ENEOS SOENE House is not a regular house. It is an energy-saving and energy-creating house research project, built by Nippon Oil earlier this year, and has already attracted hundreds of visitors.
With this demonstration house, Nippon Oil aims to explore approaches to reducing CO2 and to study the relation between living spaces and energy, with focus on people’s daily lives.
“In Japan, the household sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse emissions. With this SOENE House, we want to find ways to cut household emissions, without compromising on lifestyle” said Ikutoshi Matsumura, Nippon Oil’s representative director and executive vice president.
He said the four-member-family SOENE House employs a combination of a solar power-generating system and an efficient power-saving fossil fuel system.
The solar systems employed in the house include a solar power-generating system, a solar water heating system and solar-heated air conditioning system.
Meanwhile, the efficient-energy saving fossil fuel systems include the ENE-FARM household power generation system, the ECO-FEEL oil water heater and the ECO-JOZU gas water heater.
The house uses selected materials and is also designed in such a way that it makes full use of heat, wind and light, to allow maximum family interaction.
For example, the house uses advanced super-insulation technology in the outer walls to prevent heat or cold escaping from the house, enabling regulation of internal house temperature with minimum energy.
The house also takes external air through the roof and stores heat energy through under-floor thermal storage systems, circulating heat through the house during winter.
The open-style house design connecting interior space and skipping floors allows natural wind to reach all parts of the house, and thus keep the house cool during summer, spring or fall.
Matsumura said that the company had received requests from several developers to use the concept of the SOENE house in their residential development projects.
“We are an energy company, so we are not interested in selling houses. We would rather let housing companies build such energy-saving houses,” he said.
- JP/Riyadi Suparno
