The partners collaborated to developing industrialized retrofit solutions.
Solution 1: An innovative, photovoltaic-powered heat pump system with mechanical ventilation and hot water storage for single dwellings
BuildHEAT integrated a dwelling heat pump and mechanical ventilation solution with a small size PV inverter. The integration and control logics developed allow to maximise the utilisation of PV electricity by the heat pump unit, reducing the energy exchange with the grid and shifting electric consumption towards high solar availability periods. This unit is remotely monitored and data is stored in the Cloud, thus enabling the building managers to access them without accessing the dwellings.
Solution 2: An innovative water storage tank, supplying individual dwellings with domestic hot water, space heating and cooling
BuildHeat developed an innovative thermal storage tank to be installed in each dwelling of a multifamily house and aimed to supplying hot water and space heating and cooling. This solution allows distributing a huge thermal storage capacity within the building and to manage it based on the single users’ habits.
In addition to the hydraulic section, the storage tank has been integrated with a mechanical ventilation unit that covers the air exchange needs of the dwelling. The integrated solution arrives prefabricated to the construction site, facilitating and shortening the installation.
The units finally integrate monitoring and control hardware allowing to metering the dwelling energy uses, to monitor comfort conditions and to implement the detailed dwelling energy management.
Solution 3: A multifunctional façade, including insulation and active elements
The solution is a preassembled multifunctional façade system made out of (1) a preassembled metal substructure, which is anchored to the existing façade, (2) a thermal insulation layer integrated in the metal frame and between the frame and the existing façade and (3) cladding panels.
The façade system is engineered to allow hosting eventual pipelines, ducts and cables between the metal frame and the existing façade. In this way, decentral units can be connected to central systems (e.g. a central heat pump, a PV field on the roof) without new shafts being installed.
In addition, the metal frame can host PV panels or solar thermal collectors in place of the cladding elements, allowing to use the new façade as a surface to generate useful energy for the building.
Solution 4: ICT infrastructure to monitor and control the heating and cooling solutions in a smarter way
The BuildHeat ICT infrastructure provides for optimised energy use and storage, which reduces peak loads and ensures indoor comfort. It is scalable to buildings or to district level.
This solution relies on a network of low-intrusive sensors and actuators installed in the dwellings and in the technological equipment. The devices transmit data along cables to an open protocol gateway. From there, the data is sent to the cloud database following a stable and safe protocol. The cloud processes the data by means of control logics, which serve to optimise the energy fluxes in the building.
In addition, interfaces have been developed to share data with different users. On the one hand, a mobile app provides inhabitants with information about their energy use and comfort conditions, suggesting eventual behaviour improvements. On the other hand, a BIM platform has been adapted to read, analyse and display monitored data, making useful information available to ESCOs and building managers.
In addition to the technology development, BuildHeat tackled the financing of the renovation projects:
Firstly, retrofitting in this market is often fragmentary through lack of coordination. Secondly, small-scale projects or investment in new technologies often struggle to attract interest due to their perceived risks or their lack of governance.
BuildHeat proposed a risk mitigation approach by creating a local ecosystem that is attractive for investors.
This approach fosters synergies between contractors, individual customers, private banks, investment funds and public funding and ensures that measures proposed are bankable and attractive to private investors, while being economically sustainable for building owners.
