Anti-Disaster House

Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd.

Updated date	February 24,2022
Publication date	October 6, 2020 (Posted on June 1, 2022)
Sector	Life of Citizenry and Urban Life, Natural Disasters, Coastal Areas

Company Overview

Climate Change Impacts

In the recent years, Japan has been hit by many wind and flood disasters as well as earthquakes, and power outages have occurred in approximately 90% of the disasters since the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake. As we analyzed the reports from our housing owners whose houses were damaged by the disaster in 2018, there were many collision damage caused by objects crashing against their homes because of wind and flood. Since the strength of tropical cyclones, including typhoons, may become even stronger in the future due to climate change, it is feared that the damage caused by such crashes may also increase.

Adaptation Initiatives

In order to prepare not only for direct primary disasters such as collapses due to earthquakes, damage or submersion due to wind and flood damage, but also for secondary disasters that affect our daily lives after disasters such as power outages, we launched our Anti-Disaster House in April 2019, which is equipped with measures against power outages, earthquakes, and typhoons.

The "All-Weather Three-Battery Linking System" (Fig. 1) adopted for our Anti-Disaster Houses is a system that links the solar power generation system, ENE-FARM, and residential lithium-ion storage batteries with a newly developed "cross board". This newly developed cross board makes it possible to store the electricity generated by ENE-FARM in the household lithium-ion storage batteries and use it inside the house during power outages for the first time in Japan. In the event of a power outage caused by a primary disaster, the household lithium-ion storage batteries will serve as an emergency power source to supply the electricity necessary for daily life. In the event of a longer power outage, electricity, heating, and hot water supply can be secured for approximately 10 days even in rainy conditions.※When charging lights, a refrigerator, a television, and two smartphones (up to 2kW on specified circuits.)

In addition, disaster-prevention roof tiles ROOGA, are used to prevent damage by absorbing the shocks caused by flying objects during typhoons and wind storms. Also, by adopting “disaster-prevention security glass” which doubles the thickness of the intermediate interlayer of “security laminated glass”, has been adopted to prevent objects from penetrating. This also prevents secondary disasters, such as injuries from fragments and difficulties in living due to the broken glass.

On top of that, by making use of the know-how we have accumulated through our disaster response, we propose disaster-prevention floor plans to reduce stress in times of disasters (Fig. 2). This includes the supply of electricity and heating to the main rooms such as the living room so that families can safely gather even in the event of a power outage during the nighttime, the proposal of “musubi corners” where families can sleep together while obtaining information of the disaster on TV, and the installation of security lights along evacuation routes to secure the lights along evacuation routes.

Effects / Expected Benefits

By using the All-Weather Three-Battery Linking System" that links the solar power generation system, ENE-FARM, and residential lithium-ion storage batteries to store and supply electric power efficiently, it becomes possible to obtain disaster information on televisions, use warm showers and household appliances with high power consumption, such as refrigerators, offering reassurance that "electricity can be continued to be used" even during power outages. It is also expected that the strengthening of roof tiles and glass will reduce the damage caused by flying objects.