Project duration
12/2016 -12/2018

Funding organization
Krämmel
Wohn- und Gewerbebau GmbH
82515 Wolfratshausen

Summary
The research projects “Prefabricated, integral timber façade elements for use in newly constructed hybrid reinforced-concrete buildings” and “Städtischer Hartplatz Penzberg – Cooperation in nearly-zero-energy residential housing construction” offer the opportunity to carry out a direct energy performance comparison of the solid and hybrid construction methods as well as an evaluation and assessment based on a specific construction project. The idea is to monitor identical dwellings with different external wall structures to collect data that help investigate the effects of the choice of construction method and the option of passive cooling on the indoor climate. The findings of the research project provide an excellent basis for future construction projects and promote comfort and future-proofness, or in other words, the sustainability of future projects.

In practice, builder-owners usually prefer classical wall structures when constructing a building. Experience has shown that there is only little interest in new construction methods. The outer walls / building envelopes are among the elements that offer great potential in terms of energy footprint and life-cycle assessment when designing energy-efficient and sustainable buildings. This potential must be investigated and exploited.

In addition, the influence of the construction method on the indoor climate has not yet been sufficiently investigated to provide adequate advice to the builder-owner. Opportunities to conduct specific comparisons, as enabled by this specific housing project (identical floor plans, different construction methods) are in fact rare. Moreover, it allows making findings on the performance of passive cooling systems depending on the construction method applied and their influence on the indoor climate. The data obtained also enable drawing conclusions about user behaviour, a crucial factor to reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency.

Data evaluations should give answers to the following questions:

• Indoor climate: thermal properties in hybrid construction vs. solid construction

• Comfort: influence of construction method and passive cooling  

• Energy storage capacity: inertia and storage capacity of the different systems when starting up, switch-on and switch-off times 

• Behaviour in summer and winter / heat protection: flow temperature for heating operation, cooling operation etc. 

• Consumption: power, water and heating 

• Yield and costs: additional yield / cost through cooling function of heat / cold transfer system and marketability: economic value of findings

More information about ecoleben Penzberg.

Project team
Fabian Reuß, M.Sc.
Dipl.-Math. Manuel Lindauer
Hannes Harter, M.Sc.
Michael Vollmer, M.Sc.