Smart Building

30% energy savings for schools in Paris

Author: Olivier Gresle, CEO, Vertuoz by ENGIE
Issue 02-2017: read all articles online read as pdf

In 2016, an ‚energy performance contract‘ (CPE) that concerns 140 Parisian schools was launched by the City of Paris and is financed by the local authority in the amount of €84 million in the investment program planned for this term. ENGIE committed itself to cutting the schools‘ energy consumption by at least 30% on the basis of renovation work using energy harvesting technology.

Vertuoz by Engie 30% energy savings for schools in Paris

A total of 42 schools have already been renovated and the work will continue during the school holidays in 2017 and 2018. The renovation work, which is adapted to the specific architectural and thermal characteristics of each school, concerns the renovation of buildings and the installation of a remote smart energy performance monitoring and control system, thereby guaranteeing the optimal management of the energy used. Innovative connected devices facilitate the energy transition process and make the buildings smarter and less energy-intensive.

Integrated building control to increase energy efficiency

Guaranteeing the comfort of more than 21,000 pupils, teachers and municipal employees throughout the year is the project‘s primary requirement. This is met by replacing the most dilapidated boilers and fitting self-balancing valves to each radiator to homogenize the temperature within each area and ensure a comfortable temperature regardless of the circumstances. Further installations are temperature and presence sensors in each classroom, so that only occupied premises are heated. Additionally, an on/off switch for the heating system has been installed in each classroom, so that the economy setting may be overridden and the comfort setting activated outside of the usual heating program.

All of the building‘s controls are contained in a single connected system, enabling the user to manage the amount of energy consumed while ensuring the occupants remain comfortable. In some classrooms CO2 sensors are installed to turn on the ventilation system when the CO2 level is too high, so that air quality is improved to help enhance the students’ attention.

Vertuoz by Engie 30% energy savings for schools in Paris

Vertuoz by Engie 30% energy savings for schools in Paris

Vertuoz by Engie 30% energy savings for schools in Paris

Inconspicuously integrated: maintenance-free sensors and actuators can be easily retrofi tted and fl exibly positioned.

Easy to retrofit thanks to energy harvesting

All temperature sensors, CO2 sensors, occupancy sensors, switches and valves are based on the wireless and batteryless EnOcean radio standard. A total of 15,000 maintenance-free EnOcean-based sensors and switches will be installed in all the 140 schools. The solution offers significant advantages, such as reduced installation costs due to less installation time as well as no cabling costs. The sensors can also be positioned anywhere suitable, providing flexibility for future changes.

Vertuoz by Engie 30% energy savings for schools in Paris

The “Vertuoz Live” App helps to create simple rules for controlling devices and allows visualization of measured data and equipment conditions in every classroom in every school.

Smart heating for energy savings and comfort

The combination of the Overkiz Minibox with Ubiant’s smart building system ‘Hemis’ enables the implementation of a complete smart heating system in the 140 schools in Paris. The Overkiz Minibox, a single-protocol gateway, connects the EnOcean-based products with the IP world and makes it possible to control multiple devices from various manufacturers. Using the Overkiz cloud platform, the ‘Hemis’ app allows users to simply manage all self-powered devices from the “Vertuoz Live” smart phone app by controlling the consumption, identify malfunction and potential cost saving or improving the comfort of occupants.

This recent project is an excellent example of how energy harvesting technology enables schools in France to become more energy-efficient and sustainable.

www.engie-vertuoz.fr

www.overkiz.com

About Perpetuum

Perpetuum is EnOcean's customer magazine focusing on solutions and products for energy harvesting technology. The technology delivers the data for the Internet of Things in a resource-saving, self-powered and maintenance-free way. In doing so, it enables the smart use of buildings, cities and industrial plants. In the categories Internet of Things, Smart Building, Smart Lighting and Smart Home the EnOcean's partners in particular have their say highlighting their expertise.

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