The research carried out by the PSE-ARFRISOL Group has as a principal objective to develop the passive solar techniques and the integration of active systems during five years (2005-2010). The PSE-ARFRISOL which is supported by the Spanish Government is currently the principal project in that group. It uses several effective techniques to reduce the total energy demand, such as cross ventilation, shadowings, greenhouses or special windows.

People knows that Spain is one of the European countries with more solar radiation. The Spanish researchers are looking for the way to take advantage of the Sun through solar energy use in buildings. PSE-ARFRISOL includes five zones in Spain. Asturias, Soria and Madrid are cooler climates than Almeria, with a blazing sun. The scientists will equip every building with experimental systems based in solar passive and active technologies for heating and cooling.

For example, in Soria, which is a cold area in Spain during winter, the scientists have thought in low consumption biomass boilers to provide the comfort to the future users. However, in the south of Spain (Almeria), the RDBP will contain an absortion pump, like the other building prototypes. It is a system which uses hot water from the solar collector field to produce cooling energy and offer the best conditions of comfort.

The strategy of this project is to save up to 60% of energy demand in offices buildings using passives techniques. Moreover, by means of active techniques (solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic panels) the conventional consumed energy will be reduced by 30%. In this kind of buildings, the users could save up to 90% by the combination of passive and active techniques. The Spanish government would like promoting the change of the society mind about these terms.

The PSE-ARFRISOL Group has a difficut labour based in monitoring all the data related to the energy demand (temperature, humity, energy flux…). Besides, the data will be compared to energy demand of a reference building in order to demostrate the energy saving.

F.6 Data system

After at least a year of experimentation by collecting data, the workgroup will be able to demostrate how close reality is from simulation, and this will be useful to make more accurate each simulation model for future references. This is the most important part because the energy saving in office buildings based on real data could achieve a quota around 80%. The overcost of Bioclimatic office buildings would not be higher than 15%. According to IDAE, the overcost in office buildings due to the energetic requirements of the new Spanish Building Technical Code (CTE) will be around 5%. This higher initial cost will be compensated with an important reduction of the energy bill to pay during the building life period. These data will be proved by the end of the project and they will be spread into the society with real guarentees. They will help to change the people mind.