Fraunhofer and Uponor chaired a Special Forum at the Sustainable Building 2011 conference

09/11/2011

The Sustainable Building 2011 (SB11) world conference, held on 18-21 October in Helsinki, Finland, brought together over a thousand experts in sustainability of the built environment, including academics, practitioners across industries, as well as students. Fraunhofer Institute and Uponor Corporation hosted a special forum to discuss more rational and effective use of energy in buildings and communities.

Uponor, the main sponsor of the SB11 conference, and Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, contributed to Special Forum 10 that focused on sustainable built environments with high-performance energy systems. The forum was led by Dr. Tech. Dietrich Schmidt, Fraunhofer Institute, and co-chaired by Lars Nielsen, Indoor Climate Business Group at Uponor Corporation.

The objective of this special workshop was to promote more effective use of energy, in particular the utilisation of low-valued and renewable energy sources in an integrated design approach. Heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting account for more than a third of the world’s primary energy demand. There is great savings potential in both the amount of energy and the quality of the used energy – the exergy. The inclusion of exergy demand enables an evaluation that goes beyond considerations of energy efficiency in buildings or community systems.

Low-exergy systems already exist on the market and they are being used, as witnessed by the case studies presented during the special forum. With the predicted impacts of climate change, and the need to mitigate those effects, active interaction between researchers, industry and authorities is needed to ensure a sustainable, integrated design that takes into account environmental, economical, cultural and social needs. By utilising low-exergy principles, the use of renewable energy sources in buildings and communities can be enhanced in an efficient way.

“We are not talking about implementation of highly efficient components. Rather, we are talking about more optimised and more integrated building processes. Good design is the key, and it is crucial to note that the HVAC comes into the picture at an earlier stage compared to a traditional building. In terms of system integration, more research is needed. The suitability and efficiency of low-exergy systems depend on the building and the climate zone, and this, for example, is an area where we need to get more knowledge,” says Dietrich Schmidt.

“Low-exergy systems are future-proof. Whatever future energy sources there may be, these systems will work with them. Through the implementation of low-exergy systems that enable the use of more sustainable energy sources such as ground cooling, we can gradually integrate renewable energy into the building stock. Replacing high-temperature heating systems with low-temperature systems will increase the overall energy efficiency, and at the same time integrated energy design will allow high temperature cooling utilising free sources,” says Lars Nielsen. 

The benefits of low-exergy systems and integrated energy design are already demonstrated in numerous research and construction projects. The workshop demonstrated that ready solutions are already provided by the building industry. The biggest challenge moving forward is to ensure better collaboration between the involved parties at an earlier stage of construction projects. This requires early involvement of HVAC and energy experts already in the building’s planning phase.

For more information, please contact:

Dietrich Schmidt, Fraunhofer Institute, tel. +49 561 8041871, dietrich.schmidt(at)ibp.fraunhofer.de

Lars Nielsen, Uponor Corporation, tel. +45 20 55 23 29,
lars.nielsen(at)uponor.com