The INTEGER Millennium House is a demonstration house in

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

, England that opened to the public in 1998. It was renamed The Smart Home after being refurbished in 2013. The house was originally intended to showcase innovations in design and construction, building intelligence, and environmental performance. The INTEGER design included many innovative features, including

environmental technology Environmental technology (envirotech) or green technology (greentech), also known as ''clean technology'' (''cleantech''), is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic device ...

such as a

green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...

and a

grey water Greywater (or grey water, sullage, also spelled gray water in the United States) refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater from ...

recycling system,

home automation Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home, called a smart home or smart house. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It m ...

that included a building management system and an intelligent

security system A security alarm is a system designed to detect intrusion, such as unauthorized entry, into a building or other areas such as a home or school. Security alarms used in residential, commercial, industrial, and military properties protect against ...

, and innovative technical systems such as under-floor trench heating. In 2013, the house was refurbished and retrofitted with a variety of new and upgraded features, including a

building-integrated photovoltaic Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) are photovoltaic materials that are used to replace conventional building materials in parts of the building envelope such as the roof, skylights, or facades. They are increasingly being incorporated in ...

(BIPV) array, which altogether halved its

carbon emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and larg ...

and increased its

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...

by 50%. Since its creation, the house has garnered numerous awards, appeared on ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...

'' on

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

, hosted thousands of visitors, and influenced mainstream construction.

Design and construction

The origins of the INTEGER Millennium House date to a May 1996 seminar about

green building Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...

, which catalysed the formation of the INTEGER building design and consultancy team to "evaluate available design and technical solutions to improve housing performance". The efforts of this design team resulted in the creation of a scale model of a house, which has subsequently been widely exhibited at institutions such as the

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

as well as profiled in the DK Eyewitness Book ''Future''. Damian Bree, Tim Day, Paul Hodgkins, and Nicholas Thompson began designing the INTEGER Millennium House itself in October 1997, a process that proceeded for 10 weeks. Built on the

Building Research Establishment The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is a centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust. It is a former UK government national laboratory that was privatised in 1997. BRE provides researc ...

(BRE)'s Innovation Park property in Garston, Watford, the actual construction of the house took 13 weeks before it opened to the public in 1998. The resulting single-family, three-bedroom, demonstration house was intended to be a global showcase for innovations in design and construction, building intelligence, and environmental performance, as well as to raise general awareness about environmental design and sustainable construction. Built as a demonstration project without a budget, the INTEGER Millennium House benefited from expertise and materials that were donated by suppliers without any cost to the project. The entire house was constructed with standard components, many of which were

prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is u ...

, including

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

for the

floor slab A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings, consisting of a flat, horizontal surface made of cast concrete. Steel-Reinforced concrete, reinforced slabs, typically between 100 and 500 mm thick, are most often used to ...

s and

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

for the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

cladding Cladding is an outer layer of material covering another. It may refer to the following: *Cladding (boiler), the layer of insulation and outer wrapping around a boiler shell *Cladding (construction), materials applied to the exterior of buildings ...

, and frame. Neither prototypes nor experimental components were used in the building of the house.

Features

As originally built, the INTEGER Millennium House included numerous examples of

, including a

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

solar photovoltaic panels Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

, and solar water heaters capable of heating water up to . The house also featured a

geothermal heat pump A ground source heat pump (also geothermal heat pump) is a heating/cooling system for buildings that uses a type of heat pump to transfer heat to or from the ground, taking advantage of the relative constancy of temperatures of the earth through ...

, rainwater collection and retention for both washing cars and watering gardens, and a

recycling system that reuses waste water from bathing and washing for toilet flushing, reducing water usage by roughly 30%. Additionally, the south side of the house was built as a three-story glass conservatory designed to provide passive heat gain, although in direct sunlight it could overheat. Altogether, the house achieved "Level 4 +" environmental performance according to the

Code for Sustainable Homes The Code for Sustainable Homes was an environmental assessment method for rating and certifying the performance of new homes in United Kingdom. First introduced in 2006, it is a national standard for use in the design and construction of new homes ...

. The INTEGER Millennium House was also built with a variety of intelligent

technologies, including a building management system that could optimize the performance of the heating system, an automatic garden irrigation system that could sense soil humidity conditions and water accordingly, an intelligent

, lighting that could be set to one of four predefined moods, and microchip-embedded programmable door keys. The house also featured advanced communication technologies such as a

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

service distributed via a local building exchange,

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

and

terrestrial television Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ant ...

available in every room,

WebTV MSN TV (formerly WebTV) was a web access product consisting of a thin client device that used a television for display (instead of using a computer monitor), and the online service that supported it. The device design and service was developed by ...

, and a

closed-circuit television Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

(CCTV) system. Furthermore, the INTEGER Millennium House included numerous innovative technical systems, including under-floor trench heating controlled individually in each room by

thermostat A thermostat is a regulating device component which senses the temperature of a physical system and performs actions so that the system's temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint. Thermostats are used in any device or system tha ...

, a central service core containing all of the house's cables and pipes in a vertical space designed to provide easy access for maintenance and upgrade, and timber-framed

bathroom A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically i ...

modules similar to those built for use in the off-shore oil drilling industry.

Refurbishment

In 2013, the BRE and

British Gas British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Serving ...

collaborated to refurbish and retrofit the INTEGER Millennium House, which they renamed The Smart Home. As with the original build, there were neither budgets nor contracts for the refurbishment of The Smart Home, and many suppliers donated products and expertise to the effort. Chief among the upgrades are a "whole house living system" that uses occupation sensors to control heating, lighting, security, ventilation, and water, a new solar thermal system along with an upgraded solar water heating system, and a

(BIPV) array within the glazing of the conservatory glass itself that generates electricity in addition to providing shade. Built by Polysolar and rated at , the BIPV array provides The Smart Home with approximately of electricity annually, accounting for all of the house's daytime electric needs and approximately a third of its total energy requirements while also saving of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

. Furthermore, the thin film material used in the BIPV array allows it to absorb ambient and reflective light on both sides of the glass, which allows it to operate in most weather conditions. Additionally, it allows the red light that is vital for

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...

to pass through, making the glass conservatory highly suitable for growing plants. Hamish Watson, the CEO of Polysolar, described the use of such BIPV arrays as "an effective way of including energy micro-generation into the fabric of a building". Other upgrades made during the retrofit include the application of heat-reflective paint, insulating plaster, and phase changing material to improve the house's thermal performance, the use of light-reflective particles in interior paint to reduce lighting needs, and various other green and energy-efficient features, such as double-glazed doors and windows, ducted skirting, and reclaimed timber floors. In all, the upgrades made to the house halved its

and increased its

by 50%, while also upgrading the building's

Energy Performance Certificate Energy performance certificates (EPCs) are a rating scheme to summarise the energy efficiency of buildings. In the European Union, EPCs are regulated by the European Directive on the energy performance of buildings. Turkey EPCs are mandatory ...

(EPC) rating from E to A/B. The Smart Home was officially opened to the public on 2 October 2013 by

Dorothy Thornhill Dorothy Thornhill, Baroness Thornhill, (born 26 May 1955) was the first directly elected mayor of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. She was the Liberal Democrats' first directly elected mayor, and was also the first female directly elected may ...

, the

Mayor of Watford The Mayor of Watford is the head of the borough council of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. The holder of the position is a directly elected mayor using the supplementary vote every four years. The current mayor of Watford is Peter Taylor, who w ...

, and

Kerry Pollard Kerry Patrick Pollard (born 27 April 1944) is a Labour Party (UK), Labour politician in the United Kingdom. He was elected at the general election of 1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of ...

, a former

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

from

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

who had supported the original INTEGER project in 1998.

Awards and impact

In its original iteration, the INTEGER Millennium House garnered numerous awards, including the European Intelligent Building of the Year (1998), the National Homebuilders Award for Ecology (1999), the Homes Award for Innovation (2000), and the National Homebuilders Award for House of the Future (2003). Furthermore, the house was featured on two

programmes, both ''

'' and a six-part special series entitled ''DreamHouse''. Between its opening as the INTEGER Millennium House in 1998 and its refurbishment as The Smart Home in 2013, the house was visited by more than 5,000 people. Additionally, many of the building's innovative features and technologies have been integrated into mainstream construction. For instance, by April 2001, 12 two-bedroom

flats Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

with INTEGER-inspired features had been built in

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. Core INTEGER-style technologies that were used in the flats included enhanced insulation and a high-efficiency communal

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

system that reduced energy demand by 50%, as well as reduced servicing by replacing 12 small boilers with two large ones, and a grey water recycling system that reduced water consumption by 30%.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official BRE website for The Smart Home
Houses in Hertfordshire Buildings and structures in Watford Residential buildings completed in 1998