Stenløse South: Nothern Europe's largest low-energy settlement

An ambitious project of constructing 750 low energy buildings in Egedal Municipality is now halfway completed, and it has already been an inspiration for others and brought about a legislative change in 2007 to encourage all Danish municipalities to copy the initiative.
 
The urban low-energy development project of Stenlose South attracts visitors from the entire world. More than 300 homes are already in use, at when completed it will comprise 750 buildings spread over 76 hectares, making it Northern Europe’s largest low energy area. The area, 30 km Northwest of Copenhagen, contains both single-family houses, residential buildings for senior citizens, social housing, apartments, terraced houses and a day care facility, all of which are low energy-buildings. Stenlose South won The Rockwool Award 2007 for its visionary approach.

Requirements for the buildings
Stenløse South is part of Egedal Municipality, which recently decided that all future buildings within the municipality will be required to be built as low energy class 1 - so far the strictest within Danish legislation.

All buildings in Stenløse South are low energy buildings and must not exceed 34 kWh/m2in annual heating consumption, but the best houses only consume a maximum of 15 kWh. Rainwater is collected and used for toilet flushing and washing. This saves water resources and reduces flooding risks during heavy rainfall. New homes must have solar panels for hot water. Stenløse South also hosts Denmark’s first PassivePlus house – it is so well-insulated and energy efficient that it can produce more energy on an annual basis than it consumes.

Savings
Compared to conventional buildings the low energy buildings in Stenløse South together save 22,000 cubic metres of water per year.
A conventional well-insulated building’s heating consumption equals 1700 liters of oil/1236 EUR per year. In comparison a single-family house in Stenløse South consumes 550 liters/400 EUR per year.

Together these low energy buildings alone enable energy savings of 3.6 million kWh per year corresponding to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 630 tonnes or the equivalent of 400,000 litres of oil.