The objective of the low-energy house project in Sisimiut was to build a house with so little energy consumption that it could be justified to call it a low-energy house – given the conditions of the Arctic location. The definition of a low-energy house is that it is a house which consumes only half the energy permitted in the building code. The building code of Greenland from 2006 permits annual energy consumption for heating and ventilation of 230 kWh/m2 for a single storey dwelling located north of the Arctic Circle. Given that this house has a ventilation system with heat recovery unit, it could be expected to consume around 70 kWh/m2 less heating energy, and thus the, the permissible energy should be only 160 kWh/m2, although there is official specification like this in the building code, since it does not assume dwellings to be equipped with a ventilation system with heat recovery unit. As a low energy house, it was set as a target that the energy consumption for heating and ventilation should be only half of that of the building code, and consequently the ambitious target value of 80 kWh/m2 was chosen.

The means to reduce the energy consumption in comparison with common Greenlandic houses has been to use extra insulation in floors, exterior walls and the roof. A solar collector is installed on the roof to heat water for domestic use. The ventilation system is supplied with a heat exchanger that uses the warm exhaust air to heat the cold inlet air. Furthermore, improved windows are installed with low energy glazing using normally 3 layers of glass.