 567 BOXes, have to be placed on another location. The best second choice is the ditch in the East of the VU, the ditch in the South of the VU, the ditch in the Southwest of the VU and the water in the park in the centre of the Buitenveldert district. Are the locations in question heavily used? No. These ditches are only used for small hobbyists. Is the location part of important waters allowing The BOX to cause a deterioration in the discharge of water? No, the locations are mostly enclosed waters and not a part of a river. Are the locations in question part of natural or a recreational area? Yes. The water in the centre of the Buitenveldert area is part of the Amstelpark. The BOX will be placed in a small part of the park, so that the recreational area remains intact. Are the locations in question good accesibale for the colleges/ universities? Yes. The VU is located at a stone s throw. Is the location in question connected to open waters? Yes. This gives economic advantages whet placing and building The BOX in this area of the city If you place The BOXes in the Buitenveldert area, as shown Figure 7, it is possible place about: (1,250 metres 2 rows of BOXes / 12 metres per BOX) = 208 BOXes (975 metres / 12 metres per BOX) = 81 BOXes (1,300 metres / 12 metres per BOX) = 108 BOXes (( ) / 12 metres per BOX) = 138 BOXes (600 metres / 12 metres per BOX) = 50 BOXes BOXes In total, 585 BOXes on Figure 7 can house 2,340 students. This means that on this location, together with the Bosbaan (1, ) 2,243 BOXes can be constructed. With this, you create a stunning 8,972 extra student rooms. This amount is large enough to solve the current room shortage and the future growth of room shortages. 12

14 Figure The BOX in Utrecht Next to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Utrecht is with her 327,800 inhabitants based on inhabitants the fourth largest city of the Netherlands (1). The city knows twenty colleges and one university, which is the largest university with 30,000 students and each year a gigantic stream of new first-years. All colleges together offer a place for 65,000 students (2). The university of Utrecht knows seven faculties scattered over different buildings all over the city. Most faculties are located in the Uithof: an area East if the centre if the city. Some colleges are also located in this area. Because of these reasons, we chose to search this area for good places to construct and locate The BOX in Utrecht. Figure 8 Utrecht: De Uithof Notes: 1. Wikipedia; Utrecht 2. Wikipedia; Utrecht (onderwijs) 13

15 On Figure 3 it is shown that in the year 2013, there is a fast room shortage. In that year, 6,900 students were not able to find a room. With the average growth of 1,000 students added to that, it means that there have to be 7,900 extra rooms in Utrecht. Knowing this, there have to be (7,900 / 4 persons per BOX =) 1,975 BOXes realized to reduce the current room shortage and the future growth of students. The room shortage in Utrecht is almost identical to the room shortage in Amsterdam. But water in Utrecht is less common than in our capital city. Close to the Uithof the search for a suitable location was very difficult. The best location is located between the cities Utrecht and De Bilt and is located 2.4 kilometres from the Uithof and 3.2 Kilometres from the city centre. This pond next to the Hooge Kampsepad offers enough space to build The BOX on a large scale. Is the location in question heavily used? No, there is no water traffic. Is the location part of important waters allowing The BOX to cause a deterioration in the discharge of water? No, the location is on closed waters. Is the location in question part of a natural or recreational area? No Is the location in question good accessible from the colleges/universities? A bit, there are almost no direct large roads to the city and public transport is rare. Is the location in question connected to open waters? No, the building and the placing of The BOX have to be done at the place itself. Figure 9 On this lake near the Hooge Kampsepad a staggering (( ) / 12 meter per BOX =) BOXes can be realized. This means that ( persons per BOX =) students can be housed there. The remaining ( =) 315 BOXes will have to be placed on another spot in or around Utrecht. Water could become a problem for the location of the BOX in Utrecht. Water is scarce close to the Uithof and the canals in the centre of Utrecht are too narrow for our design. The other BOXes shall have to be placed further away from the Uithof. Another lake, the Strijkviertelplas west of Utrecht, does offer enough space. However, this lake is situated 6.5 km as the crow flies. 14

16 Is the location in question heavily used? No; there s no water traffic here. Is the location part of important waters allowing The BOX to cause a deterioration in the discharge of water? No; the location is situated on enclosed waters. Is the location in question part of a natural or recreational area? Yes. Is the location in question good accessible from the colleges/universities? Poorly to bad; travelling times to the university and colleges are quite high because of the big distance between the Uithof and the Strijkviertelplas. Is the location in question connected to open waters? No; building and placing The BOX will have to happen on site. Figure 10 At least (((500 meter 7 rows of BOXes) + (450 meter 1 row of BOXes)) / 12 meter per BOX =) 329 BOXes can be realized on the Strijkviertelplas. A staggering 1,316 can be housed on this lake. By realising the BOX on the lake near the Hooge Kampsepad (6,640 students) and on the Strijkviertelplas (1,316 students) the current housing problems and the expected growth of students living away from home (1,000 students) can be fully solved. 15

17 1.2 In which European cities can our plan be realized? The BOX is a universal project. As has maybe become apparent from the previous question, the BOX doesn t necessarily needs to be realised for one city or country. The BOX could be the solution in almost every country in the world with a housing problem. Keeping the YES-project in mind, we re going to look at which other European cities have a housing shortage and in which cities the BOX could be the solution to this problem. The question answered in this paragraph is: In which European cities can our plan be realised? An international problem A shortage of student rooms isn t a typical Dutch problem. There s a housing shortage in virtually all European student-cities. If we look at our southern neighbours, the Belgians, there s a housing shortage in cities as Leuven and Brussels (1). Further south, in countries as France, Austria, Switzerland and Spain these problems are also present. Some German and English cities struggle with these problems as well. In this paragraph we will research if The BOX could be the solution in the European student cities. We will primarily look at our southern neighbours, the Belgians. We will not plan the BOX on the water in these cities, but we ll just look if the BOX could be a solution to the problem. We re going to look at the amount of canals and lakes in these cities to see if the BOX can be realised there. Students coming to Flanders for a semester have a hard time finding a decent room. The supply of affordable, good-quality rooms is limited. (1) says Pascal Smet, Flemish minister of Education. The BOX could thus be a good solution in Belgium Student housing problems in Belgium There are three big student cities in Belgium. The city with the most students in higher education is Gent. In the school year the total amount of students increased to a staggering 65,000 students and caused a student housing shortage (1). The shortage has diminished the last few years, a large scale realisation of The BOX in Gent might not be necessary. There s on the other hand enough water in Gent to realise The BOX, especially in the south-west of the city. Figure 11 Notes: 1. De Morgen; Ernstig tekort aan koten in Leuven en Brussel 16

18 The second student city of Belgium is Leuven. The internationally renowned Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is situated here. This university alone is good for 54,000 students in Leuven (1). In contrary to Gent, there s a huge shortage of student rooms. A staggering 3,500 houses will have to be built in the city by 2016 to cope with the problem (2). The BOX certainly has potency in Leuven. Figure 12 However, again in contrary to Gent, there s not enough water in Leuven to realize the BOX on a large scale. A suited place cannot easily be found. The only placed where The BOX can be realised is on the water in front of Katholieke Hogeschool. The location is shown in Figure 12. Not just Leuven struggles with a housing shortage, also in Brussels, with five universities and 25 colleges (3), there s a huge shortage (2). In Brussels there s also not enough water to realise the BOX. There s just one location where the BOX could be realised. In the basin Vergrote Vergrotedok a staggering 7,000 boxes can be placed. However, this is part of a dump area in the centre of the industrial area of the city. The BOX is not the solution to the housing shortage in Brussels. Figure 13 Notes: 1. De Morgen; Ernstig tekort aan koten in Leuven en Brussel 2. Wikipedia; Leuven (onderwijs) 3. Wikipedia; Brussel (onderwijs) 17

19 1.3 Why is The BOX on water? The biggest selling-point of The BOX is its self-sufficiency in energy and that it is a sustainable building. In addition it is a typical feature of The BOX that it is placed on the water. Why did we chose to do so? Because there is a large number of benefits connected to a building on water. In this sub-question we are going to name a couple of the benefits of building on water. For example, besides economic advantages there are multiple benefits that have to do with spatial planning. The third, descriptive sub-question of this PWS is: Why is The BOX on water? Rising sea levels The climate is changing. Slowly we are seeing more and more severe weather extremes, such as hurricanes, floods and heath waves. According to many, mankind is responsible for this, but whether you agree or do not agree with this theorem, nobody can deny the rising sea levels. In the last 130 years, the absolute sea level has risen with about twenty centimeters (1). In The Netherlands the relative rise of the sea level is even higher, due to the severe subsidence (2) (map 48D). In The Netherlands, we have about 10,000 homes on water. Building on water might seem like a recent development, but in The Netherlands we have been doing this for a couple of years. Since the climate is changing, we are unable to predict the flood risk as good. Besides spending more money on prevention, policymakers think we should focus on aftercare of the consequences. One of the responses to these developments is building flood-resistant. That isn t the same as living on water or building with water. Something is flood-resistant or flood proof if fluctuating water levels will not cause any damage. We come across more and more periods of heavy drought or severe wetness. In these periods we need the space to temporarily store or drain the water. (3) Said Ties Rijcken, consultant for the founding Experimenten Volkshuisvesting and connected to the TU Delft. Still, there is a future in building on water. Instead of stopping the water and limiting it behind the dikes, we should cooperate more with the water. This provides a massive amount of benefits. A selection of these will be explained in the next sections The BOX a response to spatial pressure in The Netherlands? The Netherlands is becoming more crowded and is under pressure. Numerous interests jostle for the scarce room in our country. Since the prosperity and material consumption grow increasingly, the need for space increases. The solid ground of The Netherlands becomes more and more crammed. There remain only a few places where the land has a function. This is quite logical when you consider an average population density of almost 450 people per square kilometer. Besides that, the population in the densely populated areas of The Netherlands keeps on growing, as seen on the map below. Notes: 1. Wikipedia; Zeespiegelstijging 2. Grote Bosatlas (53e druk); kaartblad 48D 3. Volkskrant; Ties Rijcken 18

20 Table 3 A big benefit of building on water is that it doesn t take up existing land: there is a lot of water in The Netherlands, but there is almost nowhere built on water. Despite the fact that by building on water you cannot solve the complete spatial pressure problem in The Netherlands, building on water is the future as The Netherlands becomes increasingly prosperous and busier. There isn t enough space to solve the deficit of student rooms close to the universities and academies in the big Dutch cities. Due to this reason, we have chosen to make The BOX a floating project. This is one of the few ways to create large scaled student homes in cities A movable home Perhaps the biggest benefit of building on water is the economic benefit of a home that is easily movable. A movable or mobile home is efficient. You are able to construct your house in a cheap outlying area instead of building it in an expensive urban center. This saves money. The house can be built in a factory instead of building it at a construction site, where the construction might cause nuisance to the neighborhood. The building process is quicker and cheaper. Besides, you disconnect the house from the location. This increases options. If you are forced to live smaller, you d swap your floating home for a smaller one (new or used) and are to keep living on the same spot. If you want to live closer to school, you search for a matching docking area and aren t forced to leave your house. This produces a different market as the real-estate market. First, you d choose the spot you prefer living, then you choose the matching home, or vice-versa. This leads to a much more dynamic interplay of supply and demand than the existing housing market. (1) This is exactly the same for The BOX. The homes can be built in a cheaper area and subsequently moved to the designated areas in the city centers in The Netherlands. Economically, this is a huge benefit. Notes: 1. Volkskrant; Ties Rijcken 19

21 1.3.4 Living with water Not only the sea (sub-paragraph 1.3.1) and the Dutch rivers (sub-paragraph 1.3.5) can cause waterlogging: rain can cause some severe problems for the Dutch inhabitants. Because of the climate change, heavy, extreme rain showers are more and more common. Besides this waterlogging after extreme rain showers is getting worse because of the increase of hard surfaces in the Netherlands. Less infiltration of rain water in the ground can take place. Mainly, this waterlogging occurs in cities with clobbed pedestrian area s, parking spaces and fully tiled backyards. At this moment, waterlogging is highly noted on the political dairy of the Dutch government. We start realising more and more that we have got to give the water more space. If we do not do this, water will take this space itself, and with force. Instead of fighting the water, it is our task to cooperate with water. The Nota Ruimte of 2006 declares that we can reduce the effects of the climate change if we tune the destination, ordening and the use of space with water and the ground. Before this note, the Dutch often did the opposite: first, the ground was planned, and subsequently the water level was regulated. An example of this is the construction of polders. Together with the subsidence of the ground in the Netherlands, the Dutch water management had to be renewed. The new plan became: the function follows the water level. (1) This doesn t directly solve the problem of the more occuring waterlogging in cities because of the increase of hard surfaces in the Netherlands. Just as the river area, the water management in cities is modulated by the three-stap strategy: (1) 1. Retain rainwater in the city. 2. If this isn t possible, water must be stored in the city in ponds or in underground water basements. 3. If this isn t possible as well, then the water must be drained. In a lot of Dutch cities, projects are realised in which people corporate with water. Examples are underground polderstorages and so called wadi s: ingenious systems of gutters which can store and drain superfluous water. These are good examples of management against the waterlogging in cities. According to us, people can cooperate with water much better: for example, houses which rise along with the water level at times of waterlogging. This is, next to the fact of a moveable house (sub-paragraph 1.3.3) the biggest advantage of The BOX Ruimte voor de Rivier Durable student accommodation located on water is, of course, a beautifull concept, but it has got to go along with other plans of the government. Our plan could conflict with a key decision in Dutch Planning called: Ruimte voor de Rivier. (2) This decision is made after research showed that the change of a flood is getting bigger in the Netherlands. The Dutch rivers are losing space. They are squeezed between higher and higher dikes. Besides this, more and more people are living behind these dikes. At the same time, the Dutch subsidence continues. Therefore, in 1995 the decision was made to allow the Dutch rivers more space. There are seven different types of measures possible for the government to do this, such as the replacement of dikes, depolderisation and digging side channals. The replacement of obstacles in the riverbeds is one of these seven measures. By doing this, water from the river can flow and drain more easily and faster. Notes: 1. TERRA Aardrijksunde 2 e fase (deel B): paragraaf TERRA Aardrijksunde 2 e fase (deel B): paragraaf 7.2 Figure 14 20

22 The realisation of our plan could conflict with the concept of Ruimte voor de Rivier. A realisation on largescale of The BOX in a (fast)-flowing river such as the Rhine, could influence the extent and rate af drainage of the river. Municipalities have got to take this into account by realising The BOX. If you put The BOX in a flowing river, it could form an obstacle (Figure 14) in the river. Cities as Nijmegen and Maastricht cannot (by solving the problem of a shortage of student accommodation) cram the Waal and the Maas with BOXes. In these cases, The BOX forms an obstacle which could, in the most severe case, lead to floods. We took the concept of Ruimte voor de Rivier into account by locating the BOX in Groningen, Amsterdam and Utrecht. All the locations are situated on enclosed or (slowly flowing) open waters and do not have serious impact on the drainage of the water. 21

23 Chapter 2: Design and Durability 22

24 2.1 What is the design of The BOX? Building boats has been an occupation of mankind for about 8,000 years now. The first boats were the socalled logboats; a simple, hollowed out tree trunk. Those simple boats have evolved into thin, modern, lightweight, carbon-fibre boats and big, complex, heavy-weight, steel ships. Just after the Second World War, the people of Amsterdam started building houseboats because the city was hugely overpopulated and was struggling with housing shortage. The first houseboats were built from old cargo ships. The houseboats had an average length of about 25 metres. Nowadays, Amsterdam contains more than 2,400 houseboats and 750 of them are moored in the old canals of Amsterdam. There are about 10,000 official moorings for houseboats in the Netherlands. About ten years ago, the idea of building a complete house on water instead of the small houseboats was suggested. The first experiments with amphibious houses began in 2005 and soon after the successful experiments more floating houses were built. Neighbourhoods of amphibious houses came into existence in cities as Amsterdam and Lelystad, giant offices were built on water and more people were living in floating houses than ever before. With all those designs in mind, we started creating our own floating house, not a conventional rectangular houseboat but a square box Sizes and layout The BOX seems quite big at first sight; its surface is roughly 100m 2. It had to be as small as possible and as big as necessary. If it is too big, it needs a lot of room, which isn t really handy. Due to stability a requirement was that the building had to be 10m by 10m or bigger, this is explained in chapter 2.2. If it would ve been smaller, the building wouldn t be stable anymore. This is why The Box is this big. We chose to have one floor only, because a second would ve made The Box even bigger and there is also a possibility that houses are going to be stackable. The rooms are 2,5m high, which is a normal height, any higher would be unnecessary and any lower would be clumsy and awkward. Interior-wise we have five rooms and a meter cupboard. There are four bedrooms, a living room/kitchen and a bathroom. We didn t want to have the center of gravity on a side or corner, because this would make the house skew. This is why we tried to put the heavy things as close to the middle as possible or put another heavy thing on the opposite side. The bedrooms are placed next to each other and take up roughly half of the interior. The bathroom is placed in a corner. Really heavy things, that don t need to be very accessible, like a heat pump, can be placed anywhere we like, because they can be placed below ground level. This is why we can place the kitchen and the bathroom, which are heavy objects on one side. Bedrooms Living room/kitchen Bathroom Design outside Figure 15 From the outside, the building looks just like a normal house. It looks a bit like a bungalow or maybe, when in the water, like a normal houseboat, just a bit bigger. Initially there are five windows: one in each bedroom and a big one in the living room. It is very easy to create extra windows, but because glass isn t insolating as good as a properly isolated wall, this is going to change the energy consumption. Since The Boxes are going to be joined on two opposite sides of the house, it wasn t possible to create openings (e.g. windows or doors) in those two sides. This is the outside of the house. As you can see it is simple and square. 23

25 Figure 16 Figure 17 24

26 Figure 18 Figure 19 Figure 20 25

27 Figure 21 26

28 2.2 How do we make The BOX float? All nice those designs, but just putting a house in the water won t make it float. To make it float we need something under the house, something to keep it afloat. Archimedes principle and stability play a big part in making houses float. In the following pages we re going to explain how we re going to make The BOX float and what type of hull we re going to be using Archimedes Principle Why is Archimedes principle important for floating houses? Before we can explain that, we first need to look at what Archimedes principle really is. The principle, as stated by Archimedes, is as follows: Any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. Archimedes (1) Archimedes states that every object, that is immersed in a fluid, undergoes an upward force called the buoyant force ( ). The object is pushed up to the surface of the fluid by that force. The buoyant force can clearly be seen when you release a plastic bottle underwater, it will be pushed up to the surface by the buoyant force. The upward buoyant force is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. So when a volume of 1 litre is displaced by an object, the buoyant force is equal to the weight of 1 litre of water. From this thought a formula followed: 1. The mass of the water is calculated by multiplying the density ( ) with the displaced volume ( ). The force is then calculated by multiplying the mass with the gravitational acceleration ( ). Another formula is needed to calculate when something floats. This is the formula of the gravitational force ( ). The gravitational force is acting on all objects on Earth, pulling it towards the centre of the Earth. The formula for the gravitational force is:. When you put an object in water, that same gravitational force is acting on the object, wanting to pull it under water. This is where the buoyant force comes in, because that buoyant force wants to push the object out of the water. The two forces on the submersed object are acting in opposite directions; gravitational force is acting downwards and the buoyant force is acting in the upwards. An object in water floats if the gravitational force is as big as the buoyant force, so if. In this situation, the force acting downwards is as big as the force acting upwards; the object won t move up or down. With this formula, we can calculate the maximum weight of buildings on a hull and its draught. If the gravitational force is bigger than the buoyant force, that means the object will sink until it either fully sinks or immerses deep enough to create enough buoyant force. If the gravitational force is smaller than the buoyant force, the object will go up till an equilibrium is reached (1). F A F g Figure 22 Notes: 1. Wikipedia; Archimedes Principle 27

29 2.2.2 Stability The stability of an object in water depends on a number of factors; the most important ones being the centre of gravity, the centre of buoyancy and the surface of the object. The centre of gravity of an object is the average position of the total mass of an object, which doesn t necessarily needs to in the physical object itself. (1) Objects on land will topple if the centre of gravity lies outside its base. In figure 23 you see an example with a simple, square box. The centre of gravity of the box on the left lies within its base and therefore the box will fall back to its original position. The centre of gravity of the box on the right lies outside its base and therefore the box will topple. Figure 23 If we make the base bigger, it will be harder to topple that object because the centre of gravity is less likely to lie outside the base (2). Another important factor is the height of the centre of gravity, the higher the centre of gravity, the less stable an object is. In figure 24 are two objects, one with a low centre of gravity and one with a high centre of gravity. Though the objects are on the same angle and have the same base-size, the one with the high centre of gravity will topple. Figure 24 The same goes for objects in water, the bigger the surface of an object in water, the more stable it is and vice versa. The position of the centre of gravity with regard to the centre of buoyancy is another important factor for objects in water. The centre of buoyancy is the centre of the gravity of the volume of water that is displaced by the boat and is always under water. In an object in balance, the centre of buoyance and centre of gravity lie on a straight line, see figure 25. Figure 25 Centre of buoyancy Notes: 1. Wikipedia; Center of Mass 2. Schoolphysics; Stability Centre of gravity 28

30 If the centre of gravity is located below the centre of buoyancy, the object will be unconditionally stable. When the centre of gravity is located above the centre of buoyancy, the object is metastable (1). An object with metastability stays stable because of the gravitational force and the buoyant force. The object in figure 26 is an object that is metastable. As you can see, the centre of gravity is on one line with the centre of buoyancy and in a stable position (1). Now a force is applied on one side of the object, causing it to tilt, like shown in the picture. The centre of gravity stays the same but the centre of buoyancy moves to the left because the shape of the water the object displaces changes (1). Subsequently, forces in the centre of gravity and in the centre of buoyancy start to act. In figure 26 you can see the forces acting on both the points. The two forces create a moment: the force in the centre of gravity creates a downward moment, the force in the centre of buoyancy creates an upward moment. This causes the object to turn clockwise until the centre of gravity is back in one line with the centre of buoyancy. Once it has reached that point the object is stable again (1). Figure 26 (1) If a large enough force is applied, the object with metastability will eventually capsize. This happens when the centre of buoyancy moves right of the centre of gravity when force is applied on the left side of the object Design So there are numerous factors we need to take into account when designing the hull for our floating house, these are: The buoyant force needs to be big enough to hold a house; The house has to be stable in water, therefore we need: A big and stable base A low centre of gravity The hull needs to be durable; The immersion of the hull needs to be as small as possible, so it can lie in shallower waters. In the following pages we re going to look at the differences between a conventional concrete hull and a new kind of hull called Flexbase made from expanded polystyrene, also called EPS, and concrete. They both have their own advantages and their disadvantages which we re going to look at. The size of The BOX is going to be ten by ten metres, because from ten by ten metres the Flexbase hull is stable (2). Notes: 1. Seed; Stability and Centre of Buoyancy 2. Jan Willem Roël (Head of Flexbase) 29

31 2.2.4 Concrete Hull Traditionally, houseboats were built on old steel ships. Those steel ships were suffering from corrosion and needed lots of maintenance (1), so it s no surprise that a new solution had to be found. The solution came in the form of concrete hulls; giant, rectangular containers made from reinforced concrete (concrete reinforced by steel wires). The concrete hulls need less maintenance, are stronger than the conventional houseboats and do not suffer from corrosion or any other damage that is done by water (2). Figure Production and design The production of concrete hulls is mostly done on land, in dry-docks. The concrete hulls are casted in drydocks for better transport when the hull is finished; the hulls can immediately be put in water and transported to their new location (3). As you can imagine, transport on water is easier than transporting the hulls across land; it s not simple to transport a hull of a few meters wide and more than ten meters long across a highway. The hull itself is casted in one time into a raster of steel wires to make it a very strong foundation for a house. The steel wires are there to reinforce the concrete, making it able for the concrete to withstand bigger forces without breaking (3). The dimensions of the walls and floor of concrete differ between 15 cm and 25 cm, mostly the floor will be thicker than the walls. Below is the cross-section of the design we will use for our hull, it has a floor of 25 cm thick and the thickness of the walls is 15 cm (3). Figure 28 Notes: 1. Wikipedia; Woonboot 2. Amsterdam Houseboat trivia 3. Betonbakken 30

32 Below is the top view of the concrete hull we re going to be calculating with, both width and length are 1030 cm. Figure Calculating the maximum weight In order to compare the two designs, FlexBase and the concrete hull, we need to calculate the maximum weight both hulls can hold until they are 50 cm above the water (the clearance of 50 cm is for safety measures). As height of the hull we ve chosen 1.5 metres. To calculate the weight the concrete hull can hold, we first need to know the mass of the concrete, we can calculate this by multiplying the density of concrete with the volume of the concrete. The concrete hull actually consists of a floor with four walls. The density of reinforced concrete is 2500 kg/m 3 (1). Volume floor The length and width of the floor are 10.3 m and the depth is 0.25 m. The volume is: Volume walls The four walls consist of two pairs, one pair width a length of 10.3 m and another with a length of 10 m. All walls have a thickness of 0.15 m and a height of = 1.25 m. The volume of the walls is: ( ) ( ) Total volume Notes: 1. Soortelijk Gewicht; Beton 31

33 Mass of hull The mass of the hull can be calculated by multiplying the density of reinforced concrete with the volume: Immersion without buildings In an equilibrium, the upward, buoyant force of the water ( = Archimedes formula) is as big as the downward, gravitational force ( ). The following formula follows from this: To calculate the immersion, you must know what the amount of displaced volume is. You can calculate this by converting the formula above: When you fill in the data you will get this: If you devide the displaced volume by the surface that displaces that volume, you will get the height under water, the immersion. The hull, without any buildings on it, has an immersion of 80.5 cm. Maximum mass of house The maximum mass of the house is equal to the remaining volume, this is the volume that is between the 50 cm that has to be above water and the 80.4 cm that is already under water. This height is the following: The remaining volume is: The maximum mass can be calculated with the following formula: So if we fill in our data in that formula we get: So the maximum mass of a house that can be built on this hull is Stability The concrete hulls are very stable because the centre of gravity is very low relating to the centre of buoyancy. As we ve said, the lower the centre of gravity, the more stable the object. The centre of gravity is this low because the most of the mass is in the thick concrete floor Durability A very important aspect of our design is durability; both the hull and the house need to be built from durable materials. Luckily, concrete is a durable material and it is recyclable. Below are some facts and figures about the durability of concrete: The concrete-industry uses more waste than it makes, up to eighteen times as much 1 ; During the production of prefab concrete, less than 1% waste is disposed 1 ; 32

34 You don t need packing-materials (1) Concrete from demolished buildings can be used to make new concrete; the concrete made is stronger than the original concrete (1) 90% of all concrete will be reused (1) Concrete can be made locally; large concrete segments do not have to be moved with big trucks but (1) can be made locally, saving CO 2 Concrete has a lifespan of about 75 years (1) Concrete is basically a mixture of cement, sand, water and gravel, those products are widely available and aren t rare, non-durable products (1) Concrete hulls need less maintenance than conventional metal hulls (1) We do not need to worry about the durability of the concrete; its recyclability, use of durable materials and local production make concrete a very durable product. It s good to see that besides the durability of the material, the transport of concrete is also durable FlexBase A few years ago, some companies came up with a new idea for a hull. Instead of using a big and especially heavy concrete container, you can also use different, lighter materials to make a hull for a houseboat. The choice was quickly made; EPS (piepschuim) was chosen. EPS consists of 98% air and 2% EPS, this means EPS is very light (2). In fact, one cubic metre of EPS in water can hold up to 900 kilograms (3). The EPS is reinforced with concrete. Figure 30 EPS; a very light material Production and design The hulls made from EPS can be fully produced on site, which means on the place where the houseboat needs to be stationed. The first thing that needs to be done is to lay out a floor on the water. The floor is made from two layers of EPS panels and has a total thickness of 40 cm. The panels are connected with a scarph joint and are laid down in a pattern that is shown below. The second layer lies crosswise on the first layer making it a very strong foundation. Figure 31 The scarph joint The pattern in which the panels are laid out Notes: 1. Beton in duurzaam 2. Wikipedia; polystyrene 3. Jan Willem Roël 33

35 After the first two layers are on the water, blocks of EPS with a thickness depending on the weight of the house, are put on the platform with a gap of 20 cm between them. A raster will form where concrete will be deposited, see figure 32 for a visualisation. Figure 32 First the EPS blocks are put on the floor and afterwards concrete is casted in the raster The concrete is casted because the EPS won t be able to withstand the force of the house. EPS can handle a lot of pressure, just try pressing in a EPS block, you have to apply a lot of force to make a small dent. But when you take that block and try to break it in two, you don t need much force. The concrete is casted in that raster to make sure the EPS won t break from the pulling forces of the house (1). So after the concrete is casted in the raster, concrete prefab-panels will be placed on the sides. The panels are 20 cm higher than the edge of the hull, making it possible to cast a floor of concrete on top of the hull. Figure 33 First the panels are placed on the side of the hull and subsequently the floor is casted In figure 34 you can see a cross-section of the design we re going to be calculating with. All the sizes are in centimeters. In figure 35 you can see the topview of the design we re going to use: Notes: 1. Jan Willem Roël 34

36 Figure 34 Figure 35 35

37 After calculating basically the same thing as we did with the concrete hull, we found that this hull, with the same dimensions as the concrete hull can hold (1). This is about 9200 kg more than the concrete hull can hold, an astounding difference Stability The problem with EPS is that it is unstable because its centre of gravity is high in relation to the centre of buoyancy. The FlexBase hull, with its concrete floor on top, also has a high centre of gravity, which makes it less stable than a conventional, concrete hull. The EPS-hull is stable from 10 by 10 metres (2). We incorporated this into our design, making it at least 10 metres in width and 10 metres in length. This hull should be stable enough, but it will still be less stable than a conventional hull Durability Durability isn t a problem when it comes to concrete, like we ve said before. But how about EPS? EPS is a socalled mono-material, which means it consists of one kind of material. This makes it suitable for recycling. EPS also doesn t take any damage from water and the EPS used in this hull is also coated; this too is to prevent damage (2) Test FlexBase To test if the calculations we made are right, we decided to make a model of EPS. The model is fully made of EPS, the weight of the house and concrete was added later to check if the immersion in water we calculated was right. The model should be about 20 cm big, so we divided all the values by 50. A few adaptions were made to the original size. We increased the height to 2.5 m so we could use the height of 5 cm of the EPS. The clearance from the water was increased to half the height of the hull, 1.25 m. This is 2.5 cm on the model. Figure 36 /50 Figure 37 Notes: 1. Attachment 1 2. Jan Willem Roël 36

38 Then we made the same calculations as before and calculated that the model should be able to hold kg = g (1). We can control if this is right by dividing the maximum mass of the house of the original hull by the model hull (see Attachment 2) for the exact calculations for the new real size Flexbase). The outcome of this division should be around , this is because we divided both width, length and height by 50. The new Flexbase hull can hold: kg (3). So now we divide that weight by the weight of the model: This is about (not exactly because we rounded off some numbers). We can now conclude that the calculations for the model are right. Building the model The density of the EPS we wanted to build the model from was 13 kg/m 3, which is not enough, because the density of the EPS used in real-life is 25 kg/m 3 (1). We need to add extra mass to the model. The mass we have to add can be calculated by subtracting the mass of the EPS with the density of 13 kg/m3 from the original mass of the EPS. Since some of the EPS is replaced by concrete, for the raster in the hull, we need to subtract the mass of the replaced EPS. The mass that has to be added for the concrete is: The total mass that has to be added is: Notes: 1. Jan Willem Roël 2. Attachment 2 3. Attachment 3 37

39 The experiment We then cut an EPS platform of about 20 by 20 centimetres and filled a bucket with water. A spoon, three toothpicks and a weight added up to exactly 1029 grams. We stuck the spoon and the toothpicks in the EPS platform and put the weight between them so it wouldn t roll of. The results We measured the immersion on all the four sides of the EPS model to control whether our calculations are right. On the right you can see the centimetres of immersion. The difference between right and left is caused by an unequal distribution of weight on the platform. We can assume that if the weight would be distributed equally, the immersion on the right and left side would be 2.5 cm. 2.5 cm 2.6 cm 2.4 cm 2.5 cm Figure 39 Figure 38 Conclusion From this we can conclude that the calculations we made are correct. The immersion on all sides is 2.5, which is what we calculated beforehand FlexBase or concrete hull? Now that we ve discussed both types of hulls, let s sum up what we ve learned about the two types of hulls. Table 4 There are some differences between the FlexBase hull and the concrete hull and though the concrete hull is more stable, our preference lies with the FlexBase hull. It is able to hold 44% more mass than a conventional hull and has almost, except from the stability, the same advantages as the concrete hull. 38

40 2.3 Durability Not the most unimportant factor of The BOX is durability, saving water, energy and gas are at the upmost priority. The BOX needs energy. Rooms need to be at a proper temperature, kitchen appliances and devices need electricity. The conventional methods aren t really renewable or environmentally friendly; it usually involves burning gas and/or using grey energy. The BOX also needs clean water The biggest users of water are the toilet, shower and the washing machine. It s shocking to see that we use more than 120 litres of clean water every day and only 0.6 L is used for actual drinking (1). Now it might be silly you think, to save water in the Netherlands, but the opposite is true. Johan Woltjer, professor Urban planning, expects that sweet, clean, potable water might be scarce within ten years (2). The rising sea level is causing the ground to salify, turning the sweet groundwater into salt groundwater. So if clean water supplies are dropping, we need to find ways to save clean, potable water. The way to save clean water is to reduce the use of clean water of the toilet, shower and washing machine. The BOX also needs to be heated. Usually rooms are kept warm by central heating. Most people use a boiler, which converts natural gas or electricity into warmth or better put: heats water using gas or electricity. This warm water is pumped through a system of radiators. The boiler burns gas, often at a low efficiency, which isn t environmentally friendly. To get a higher efficiency, condensing boilers have been developed, but these boilers still aren t green Electrical Savings Most people use electricity from the grid. This usually isn t green energy, however some electric utilities do supply green energy, this is energy produced by for example wind turbines or biomass. About one third of all Dutch households use green energy (3), but only one percent of the energy consumption in the Netherlands is produced by solar panels (4). It is nearly impossible to only use solar power, due to the fact that solar panels don t produce energy when there is nearly no light e.g. nighttime. Also, it is very inefficient to store electricity in batteries, because batteries are expensive, have a short lifetime and you would need lots of it. This is why The Box still needs to be connected to the grid. When a solar system produces more energy than its owners use, the system feeds electricity into the grid; this energy can then be used by other consumers. It also works the other way around; if a pv-system (photovoltaic system) isn t producing electricity, because a lack of light, the consumer can use electricity from the grid produced by e.g. wind turbines. The energy fed into the grid is multiplied by your feed-in tariff and then deducted from your energy bill. Most Dutch electric utilities use the same price for the feed-in tariff and the price for the consumed energy, as long as your energy consumption isn t greater than 5000 kwh (5) and the energy feed into the grid isn t greater than this. It is financially unattractive to feed more energy into the grid than the amount of energy consumed, because the price the electric utility pays for this is a lot lower. Notes: 1. Compendium; waterverbruik 2. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen; opinie 3. Wikipedia; groene stroom 4. CBS; hernieuwbare energie in Nederland Rijksoverheid; duurzame energie 39

41 Electric energy consumption is very dependent on the residents of the house, but it is also very dependent on other factors. For example: when there is a very wet winter, people might be more often indoors. Because of this, it is very hard to calculate the energy consumption. We have used the average consumption for a household consisting of four persons. Things like energy efficient refrigerators and CFL s (energy saving lamps), use less electricity, but a heat pump uses quite a lot of energy too. The average consumption for a household of four persons is 4580 kwh (1). This is also the amount of energy we want to produce with one house. Figure 40 The power of solar panels is measured in Watt-peak (Wp). This is the nominal power or the maximum power a solar panel can produce in one hour of light under standardized conditions. A solar panel of 1 Wp will produce 1 Wh if exposed to one hour of light under these conditions. These conditions are: the light intensity has to be 1000 W/m 2, the light has to hit the solar cell perpendicular, the air mass has to be 1.5 and the temperature of the solar panel has to be 25 C (2). Since these standard conditions are very rare, it is assumed that one hour of direct sunlight (sunlight with an intensity of 1000W/m 2 ) will produce around 0.90 Wh for every Wp in the Netherlands. On average there are about 1000 hours of direct sunshine in the Netherlands. (3) Table 5 This will only be reached if the angle of inclination and the orientation (angle of the roof relative to the sun) are perfect. The angle of inclination has to be around 35 degrees and the panels have to be orientated towards the south. The solar panels will be placed on a flat roof, but the efficiency would drastically drop if they would be placed at an angle of inclination of zero degrees. The panels are going to be placed at an angle using a support structure; this structure places the panels at an angle of inclination of 30 degrees. The orientation of the panels will be perfect since we are able to rotate The Box and/or the panels in such a way that the panels will face south. Notes: 1. Nuon; energieprijzen 2. Wikipedia; wattpiek 3. Zonnig Zuidwest; opbrengsten zonnepanelen 40

42 From the table of Hespul above, we can conclude that there will be no losses created by a wrong angle or orientation. We can put the above three paragraphs into a formula: E year = required annual production in Wh P peak = nominal power of the installation in Wp t direct sunshine = direct sunshine in hours η 1 = production Wh per Wp η 2 = efficiency of the angle and orientation We d like to know the nominal power of the pv-system, so: E year = 4580 kwh t direct sunshine = 1000 hours η 1 = 90% = 0.90 η 2 = 100% = 1 ( ) We want to produce 4580 kwh of energy with the pv-system and we need a pv-system of 5089 Wp to achieve this. The nominal power of each panel is usually around 245 Wp, but can be as low as 200 Wp and as high as 300 Wp (1). The Box will therefor need 21 solar panels to cover the energy consumption, but because we don t want to overproduce, 20 panels (pv-system of 4900 Wp) is a bit safer. A pv-system of 4900 Wp means that we are saving around 4410 kwh on our energy consumption Heat Savings For the heating of the house there are some green solutions which we will list below Solar water heating There is a green boiler: the solar water heater. This system uses a solar collector to heat water in a tank and the hot water can be used to shower or heat your house. The water heater uses energy from the sun to heat water, which is environmentally friendly and doesn t burn fossil fuels. But when it s cloudy or when it s really cold, this system doesn t work that good: the collector cannot convert enough energy, because there isn t enough. This system is often used in combination with regular boilers. This is why we think this isn t a system to implement in our design. Notes: 1. Wikipedia; zonnepaneel Figure 41 41

43 Wood heating There are ways of getting your house warm by using a woodstove, for example a wood-pellet heating. This system burns wood pellets, which are compressed chunks of wood, usually sawdust. When you are using this system, you don t need to be on the grid. As long as you have got pellets or wood, you can heat water. But the pellets burn at quite a low efficiency and therefor you need lots of it. This has huge drawbacks, you need to transport a lot of wood and you are left with a lot of waste. Due to this reason, we chose not the implement this concept in our design Heat pumps The concept behind this system is very simple, a pump moves warmth from one place to another. If, for example, you have a lake near your house and the water of the lake would have a temperature of 25 C, the system would extract energy, in the form of warmth, from this water. You can imagine that a system can extract more energy from water with a temperature than from water with a temperature of 5 C. Some farmers use this system to extract heat from just milked milk. The system does use some electricity. A heat pump can also do the opposite; cooling. There are different types of heat pumps: one involves extracting heat from inside the earth. It is possible to use such a system in The BOX, but it might cause great expenses and removes the benefit of being mobile. Pipes are drilled into the ground and water is pumped through them. Because inside the earth it is warmer, the water is heated. The system then extracts the energy from the warm water and pumps the then colder water back into the earth. Some places to place a heat pump are better than others, when the ground is hotter for example, the heat pump will have a higher efficiency. Another option is to extract heat from the water on which The Box is floating; this might be the most flexible solution for The BOX. The energy put into the system to pump and extract needs to be lower than the energy extracted from the water. Some say that on average a heat pump has an efficiency of 400%, a heat pump with an efficiency of 400% is a class COP4 heat pump. 1 This sounds impossible, but it isn t. If you put for example 4kw of electrical energy into a heat pump with an efficiency of 400%, it will extract 16 kw of heat. Figure 42 We have estimated that each Box would need a heat pump with a capacity of roughly 1,7 kilowatts to completely heat the house. This means that we don t need a gas connection anymore and that in one year each Box is saving around 2673 kwh or 260 m 3 of gas, for calculations, see chapter A heat pump does have a large drawback; it has high investment costs. Also, the heat pumps are generally quite large in size and capacity. It might be a lot more profitable to install one heat pump for every four or maybe even more houses Underfloor heating A heat pump usually goes hand in hand with underfloor heating. The reason for this is that a heat pump cannot produce water with a very high temperature, so to get a room on a proper temperature you need a huge surface which will heat. A floor is usually the biggest surface in the room. Notes: 1. Wikipedia; warmtepomp 42

44 Heat recovery (ventilation) A heat recovery unit makes sure a minimum of energy is lost. A good ventilation system is vital if the house is properly insulated. A regular ventilation system refreshes the air in the house by pumping air through it, this means that warm air is pumped out of the house. A heat recovery ventilation system extracts energy from the temperature difference between inside air and outside air. This is also possible to implement into showers, because the water coming out of the shower drain has quite a high temperature, which it doesn t need anymore. Approximately sixty percent of the heat put into the water can be recovered (1), which would usually translate into an energy saving of roughly 180 m 3 gas. But because we are using a special shower this will be around 60 m 3, which is around 618 kwh in one year. Figure Insulation Good insulation plays a very big role on how energy efficient a house is. In Holland the outside air temperature is usually lower than the inside temperature. In The Box we want to have a minimum of heat transferring through the walls, roof and floor, because that would be very energy inefficient and indirectly environmentally damaging. There are multiple types of heat transfer: conduction, radiation and advection are three of them. Heat transferring though the walls of a building is conduction. It means that the outside air heats the wall and insulation inside it and that then heats the inside air. So we want to have a minimum of conduction. Heat conduction or thermal conduction is measured in watts per meter kelvin. The construction industry often uses the U-value or R-value. The U-value is probably the easiest to understand. It gives the amount of heat that transfers through a material in watts per second, per square metre, per kelvin temperature difference between the inside and outside temperature. Well insulated walls have a low U-value Glass Different materials have different values of conductivity. For insulation it is best to have the lowest. Air is one of the worst conductors, which is very good for insulation. There is one condition, the air has to be stationary, otherwise advection occurs. There are other materials that are actually better insulators than air, for example argon. Some materials use argon as insulator. There is a lot to gain when it comes to heat insulation. When we, for example, take a look at glass, single glazing has a U-value of 5.7 W/(m 2 K), triple glazed windows with advanced coating (HR+++) and frames have an U-value of 0.81 W/(m 2 K) (2). This tells us that poorly insulated windows leak seven times more heat than well insulted windows. HR+++ glass (which is a Dutch standard) use three glass panes and two chambers of argon. This type of glass also has a coating on the glass that makes sure radiation from the sun can come through the glass, but radiation from the inside can t go out. HR+++ is very expensive, but since we want a well-insulated house, we still choose to use this type of glass. Notes: 1. Technea; douchewater 2. Wikipedia; thermal transmittance 43

45 Insulation materials It seem logical that when your budget allows, you d buy the best insulating insulation material to save the environment and keep your heating costs down, but this isn t always the best option. Some materials have a huge impact on the environment, but do actually insulate very well. Some of these are natural insulators, like wool from a sheep Natural insulators Natural insulators seem to be a great and durable way to insulate your house. Sheep wool, for example, is a great insulator and it seems to be quite renewable, but frankly it isn t. Sheep wool has NIBE environmental category higher than 7, whereas 1a is the best choice and 7c an unacceptable choice (1). Sheep take up a lot of space and their dung contains ammoniac, which is one of the most damaging gasses that cause the greenhouse effect. Natural insulators have another drawback; they can t permanently handle moisture well, so they need to be treated with special substances. This is why we chose not to insulate The Box with a natural insulator. Also, there isn t a natural insulator that is insulating exceptionally well, most of them work, but they just aren t good enough for us Synthetic insulators By far the best insulation material is a vacuum insulated panel (VIP). A VIP utilizes the property of vacuum that it is a very bad insulator. There are two definitions of a vacuum: the first states that a vacuum is a room without atoms and the second states that a vacuum is a room with a lower pressure than the outside pressure. In a room without atoms, there cannot be heat transfer by conduction. But a so called perfect vacuum is impossible to make. A VIP is conducts heat about five times worse than PUR foam, which is not considered to be bad insulation material and is very common. The problem with VIP is that it is vulnerable: when the panel is pierced, it cannot be used anymore. Also, the panels cannot be cut once ordered and the concept is fairly new, so it is not sure how long these panels will last. There is another new product: it is called Metisse. Metisse is an insulator made from old clothes, so it is very renewable. Metisse is a very interesting product for our project, but it doesn t insulate exceptionally well, there are better products on the market, such as certain types of foam. There are different types of foam used to insulate rooms: EPS, XPS, PUR and phenolic foam are probably the best known. They all use the concept that air isolates very well as long as it is stationary and thus not moving. All of these insulators insulate very well and most of them aren t environmentally damaging (EPS: NIBE 1c, XPS: NIBE 4a, PUR: NIBE 2b, phenolic foam: NIBE 2b). Phenolic foam is one of the best insulators. Notes: 1. Nibe; Twin2011-model 44

46 Table 6 We decided to use VIPs, because it is the best insulation material by far and we think that the drawbacks can be overcome Calculations of the heat pump and insulation To calculate the nominal power a boiler or heat pump needs, you have to make a transmission calculation. A precise calculation of the needed energy to heat a house is very difficult. You have to take a lot of things into account when making such a transmission calculation. First of all you want to know how much energy transfers through the walls, floor and roof. You also want to calculate the amount of energy that is lost due to ventilation of the house, because living in an unventilated house is very uncomfortable, especially because the house is near to air tight due to the insulation. You also have to calculate an amount of energy needed to heat a room when it is at a lower temperature than desirable. To be completely correct you should also need to take the heat production of people, pets and appliances into account. The calculation is based on values from the coldest day of a year, because that will be the most demanding day for the heater and you want it to work on that day as well Transmission To calculate the amount of energy transferred through the walls, floor and roof, we can use this formula: a = area of the wall, roof or floor U = U-value of the material T = difference in temperature between both sides of the wall The Box will have a temperature of 20 C and the lowest air temperature is -10 C. The area of all the walls is equal to ((10x2,5x4)-9,1) = 88.9 m 2 (the total area of the walls minus the area of glass and door) and the U- value of a 10cm thick VIP is W/(m 2 k). Notes: 1. Hou Het Warm; gevelisolatie 2. Technology Watch; vacuümisolatiepanelen 45

47 This means that, when the outside temperature is -20 C and the inside temperature is 20 C, through all the walls 149 watt is transferred per second, this seams a ridiculously amount, but since the VIP panels insulate ten times better than regular insulation, it is possible. It is impossible to calculate the annual heatloss due to transmission. Table Ventilation The heat loss due to ventilation can be calculated using the following formula: ( ) B = rate of ventilation, 0 is no insulation and 3 is maximum insulation V = volume of the room or house in m 3 T i = inside temperature in C T a = temperature of the air brought in in C Since the bedrooms need to be ventilated less than a living room, kitchen and bathroom, we are going to divide The Box in two parts. Because The Box uses a heat recovery ventilation system, the air temperature is going to be 17 C instead of -10 C. Table 8 The total amount of heat lost is 14,7 x 10 2 W or 1.47 kw. But we have to correct this number, because The Box has a wall orientated towards the north, but you want to have a little overcapacity too. Due to the wall we are going to add five percent and due to the overcapacity we are going to add another five percent. In total we re going to add ten percent. ( ) 1.47 x ( 1.10) = 1.62 kw The BOX needs a heat pump or boiler with a nominal power of 1.62 kw. 46

48 Estimation of annual heat consumption There is a very rough way of estimating the annual heat consumption. You can take a look at the average amount of hours of full load; the average amount of hours a boiler or heat pump runs at full capacity. In Holland it is determined that a boiler or heat pump needs around 1650 hours of full load to satisfy the need for heat (1). So The BOX uses roughly (1,62 X 1650 =) 2672 kwh of thermal heat in one year Extra electrical energy consumption Suppose The BOX would use a COP4 heat pump, so a heat pump with an efficiency of 400%, then the extra electrical energy consumption would be (2672 / 4 =) 668 kwh Saving Water Though we are building on water and we have focused till now of keeping the water out, it is also important to have water in your house. The BOX will be connected to the mains electricity and water. This doesn t mean that we shouldn t save on water. An average person uses 120 litres of clean water daily. Below you will find a table with the most important uses of water and their share in the total use of water 1. Table 9 1 Use of water 2010 Bath (2.3%) Shower (40.5%) Sink (4.2%) Toilet (28.1%) Washing hands (0.9%) Laundry (11.9%) Dishes, by hand (2.6%) Dishwasher (2.5%) Preparing food (1.2%) Coffee/Tea (1.0%) Drinking (0.5%) Other (4.4%) As we ve said, clean water supplies are dropping. Thus we need to find ways to save clean, potable water. The way to save clean water is to reduce the use of clean water of the toilet, shower and washing machine. We might have to use water other than clean, potable water to flush the toilet or wash our clothes with. In the following pages we will discuss some of the water-saving methods that will be used in The BOX Recycling Shower The shower is the biggest user of clean water and it will continue to increase as people seem to shower longer and longer, though in the last few years it has declined: Table 10 1 Notes: 1. Wamtepomp; terugverdientijd 2. Compendium; waterverbruik per inwoner 47

49 There s many ways of saving water in the shower nowadays; there are heat exchangers, water-saving showerheads and much more. However the biggest problem is the human itself; after all we are the ones that decide that after two minutes of washing our hair and body it s no problem to stay in the shower for another eight minutes. This is a problem that is interesting, if we can t decrease shower times, are we able to use less energy and water in that same period of time? Yes, we can. One of the newest things invented is called a recycling shower, a shower that reuses water and saves energy. The recycling shower is invented in Australia, which does not come as a surprise, since people there tend to take two or more showers a day. The recycling shower recycles a part of water that goes down the drain. This is how it works (1) : 1. Cold water is pumped from the mains. It does not need to be heated as it happens in the shower itself. 2. The water goes through the mixer, which adjusts the temperature to the desired temprerature. 3. The water goes down the drain and is pumped to a hydrocyclone, which removes particles that are heavier than water and splits the water flow so that 30% leaves with the dirty particles. 4. The remaining 70% of the water goes through a filter, to make it visually clean. 5. It enters a heat exchangers, the heat exchanger raises the temperature. 6. It then enters an electric heater where the temperature rises above 72 degrees for 15 seconds. It pasteurizes the water, this kills al bacteria. 7. After it leaves the electric heater, the water re-enters the heat exchanger and some of its heat is transferred to the water entering the heater, reducing its own temperature. 8. The water then enters the mixer where it is mixed with the mains water. Figure Water savings Recycling Shower The total water that one person uses per year is: 48.6 x 365 = L. For every liter that the recycling shower uses, you only need 0.3 L of clean water (2). So in order to calculate the amount of water saved, we multiply by 0.3, which gives 5256 L. A total of L of water is saved per person per year. The price per liter water is (3), so you save a total of per person per year. Notes: 1. Business Insider 2. Recycling shower 3. Vitens 48

50 Gas savings Recycling Shower In order to calculate what we save on gas by using the recycling shower, we first need to know how much gas is needed for one conventional shower. Energy needed for an average shower To calculate how much gas we need, we first need to know how much heat (in J) is needed to increase the temperature of one litre of water by one degree Celsius. We can do that with the following formula:. Q is the energy that is needed, c is the specific heat capacity (this is the energy needed to raise one kg one degree), m is the mass of the water and is the raise in temperature. The mains water has a temperature of 10.0⁰C, the temperature at the shower needs to be 45.0⁰C. So the raise in temperature ( ) is 35.0⁰C. The average shower uses 48.6 litre of water (1), which is a mass of 48.5 kg. The specific heat ( ) of water is 4.18 x 10 3 Jxkg -1 xk -1, so if we fill all of this in the formula we get: So the heat needed for one shower is one shower., with this we can calculate the amount of gas we need for Amount of gas needed for one shower When you burn gas, it gives off energy. One cubic metre of Groning s gas supplies (2). You know that for one shower you need, with this we can calculate the volume of gas you need to use for one shower. The efficiency of a condensing boiler lies around 85%, so the amount of gas you need is actually more. For the entire year you are going to need 365 times as much gas per person:. The price of gas is 58 cent per m 3, the total price of the gas is: Energy needed for the recycling shower According to the website of the recycling shower, it needs to heat one litre water (3). On average you use 46,8 litre of water, with this we can calculate the total energy used, which is:. The heater is electrical and we assume that the manufacturer has already taken the efficiency into account. We can now calculate the kwh of one shower. The shower uses per shower, this is annually: The price of one kwh is , annually it will cost you will save to shower. Consequently, Notes: 1. Compendium; waterverbruik per inwoner 2. BINAS 3. Recycling shower 49

51 Use of gas of the recycling shower Well it might be possible that all the energy used to power the electric heater is generated by burning gas. In that case we can calculate how much gas we ve saved by switching to the electrical shower. One cubic metre of gas supplies about 10,3kWh 1. So the amount of gas needed per person per year is: Annually, you save: = 71.6 m 3 of gas. Savings in percentages The amount of gas you save is: person per year is:. per person per year. The amount of water you save per Conclusion Recycling Shower Per person per year you save on gas and on water. In a house of four persons you ll save The total gas saving in the worst case scenario, where all the electricity is generated by gas, you save a total of 75% of gas. In the best-case scenario you save all the gas, which is better for the environment! The savings can of course be increased if you shower shorter, but this requires a change in habits which can only be controlled by the people that live in the house. The Recycling Shower is sure something that is going to be applied in The BOX Saving Water: Toilet and washing machine After the shower, the toilet and the washing machine are the biggest users of clean water. With an added up average of 48 litres a day, the toilet and washing machine use almost as much as the shower. The average water used by the toilet and washing machine in the past few decades can be find in the table below. Table 11 (1) Lukcily, the amount of water used by the toilet and washing machine is already decreasing. The fact remains that the toilet uses 33.7 L of clean water, but isn t necessary to use clean water to flush it. The same goes for the washing machine. It also possible to use greywater for those machines. Greywater is slightly dirtier than the water we now use but can perfectly be used. Rain is a form of greywater, it can be filtered and then be used for flushing the toilet. Since it rains so much in the Netherlands, this is a system that is going to applied to The BOX. Notes: 1. Compendium; waterverbruik per persoon 50

52 More and more often it occurs that if a new building is constructed, large tanks are stored underground near the building. These tanks hold rainwater that is collected on the roofs of building. The same system is going to be applied to The BOX but in a slightly different way. The tank will be replaced by a big bag of 4500 L that can hold the rainwater. The bag will be placed inside the hull, underneath the concrete floor. This bag has been developed by Efrarain. Below is an explanation of how it works. Figure 45 1: First it has to rain, the water falls on the slanted roof. 2: The water from the slanted roof goes into a pipe that carries it into the hull. 3: A filter cleans the rainwater (1). 4: The rainwater is stored in the bag, waiting to be used (1). 5: The pump pumps the rainwater to the machines that it is connected to (1). 6: The water can be used to flush the toilet and wash your clothes with (1). The piping s under constant pressure which is similar to that of the mains water. The water level inside the bag is constantly being monitored and if the water level in the bag is too low additional water from the mains is added to the bag (this happens scarcely). A one-way valve is used to prevent rainwater flowing into the mains Savings Toilet and Washing Machine The EFrarain sites states that a bag with a size of 4500 L should be enough to supply one household with enough water for both the toilet and washing machine. This means that you save all the clean water that you would normally use (2). The toilet and washing machine use an average of 48 L per day per person. Per day in a house with for people they use 192 L water. This is L or 70,080 m 3 of water annually. All this clean water will be saved. This is a total of saved per year Other advantages EFrarain bag Although it might seem dirty to wash your clothes with filtered rainwater, it is actually better for your clothes and the washing machine. When washing your clothes with rainwater you can use up to 70% less fabric softener because rainwater doesn t contain any lime like clean water. Consequently your washing machine will also last longer because it isn t affected by limescale. The same of course goes for the toilet, the toilet will also not be affected by lime scale and urine scale (2). Notes: 1. Efrarain 2. Efrarain; drinkwater 51

53 By placing the EFrarain bag the centre of gravity will also be lowered, increasing the stability of our floating house. This is not unimported as the centre of gravity of the FlexBase-hull is relatively higher up than a conventional hull. The EFrarain bag is definitely something that can be applied in The BOX Conclusion With these measures we save a total of ( *4=) L of water per year, saving up to on water. The amount of gas we save by not showering in a conventional way is 71.6 m 3 of gas, saving up to The amount of energy saved by the solar panels is around 4410 kwh, but the heat pump uses about 668 kwh, so we save a total of ( =) 3742 kwh. All these measures delivers quite some good savings, which is good for the environment. The people living in The BOX also need to take some responsibility, for example: don t turn on the heating while five windows are open or shower half an hour. Responsible behavior of the inhabitants of The BOX can save even more energy and water. 52

54 Chapter 3: Economical 53

55 3.1 Will The BOX pay off? Since ancient times, large projects required time, work and money. Or at least a replacer of money. From stones, to cattle. From silver and gold to coins. And eventually the note. Actually, the note is also a bit outdated. The digital world has overtaken the economy, without internet banking, the world stands still. A lot has changed, and a lot has to change if we want to continue living our lives as we do now. As you may have read in previous parts of this report, The BOX is an innovative design, however twenty solar panels, a heat pump and Kg of concrete don t come cheap. To give you an estimate of the costs, we are going to provide you with as many information as possible. After all, everything runs on money. Money is always important when starting a project such as ours. However, to reach our goal we have to be spending much of it. When we said that everything runs on money, we didn t mention decentralized energy or the use of revolutionary heat recovery systems. Many of our used products are non-polluting, or at least less polluting than much used systems. New innovative systems are usually quite expensive, since we are more focussed on green energy than money. Why care? The most important thing is how long it takes for the project to pay off. If the project is profitable, more people are inclined to invest in it. And as the owners of The BOX, there is a possibility to buy more boxes or improved technologies Problem with economics The box is an project, that is meant to be placed in the water. The strong foundation makes sure that stability is guaranteed. To raise energy on the water looks more difficult, there is no place to drill holes for a heat pump, and a windmill causes instability. But through new developments, the raising of green energy has been made easier to do for houses on the water. However not everyone is excited to use green energy. One of the reasons is that the cost are too high. In previous years, development of green technologies weren t cheap. Solar panels were too expensive, let alone a windmill. Therefore part of our project is to convince the people to invest in green energy Explanation of consumers behaviour A simple explanation of consumers behaviour would be that the purchasing-price greatly influences if the product is bought. For example, a car if you have a choice between a hybrid or electrical car of 50,000 or another car that costs 9,000 on diesel. Many people would consider the cheaper alternative. However, what is the cheaper alternative? Let s take a look at two different cars Mercedes Benz 190D (1) Fuel: 1.46 per litre of diesel X (25000Km per year / 12 Litre per kilometre) = each year Buying Price: Chevrolet volt LT (2) Maintenance costs Fuel: 2.89 per 100 kilometre. (25000/100) X 2.89 = 722,5 each year Buying price: 50, Notes: 1. Wijnja Family 2. Autozine 54

56 We have to solve a simple equation to determine after how many years, the Chevrolet is cheaper than the Mercedes. (T is the amount of years) T= 50, T T =17.68 Years After years, the Chevrolet is cheaper, not counting maintenance costs. And that for 17 years of a better environment. The remaining value of a car is difficult to calculate, if you want to do this, you have to take into account: the amount of driven kilometres, which materials have been replaced? What is the current condition of the car? And what is the expected lifespan? There is one problem with the Chevrolet, the lifespan is much shorter than an older car. The new rules that improve the environment by applying filters on cars, is damaging to the car itself. The engine can t make use of its full potential and so is decays faster. However, older cars don t have these filters and allow the engine to run smoother. The lifespan between an old and a new car is therefore not comparable. New rules have completely changed the car industry. What we are trying to prove with this is that the buying price doesn t determine our investments, we want to look at the efficiency and at the quality of our investments. If we use something with a value of and if we can gain instead of 2000 for an investment of 1000, that would be profitable for the economy and the environment. At the end, a modern car is better for the environment, but the lifespan is a bit shorter. This doesn t have to be a bad thing. The priorities of buying things has changed. And in time, cars will be better and better for the environment, just like many other products. People buy those new products and again improve the environment. We want to bring everyone in this circle, we believe that it is an effective way to reduce pollution Why profitable for the environment? If you know that for instance solar panels have a high efficiency, you are inclined to buy more. Which is better for decentralized energy production. Later in this report, we will talk more about that. The money we would get with our project, can and will be used to modernize the houses, like new durable products or more efficient solar panels Decentralized energy production and centralized energy production. Lately more and more people switch from normal electricity to green electricity. By means of solar panels energy is now generated privately. The whole idea of decentralized energy production is that the costs and environment greatly profits from this. Centralized energy is basically mass production of electricity; think of nuclear plants or a coal power plant. Decentralized energy has many benefits. For example: large power plants, who are very polluting, have to stay closed. In an article from Greenpeace from 6 February. The report that there are 137 people dying because of coal power plants. In total people go on sick-leave for days each year. Greenpeace points to a report from the university of Stuttgart. The following table shows which chemicals damages your body. 55

57 WADE (1) is the world alliance for decentralized energy, their objective is to develop high efficient energy systems. WADE explains that there are many benefits of decentralized energy. As we have told before, decentralized energy is bad for power plants. WADE illustrates this with a simple, yet effective picture: Notes: 1. Stutgart University; Health impacts of coal 56

58 In this example, gas is used to create electricity, but when you use solar panels, the pollution would be nonexistent. A benefit is that electric wires are not needed. However it is advised to keep connected to the electrical network for mainly two reasons. In case there is no on-site energy generation, in which case you can use electricity from the network. And another important reason is that you can supply green energy for others to use. WADE did much research into economic benefits of decentralized energy generation. With on-site generation, there is no need for transport and import from other countries. Nowadays, many countries import electricity because they themselves don t produce enough. A report from WADE concluded that all countries in the European Union combined can save up to more than %40 on capital cost. In the Netherlands there are certain laws that effect decentralized energy generation. When you have to much energy, you can supply it to your supplier. Companies are required by law to accept the supplied energy. Up to 5000kWh the energy supplier has to pay the same price for energy as the consumer. If higher, the company has to pay a reasonable price ( in many cases lower than the normal price). 57

59 3.2 The freedom of choice A heat pump or a pellet stove? One might forget that he has an enormous choice for every product imaginable. Different types of gas, water or electricity. Different lights, toilets and heaters. The Box is a cluster of choices. Some products are better for the environment than others. That gives us the question: what do we use? One of our most important ideas to implement in The Box is a heat pump. This is a green and efficient method to produce heat. This machine uses a lot of electricity, but with solar panels the costs are none-existent. But there is also another alternative for an heat pump: a pellet stove. A pellet stove as seen in the diagram uses compressed wood (pellet) to fuel the fire. The pellet is administrated automatically to provide the best heat-outcome. The pallet stove can be connected to a water source to heat it. It is small and doesn t have to be installed or fixed to one place, so why did we choose for a heat pump? The technical reasons were given a bit back in this report, but those are not the only reasons. As we ve said earlier, pallet is a compressed wood, in other words: a fuel source. Pallet has to be bought once in a while to refill the stove. Pallet is a product that is unstable on the market. When the price is too low, there is less production. When the price is too high, people can t afford it. This is the most important reason for not buying a pellet stove. It seems more practical, but the costs are unpredictable and it even might be possible that there is a pallet shortage. A heat-pump on the other hand uses electricity as a fuel source. Since we produce electricity ourselves. The fuel won t be a problem. This is, for us, reason enough to by a heat pump instead of a pellet stove But is a pellet stove that bad? The answer to that question is probably no. When we say probably we mean that there are always reasons to assume that something is bad or good. But a pallet stove can be practical. Smaller homes don t need a central heating system to warm the house. Sometimes one stove will suffice. And people think that burning wood is bad, since forests are being harvested. However pallet is made out of waste wood. A pallet stove can also be used to warm water. Just like a heat pump, there are pipes that can connect to a water basin and heat the water, the disadvantage is that the heat stove is restricted to one place. 58

60 3.3 Total costs Costs of water Water and electricity are very important for everyone. Water in the Netherlands is provided by Vitens. Since we have a special case ( a boat ) we have to pay for each new drinkable water connection, according to the official water network company. Other costs to receive water are: (1) Registration: Set up water measurement device : Mechanic costs: Price per m 3 : Yearly payment: Total yearly costs: Total capital costs: Costs of electricity Energy costs and yearly costs are not yet accounted for. For electricity, we have to look at different suppliers. We will use an independent advisor to point us to an energy supplier. We don t need the energy supplier for electricity, since we have enough solar panels. But as a back-up we want to be attached to the electricity network. Since we don t need gas, we can save much money, there is not gas installation needed, there is no connection to the gas network needed, and the provider doesn t charge that much money. It gave us the following results (2) : * Costs made without using electricity These three companies grasped my interest. However, we are not going to choose the cheapest, in the contrary, the most expensive provider would suit us best. As we have mentioned before, the Dutch law requires that energy provider have to accept the electricity that they receive. Up to 5000kWh for the same price. However, we can t say for certain that we can stay under the capacity of or solar panels. The use of electricity is dependant of the inhabitants, thus it is unsafe to draw conclusion. We used the average amount of used electricity for four persons to calculate as accurately as possible. Notes: 1. Vitens 2. Independer 59

61 Conclusive, Green Choice would be the best provider. The constant costs are the lowest and the price for electricity is lower than the other aforementioned providers. To be on the safe. The length of the contract is twelve months. So if the company, or the price isn t satisfactory, we can always choose a different one after one year. To bring the costs of Green Choice in more elaborated chart, we present the following: The total costs for Green Choice would be: (1) Yearly costs: Yearly subscribers costs: Transport costs: Services: Costs of the measurement device: Total yearly costs: Extra information: 1) The subscribers costs are made because one is connected to the electricity network 2) Transport costs are paid due to the costs of cables and other materials that transport electricity to The Box 3) Services are composed of checking and passing on the state of the electricity equipment. Now we have electricity and water, but how much water and electricity do we consume? The Box has room for four persons, we can look at statistics to estimate how much water one Box needs each year. NIBUD, an organisation that tracks water and electricity usage showed is that an household with four persons usually use 169m 3 of water and 4120kWh of electricity, since new innovative durable technologies are used (1) A simple calculation shows us that one Box costs: 169m = for water each year kWh = 347,16 for electricity each year Costs of insurances An insurance is one of the most important things, if the house is damaged. In an unlikely case, the costs could amount to a sum higher than the value of the house itself. To make a simple approach, there are three interesting types of insurances: A home contents insurance: the house including the possessions. A home insurance: only the house is insured. A contents insurance: where only the possessions are insured. Since we are going to put the house up for rent, we don t know which possessions will be in it. We decided to go with the middle option. A home insurance. There are still many companies left who provide this type of insurance. Since researching into every company takes too much time, we are going to use an independent site that filters the companies that we are most interested in. The site we used is from Independer. A company with the sole purpose of comparing insurance companies. Notes: 1. Independer 60

62 The cheapest solution would be Klaverblad Verzekeringen. All three companies are pretty similar. Delta Loyd is different with all risk insurance. But the difference in costs isn t that large. There is always an error percentage, since we don t know the total value of The Box, we can calculate the costs, but the taxation is very difficult, since it doesn t exist (yet). Therefore the information in this report regarding economic subjects are an estimation and not a precise calculation. The prices might differ from when or if The Box is built. We hope that the calculations will give us insight in our project Costs of materials All calculations concerning costs amount to capital costs and yearly costs, in the following table, only the capital costs are shown. We took many costs into consideration, however there are still things we need to take into account. Some costs are almost impossible to calculate, since our project has never been executed, the labour price will be almost impossible to determine. To compensate this, we used prices of regular houseboats. This is the closest thing to our project. A complete new houseboat costs around 200, (1). This is including a kitchen and central heating, Since we already covered installation costs in our table, we only need the price of the walls, and the exterior. So the price is at least lower than 200, Another boat similar to ours, complete with a concrete hull, costs around 76, (2), but the materials are less expensive than ours. The houseboat is also smaller than ours. We ve asked an Architect if he could estimate the costs, he told us that such a project is difficult to estimate the costs of, he told us that it was better to set a price, and let companies build it for you under that price. Considering the prices of the aforementioned houseboats, We put the price of labour costs around 100, and a price for other materials on 30, In other words, we would ask houseboat companies to build The Box for 130, This is without installation of the kitchen, the heat pump etcetera. The following table shows which materials we used, and at what price. Notes: 1. Trovit; huizen 2. Speurders 61

63 Capital costs: *This product is not yet in production Yearly costs Extra information: 1) A Hudson Reed MALAGA toilet. This toilet has a smaller reservoir compared to other tanks, it has a tank of 2.6 Litres, compared to other toilets ( 6 Litres) is saves much water. The price of this toilet is [1] 2) A kitchen filled with SIEMENS appliances. A kitchen is necessary for the renters to prepare their food. At a price of [2] 3) Living 40cm steel lights 60W at a price of [3] 62

64 3.4 Funding The Box Loans One of the biggest problems is funding our project, the state of the art technologies don t come cheap. We use high quality solar panels, a heat pump, a special shower and a unique foundation for The Box. All these things combined costs around To finance this we want to take the worst case scenario as a basis. A worst case scenario means, no government funding s. We need to completely cover the costs ourselves. Below, you can see a calculation of the amount of money we need to fund our project. Total Capital costs: Total Yearly costs: Total starting costs we need to cover: = We need a loan of at least There are multiple banks that provide loans, but there is one problem for us. Most loans are based in the income of the lender. Since we are young and without a well-paid job, the banks won t accept our request to loan such a large sum of money. So we ve come up with another idea. We need to find people who are willing to and able to take a mortgage and provide us with the necessary money. We, in turn, will hand over our profit to the lender so that he can pay off the loan and the interest. This concept requires a large amount of trust, since the lender has to take a large risk. If we are not able to produce the necessary income, the lender has to pay the consequences. Therefore we make a calculation to see how long it takes for the box to pay off, and at what the minimum price of the rental contract should be. To elaborate our idea we asked a person, whose name will not be named for privacy reasons, to volunteer as an example. This person is a member of the Dutch Rabobank. He is an employer with an shared company. We calculated the available mortgage with data received from this person. To calculate the available mortgage at Rabobank, we use an already made system. This system asks different data and calculates the mortgage that the Bank would provide us with. In the pictures on the following pages, you can see a part of the process that determines your mortgage. 63

65 In this menu, you can choose how long the contract will be. The percentages are the interest, that belong to the duration of the contract. 64

66 After our volunteer filled in the blanks, the system calculated the mortgage that would be available. Due to the privacy, we show data that is approximately similar to our volunteer. Here is the following data: With a loan of 40,000 a year (1) No other mortgage No other debts Not going to retire in 20 years A partner with no income An interest of 5.1% Fixed for 15 years We want to repay the debt in 15 years. The available mortgage is around 350, The needed mortgage is roughly 170, If we want to repay the mortgage entirely, we have to pay: 1, each month according to the bank system. That is 1, X 12 = 15, including interest each year Now we got a way to fund our project. The only thing that remains is a rental contract. The rental contract will be developed in the next sub-chapter. But the minimum rental price is part of the funding. So we will show the calculation here The rental price To calculate the rental price, we have to decide what the rental includes. For example, will the renter or the landlord pay for the electricity? In this case, we, the landlord, will pay for electricity water, and other yearly costs. This amounts to a total of each year, not counting the monthly loan costs. The yearly loan costs, including interest, are 15,744.00, if you add , then we have a total yearly costs of 16, The Box has room for four persons, the rent we want to ask is per month, so if we want to play our costs in the first year even, we have to ask a minimum rental price of electricity and water. = Each month per renter, including This is a very attractive price, The Box is a completely new and modern house, with a price of we are certain that there will be enough people who want to rent one of the rooms. In The first year we earn enough to completely cover our costs, in the second year, the interest has gone down and so will the costs of the loan. So every year, The Box starts to fund itself. And after 15 years, when the debt is paid, the only costs would be the yearly costs of This means that The Box will pay off. Notes: 1. Rabobank 65

67 3.5 Rental contract One of our objectives is to put The Box up for rent, but there are some laws that we have to take in consideration. For example: when you have five or more people renting your house, you need to have an rental permit. You also need to set up a rental contract. With this, the Dutch government has set up a few laws. To protect the landlord and the renter. The contract must contain the following: (1) The name of the landlord and the renter. The total price of rental. The bail. The address and a description of the house (rooms etc.). Starting date of the contract. Time and paying method. Agreements about maintenance. House rules. Signature of the landlord and the renter. The landlord and the renter are protected by the law due to these rules. There are agreements about who is responsible for which subject. Our contract contains all the aforementioned points and is added as an attachment to this report. Please note that some parts are left empty, since those parts can only be filled in together with the renter. In the previous paragraph, we calculated the minimum price for a room. But if there are a lot of renters, the price can go higher than our, advised, price. If this happens, The Box which is completely profitable after fifteen years, provides such an income, that after combining the incomes of other Boxes, you could produce another Box, but a newer environment friendlier version. When this cycle starts, it will continue to improve the environment tremendously. Notes: 1. Rijksoverheid 66

68 4.0 Conclusion We can safely conclude that The BOX will be able to solve a lot of student room problems and also be durable. Durability and costs are a big problem nowadays but as we showed it pays off to invest in durable energy. The BOX is a durable concept and uses very low amounts of energy, the energy that it uses is generated in an ecofriendly way. The BOX is also moveable and if one city s housing shortage has been solved, it can simply be moved elsewhere to help solve the housing problem there. In the year 2000 the UN-Millennium Declaration was signed. This declaration proclaimed the eight most urgent goals of the world leaders. The seventh Millenniumgoal of the declaration states that more people are living in a sustainable environment. With the concept of The BOX as a solution to the shortage of student rooms in the big cities in the Netherlands, we hope to provide the perfect pass to reach the seventh Millenniumgoal next year. 67

69 5.0 Sources Bos, F. (2004). WaterWoningen (1) De Geschiedenis. d=107&itemid=580 Bos, F. (2004). WaterWoningen (2) Een kwestie van definitie en architectuur &Itemid=580 Various (2014). Archimedes principle. Various (2014). Expanded Polystyrene. Roël, Jan Willem (2013). Head of Flexbase. Unknown (no date). Wet van Archimedes. Eem, Tim van der (2013). Afstuderen Drijvend Sportveld. Ooms Ontwikkeling (no date). Bouwkundige aspecten drijvend bouwen. Flexbase (2013). Flexbase, technologie. Unknown (2014). Betonnen casco s. Unknown (2011). De duurzame voordelen van beton. Various (2013). Beton. Conn, G. and Mason, M. (no date). Soortelijk gewicht beton. Various (2013). Woonboot. Heeck, J. (2000). Amsterdam Houseboat Trivia. 68

70 Compendium (2011). Huishoudelijk waterverbruik per inwoner, Vitens (no date). Vitens & Overheid. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (2012). Prof. dr. Johan Woltjer: Gebrek aan zoet water serieuze bedreiging Nederlandse economie. Various (2014). Waterschaarste. Maarten Nederlof, working at Centre of Expertise Water Technology (CEW). Polland, J. (2012). This futuristic shower will save you thousands of gallons of water. CINTEP (no date). How the recycling shower works. Various (2013). Hoogrendementsketel. Unknown (no date). Hoeveel kwh gaat er in een m 3? EFrarain (no date). Ecologisch verantwoorde regenwater systemen, EFrarain. Verkerk, G. and Broens, J.B. (2008). BINAS. Groningen: Noordhoff Uitgevers. Ferril, J ( ).The Challenge of Reconciling a Centralized V.S. Decentralized Electricity System. Unknown ( ). Extra doden door niewe kolencentrales. WADE (no date). World Alliance For Decentralized Energy. Unknown (no date). Autozine: Online auto-magazine. dubbelglas (no date). Online glas groothandel. 69

71 Unknown (no date). Woonverzekeringen vergelijken. Job Swens ( ). Nederlandse wet frustreert decentrale opwekking van duurzame energy. Various (no date). History of money. Rijksoverheid (no date). Huurwoning. Unknown (no date). Consumentenbond.nl. ECN (2012). Energie en waterverbuik naar woningtype. lampenlicht (no date). Unknown (non Date). Hudson Reed. Landman, W. (2013) L&B Tecnhisch instalatiebedrijf Members of the university of Stuttgart (2-2013). Health Impacts of Coal Fired Power Stations in the Netherlands. Unknown (no date). Woonboten. Unknown (no date). Speurders.nl. Unknown (no date). Isolatiewaarde van isolatiematerialen. Various (2014). Warmte-isolatie. 70

72 Raphaella (2014). Isolatiewaarde: K-waarde, U-waarde, Lambda waarde. Various (2014). Warmtepomp. Unknown (no date). Verwarming. Various (2013). Vloerverwarming. Van Pinxteren, M. (2007). Berekening vloerverwarming: afstand, lengte, oppervlak. Unknown (2013). Calculating Heat Loss. Unknown (no date). CV ketel capaciteit of vermogen berekenen. Unknown (no date). Rekenen. Unknown (no date). Warmtepomp kan cv-ketel vervangen? Various (2014). Heat recovery ventilation. Unknown (no date). Lucht-wtw. Unknown (no date). Douche-wtw. Various (2014). Groene stroom. Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (2013). Hernieuwbare energie in Nederland energie/publicaties/publicaties/archief/2013/2013-hernieuwbare-energie-in-nederland pub.htm 71

73 Kooger, R. (2009). Duurzaam isoleren: van piepschuim tot schapenwol. NIBE (no date). OMSCHRIJVING METHODE MILIEUCLASSIFICATIES BOUWPRODUCTEN. Unknown (2011). De voordelen van Metisse. Various (2014). Fotovoltaïsche cel. Various (2014). Zonnepaneel. Unknown (no date). Opbrengst Zonne-panelen. Unknown (no date). Zonnepanelen berekeningen. Various (2013). Zonneboiler. Nuon (o date). Energiekosten berekenen. Anonymous (2013). HR+++ beglazing is het neusje van de zalm. 72

74 Attachments 73

75 Attachment 1: Calculating maximum weight of house on Flexbase Calculating the maximum weight of the house on a Flexbase hull comes with a few difficulties, since the hull consists of two materials of different densities. The width of the concrete casing is 15 cm and the concrete beams that form inside the grid have a thickness of 20 cm. All measurements are in cm. Cross-section:

76 Top-view (without concrete floor): In order to calculatie how much weight this hull can support, we first need to calculate the mass of the concrete + EPS. We can calculate this by multiplying the density of the concrete and EPS with their volumes. The hull consists of a bottom layer of 40 cm of EPS on which EPS-blocks of 320 by 320 cm are placed. Concrete will be casted in the grid that is formed and a floor of 15 cm thick will be casted on top of this. Furthermore, prefab concrete slabs will be placed on the side. To calculate this we assume that the density of the concrete is 2500 kg/m 3 and the density of the EPS is 25 kg/m 3. 75

77 Total volume EPS The EPS consists of two parts: the bottom layer of EPS and the upper layer of blocks of EPS. The volume of the bottom layer (V b ) is: The volume of the upper layer consists of nine blocks of 3.20 m by 3.20 m with a height of 0.95 m. The volume of the upper layer (V u ) is: ( ) The total volume (V t ) is: Total volume of concrete The volume of concrete consists of three parts: the concrete beams (casted in the grid), the concrete casing and the concrete floor. The volume of the concrete beams can be calculated by subtracting the total volume of EPS from the volume enclosed by the concrete floor, casing and bottom layer. Below you will find to pictures to clarify which volume we mean: The length and width of this area are 10,00 m, the height is 0,95 m. The volume of the concrete beams is: ( ) The volume of the concrete casing can be calculated by dividing the casing into two pairs of walls. One pair of walls has a length of m, a width of m and a height of 1.10 m. The other pair of walls has a length of m, a width of m and a height of 1.10 m. The volume of the concrete casing (V casing ) is: ( ) ( ) The volume of the concrete floor can be calculated more easily. The width and length are m and the height is m. The volume of the concrete floor (V floor ) is: The total volume of concrete (V concrete ) is:. Total mass of hull The total mass of the hull can be calculated by multiplying the densities of the concrete and EPS with their volumes. The total mass (m t ) is: 76

78 Immersion without buildings In an equilibrium, the upward, buoyant force of the water ( = Archimedes formula) is as big as the downward, gravitational force ( ). The following formula follows from this: To calculate the immersion, you must know what the amount of displaced volume is. You can calculate this by converting the formula above: When you fill in the data you will get this: If you devide the displaced volume by the surface that displaces that volume, you will get the height under water, the immersion. The hull, without any buildings on it, has an immersion of 71.7 cm. Maximum mass of house The maximum mass of the house is equal to the remaining volume, this is the volume that is between the 50 cm that has to be above water and the 71.7 cm that is already under water. This height is the following: The remaining volume is: The maximum mass can be calculated with the following formula: So if we fill in our data in that formula we get: So the maximum mass of a house that can be built on this hull is 1. 77

79 Attachment 2: Calculating the maximum weight of buildings for new Flexbase hull (for the model) In order to calculate how much weight this hull can support, we first need to calculate the mass of the concrete + EPS. A few things have changed: The height is now 2.5 m The clearance from the water is 1.25 m To calculate the new maximum weight, we assume that the density of the concrete is 2500 kg/m 3 and the density of the EPS is 25 kg/m 3. Total volume EPS The EPS consists of two parts: the bottom layer of EPS and the upper layer of blocks of EPS. The changes have not affected the volume of the bottom layer, this volume (V b ) remains: The volume of the upper layer consists of nine blocks of 3.20 m by 3.20 m, the height has changed, this is now: The volume of the upper layer (V u ) is: ( ) The total volume (V t ) is: Total volume of concrete The volume of concrete consists of three parts: the concrete beams (casted in the grid), the concrete casing and the concrete floor. The volume of the concrete beams can be calculated by subtracting the total volume of EPS from the volume enclosed by the concrete floor, casing and bottom layer. Below you will find to pictures to clarify which volume we mean: The length and width of this area are 10,00 m, the height is now 1,95 m. The volume of the concrete beams is: ( ) The volume of the concrete casing can be calculated by dividing the casing into two pairs of walls. One pair of walls has a length of m, a width of m and a new height of 2.10 m. The other pair of walls has a length of m, a width of m and a height of 2.10 m. The volume of the concrete casing (V casing ) is: ( ) ( ) 78