Samsung C&T to unveil its new zero-energy house

Top: The Green Tomorrow house developed by Samsung C&T Corporation only uses renewable energy. Above: The inside of the Green Tomorrow house, which will be shown beginning today. Provided by Samsung C&T Corporation

Samsung C&T Corporation said yesterday it has built a house that only uses renewable energy. It will show the house to the public beginning today.

Named Green Tomorrow, the 400.54-square-meter (4,311-square-foot) house in Yongin, Gyeonggi, was built with 68 energy-saving or energy-creating technologies that enable it to provide energy but consume no electricity or gas, the company said. The construction of the zero-energy house, the company said, is a pilot project designed to help the company meet its goal of cutting energy use at all Raemian apartments by 50 percent. Samsung announced that goal earlier this year and hopes to achieve it by 2013.

Raemian is the oldest premium apartment brand and is today one of the most expensive apartment brands in Korea.

“Samsung C&T Corporation will apply the technologies proven through Green Tomorrow to every building it constructs,” Lee Kyu-jae, vice director of Samsung C&T Corporation’s technology research industry, said in a statement yesterday.

The company said the Green Tomorrow system will reduce by 56 percent the 33,055 kilowatts of energy consumed by most households annually through energy-saving appliances. The other 44 percent of the energy needed will be provided by renewable energy sources, it said.

Among the energy-saving measures the company said Green Tomorrow uses are three-layer windows, heat-insulating boards, no-electricity interior lighting and electrical installation and ventilating systems that minimize energy use.

A total of 176 solar panels installed on the roof will generate 21 megawatts of electricity per hour annually. The energy of the ground will also be used to heat and cool the house.

Samsung said the cost of building a Green Tomorrow unit is between 10 to 15 million won ($8,500 to $12,845) per 3.3 square meters, which is around twice the average cost of building a house, but the company said it expects that price to drop to about 110 percent of the house construction price by 2015.

By Moon Gwang-lip [joe@joongang.co.kr]