Project Innovation

Innovation

In recent years, reducing energy consumption in the construction sector has become indispensable for curbing the so-called greenhouse effect and its well-known environmental damage. Many governments have introduced increasingly restrictive regulations to comply with the Kyoto agreements on reducing greenhouse gases.

The goal of the nZEM project is to define new innovative envelope systems that can be assembled into a modular unit made with a wooden construction system that can adapt to different uses, functional needs, and spatial locations. For these reasons, the Nearly Zero Emission Module housing is designed to meet the requirements of prefabrication, transportability, and adaptability, as well as those necessary to ensure high energy efficiency and low environmental impact.

In detail, the innovative nZEM module intends to guarantee the following performances:

• reduction of energy consumption and CO₂ emissions;
• indoor wellbeing (wellness and health);
• integration of technologies for the production of renewable energy;
• integrated performance control by monitoring and BMS management system.

The research aims to create a virtual model developed on a BIM platform, which allows the companies involved to customize the nZEM module in a short time, responding to the needs of the national and international markets.

The basic idea of the nZEM project is to make a module's compact and minimal space as efficient as possible, adaptable to different needs, which vary from emergency to tourism, and flexibly combine multiple functions and uses.

The module will therefore be equipped with a thermal power plant containing all the systems needed to supply domestic hot water, electricity, mechanical ventilation, and heating/cooling.

The module can also be created as an independent unit, operating in standing-alone mode, or be physically and energetically connected to other modules with the same characteristics, allowing the creation of small energy communities.