Solhuset (the sun house) is the centrepiece of the environmental strategy in Hørsholm Municipality. It is a climate friendly day care centre, which supports the pedagogically environment. The building is unique because it

• Produces its own energy from renewable energy sources.
• Has an exceptionally healthy indoor climate.
• Has a climate policy, which is a way of making the children conscious of climate, nature, health and energy issues.

Renewable Energy Sources
The sun is the vital energy source for Solhuset. It uses solar panels for both electricity and water heating. Besides that, the south facing roofs on the building are very steep – this is chosen to increase the amount of sunlight shining into the building from the windows in the roof. Because of the construction of the ceiling and the windows, the windows has six times the normal sunlight inflow. In addition to solar power, the building has a geothermal power system.

Private Public Partnership
The day care centre was developed as an Active House in a strategic partnership between Hørsholm Municipality, VKR Holding and Lions Børnehuse. Hellerup Byg constructed it in cooperation with CHRISTENSEN & CO Architects and Rambøll.

Indoor Climate

Inflow of light, the outer shape of the building and the indoor area all contributes to the indoor climate. All rooms receive sunlight from at least two sides – some central rooms borrow from other rooms. The numerous windows are a part of automatically controlled natural and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery – also known as hybrid ventilation. Furthermore, the materials used are as healthy as possible, which ease the negative influence on the indoor climate.

Construction

In the construction process materials were chosen to leave the smallest possible carbon footprint, as an example the roof is clad with Sedum. Because the building can heat enough water with solar and geothermal energy, it was chosen not to link the building to the public heat supply. In fact, the building is not just a self-sustaining house, but is producing electricity for the main grid. Therefore the building is, in time, able to eradicate its carbon footprints for its construction as well.