Korea's fist Zero Energy Apartment

A lot of futurologists are saying that a lot of big changes will happen for the next 30 years. And the major problem is of course, the global warming (climate change). Many middle-east countries which are leaving profit by oil and other natural resources, are now preparing for the future. Scientists or designers are designing islands or cities that only use sustainable energy, and some are even being built now. Korea, which is slower in reducing the usage of fossil fuel, is also trying to make environmentally friendly cities in country sides.

The Korean ministry of environment now decided to actually push ahead to build green cities (environmentally friendly cities) in Korea too. Korea is not even relying on sustainable energy about 20%. We mostly use energy that creates greenhouse gas almost 90%. And because of this problem, we have long been criticized for not thinking about the future. These green energy towns mostly use bio gas, left over energy, and other kinds of energy recycled from human waste or solar panels. I will introduce Korea’s technology related to green living and technologies used to build green apartments.

First, we have high quality technology for heat insulation. Heat insulation means to keep heat inside the house when it is cold, and letting the heat out when it is hot. Plus, DHW, ventilation and lighting is also one of the things that we are planning to use less energy for. The apartments are focusing on using left overs and stopping energy loss. The energy is mostly supported with solar PVs and geothermal power. As we focus on stopping energy loss, we use advanced technology which can detect when nobody is at home, or nobody is in the room, and naturally turns off the light which can save the energy a lot more.

This picture is the design of Chung Ju’s environmentally friendly energy town’s blueprint. The upper left picture is the geothermal power plant, and the picture next to it is the greenhouse which is actually in the apartment. There are solar panels, and dryers too. There are power plants not only geothermal, but that use leftovers to provide hot water and electricity.

The favorite technology that these green apartments use is biogas from animals near the apartment. Where the apartments are going to be built is right next to the river, has a lot of trees, and has places where people have animals. So, scientists decided to use this advantage as possible. We are planning to use biogas from animals’ livestock excretions and use them to heat the water.

The zero energy house, on the other hand, is much more effective in using energy. It only focuses on saving the energy while the previous one deals with what makes living more colorful.

Korea is economically well developed, but it is below the average of OECD countries in environment. But nowadays, many researchers and scientists are trying hard to develop new ideas or technologies such as solar panels, or bio energy that can fit our style. We have small land but Korea is a pennisula with pretty large sea, we are working hard to find a way to use our landscape and overcome our disadvantages.