Flex House

Residential Sustainable

Building Type

Photovoltaic Systems & Sustainable

Roof System

Details

RAMCON is proud to be a part of Team Florida’s Flex House entry in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011.  Team Florida’s goal was to build a Florida home prototype that showcases the best possible balance of efficiency, sustainability, and economics.

RAMCON installed the new highly reflective, Energy Star Certified Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) system. The system has a reflectivity value in excess of 77% and emissivity of 87%. It is a durable system with a tearing strength in excess of 55lbs per foot, dynamic puncture resistance of 25 Joules and is Ozone resistant. We also fabricated and installed the corrugated galvanized steel panels on the house exterior walls.  This system is 100% recyclable and reduces the “Urban Heat Island” effect.

Flex House is designed to be a zero energy prototype for sustainable building in Florida. Designed by top researchers from the University of South Florida, the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of Central Florida, Flex House is tailor-made for Florida’s hot, humid climate. RAMCON was selected as a contractor who is second to none in quality, experience and understands the benefits of sustainable roof design.

ABOUT FLEX HOUSE:
Flex House is designed in a holistic way as a sustainable, pre-fabricated, maximized efficiency house prototype that can adapt easily to different site situations and plan configurations. The house can be shipped on one truck and quickly deployed at the building site. The Flex House base module is designed for a young couple or a couple with a small child living in central Florida on a moderate income. As a family grows modules can be added to the base expanding living space as necessary.

While the emphasis in energy efficient houses in Florida in recent years has been to reduce heat gain with well-sealed and insulated building envelopes, the result has often been an interior living space that is conditioned year round with little connection to the exterior climate or the surrounding site. Flex House is designed to open up to take advantage of passive cooling in Florida’s mild weather months and close down to utilize highly efficient mechanical systems during the months of temperature extremes when passive strategies are not effective. This hybrid open and closed building type is conducive to a healthy indoor/outdoor Florida lifestyle and is reinforced by the design of the landscape, floor plan, building section, building envelope, and the choice of building materials and mechanical systems.