The Saskatchewan Conservation House, a low-energy-consumption solar-heated residential structure, began operation in December 1977. Monitoring of the house began in January 1978. The house has been operated as a demonstration dwelling seven days a week, and consequently monitoring conditions have been less than ideal, with approximately 1,000 visitors per week passing through the house. Monitoring of the energy consumption of the dwelling indicates that the design objective - a heat loss rate of 81 Watts per degree Celsius temperature difference between outside and inside - has been met and improved upon. An average Regina house has a heat loss rate of approximately 250 Watts/°C. The system uses 17.8 m2 of vacuum tube collectors. As the system was not started until mid-December, 1977, it was not possible to provide 100% solar heating during this winter period. Approximately three Gigajoules of thermal energy can be stored in the 12,700-litre storage tank. Based on the measured performance of the house, a 'space-heating requirement of 5.1 Gigajoules per year (4.8 million Btu) would be needed to heat the house under normal occupancy conditions. The system is designed to provide 100% of this space-heating requirement. © 1979.
