There is great potential in energy-optimizing real estates in Europe, about 20 % of the energy used in Europe goes to ventilation, warm water and heating/cooling properties. Two companies working hard to reduce this share is Ngenic and Healthy homes.
Ngenic
Their vision is contributing to a sustainable society and renewable energy production, by being leader in smart energy services and digitalizing the energy industry.
Ngenic Tune
A smart thermostat for heating systems, with a self-learning system that takes the House’s preconditions into consideration. Parameters such as solar radiation, weather, indoor and outdoor temperatures help to optimise the heating system. The result is smoother indoor temperature, increased comfort and about 10% energy saving.
A simple application on the phone allows for the desired indoor temperature, hourly price control and planning.
Hourly price control optimizes energy consumption after the energy price and planned vacancy of the dwelling gives further energy savings.
Ngenic Tune is compatible with most district heating stations, heat pumps and boilers.
Ngenic Track
For houses with electric heating, high power peaks can become a problem. The Ngenic Track temporarily reduces the heating when electrical products with high demands are used e.g. stoves and heaters. This contributes to a more even impact curve that benefits both energy companies and consumers financially.
Healthy Homes
Many homes in Sweden do not meet today’s ventilation requirements. To remedy the homes would result in an increase in energy use, Healthy Homes are trying to show that this can be avoided with demand-controlled ventilation.
The home ventilation system keeps a pre-set basic flow, transducer measures CO2, particulates/odor and moisture in different zones. At elevated values, the air turnover is increased in a specific zone.
Healthbox is a mechanical exhaust ventilation specially developed for single-family homes, holiday homes and apartment buildings. With simple and ingenious technology, the system detects and controls the ventilation for indoor air pollution (Homes, Heathy, 2019).
Balanced or exhaust ventilation with demand control? The calculation program TMF Energy shows that the airtightness of a building plays a big role in what type of ventilation to implement. Exhaust ventilation is to prefer when the buildings envelopes airtightness is low. The difficulty is to control how the air enters the building when the airtightness is low.
A master thesis at Högskolan Dalarna university shows that an apartment’s air exchange is reduced by 20% and still maintains the air quality in the apartment. (Johan Andrée Back, 2019) This shows a great potential for the demand ventilation.
Benefits:
- Energy saving
- Better indoor environment
- Higher humidity
- Great addition to exhaust system
- Measures CO2, particulate matter and moisture.
Cons
- Lots of technology (sensors, throttles, controls)
- No preheated supply air
References
Energy Café Link: . (2019, 02 13). Retrieved from http://media.play.du.se/9e98fee9
Homes, Heathy. (2019, 07 08). Heathy Homes. Retrieved from https://www.healthyhomes.se/.
Johan Andrée Back, T. R. (2019). Behovstyrd ventilation.Dalarna: Högskolan Dalarna.
Text author: Benny Magnusson, Sustainable Building Cluster in Dalarna
Background: This article is made in the framework of the project Effective Financing Tools for implementing Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EFFECT4buildings). The aim of the article is to share of experiences on energy efficiency solutions. EFFECT4buildings project develop a toolbox with a set of financial instruments for building managers to implement more energy efficiency measures. The project also maps, promote and share experiences among building managers of different technology solutions for energy efficiency in buildings. EFFECT4buildings is implemented with the support from the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Program 2014-2020 (European Regional Development Fund) and Norwegian national funding.
For more information: http://www.effect4buildings.se
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Disclaimer: The sole responsibility for the content of this article lies with the authors. It does not represent the views of the European Union.
