Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI
The tiny house movement has been gaining increasing importance throughout Germany. Reduced costs are not the only factor that turn tiny houses into prime examples of sustainable living. Other factors include a focus on necessities, being able to settle in rural regions, the use of natural buliding materials and an associated lifestyle that focuses on nature and the environment. However, supplying tiny houses with electricity, heat and water is challenging, especially in remote areas. Their compact shape reduces options for installing solar equipment and storage units for regenerative utilities supply.
Within the scope of the AMSEL project, a small settlement in Mittweida consisting of a tiny house, a co-working space developed within the partnering TELEWERK project, and an existing building is operated as an independent experimental platform. Its integrated, shared and networked settlement storage system offers a demands-based and self-sufficient heat and power supply infrastrucure. A central building equipped with home technology increases supply reliability. An intelligent control system is responsible for distributing energy in a needs-based way through usage-dependent load balancing between the networked buildings. Through the establishment of this pioneering, largely self-sufficient settlement supplied with regenerative main utilities, the revitalization of rural settlement areas will be supported in the long-term. As a result, more conscious ways of thinking and living will be fostered and dedicated technological solutions will be developed that in turn will increase the attractiveness of living and working in the countryside, especially for the well-educated younger generations. In the process, tiny house settlements could prove to be a successful migration path for the current renaissance of timber construction in Saxony.
