Leading the way in energy efficiency
Issue 01-2018:
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Can intelligent and demand-oriented heating control be implemented only in elaborately planned new buildings? That may have been true once. But today an enormous potential for saving energy can also be achieved in existing buildings with very little effort. A maintenance-free and demand-oriented radiator valve controller can be retrofitted without complications, and it increases energy and cost efficiency after just a short period of time.
The Hockenheim police station is housed in an old building owned by the state company „Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg“. This company implements suitable renovation measures with the goal of optimizing the operating costs of existing buildings.
The police station Hockenheim benefits from the needs-based and maintenance-free radiator control.
Optimizing energy efficiency and operating costs
The building has 30 rooms with different use profiles, distributed over three floors. While the ground floor is used round the clock by emergency services, the rooms on the second and third floors are occupied only during normal business hours, which include occupancy on the weekends.
Any measures taken to lower energy costs and CO2 emissions had to meet extensive requirements. A maintenance-free and demand-oriented radiator valve controller with setback operation and occupancy-based heating was also to guarantee energy-efficient operation outside typical working hours. In addition, there were to be no reconstruction measures or intervention into the building structure that would limit the ability to work. It was also very important for the Technical Service to be able to easily operate and control the system on the floor level.
Effective retrofitting without complications
While the inspection and planning phase of implementation took approximately one day, only one more day was needed a short time later to install the system and make it ready for operation. A total of 31 self-powered Micropelt EnOcean actuators, 18 EnOceanbased sensors and two floor heating controllers were installed. Apart from the function rooms, each office can now be set individually to the desired comfortable temperature, using a setpoint adjustment function. An occupancy button can be used to turn on the heat for a predefined period of time outside standard heating times. The complete setback operation on both floors overnight and on weekends will ultimately result in significant energy savings, since two-thirds of the building is now heated for only one-third of the time that used to be required.
As a retrofit solution, the maintenance-free radiator valve controller based on the
EnOcean wireless standard offers enormous savings potential with a small amount of installation work compared to other construction measures. The Hockenheim project is a prime example of how this system can be implemented quickly and pay for itself after only a short period of time. From now on, the police station will make an enormous contribution with little effort to the energy-efficiency measures of the Baden-Württemberg state government.
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