Open Gardens Guide to Smart Technologies
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Guide to Smart Technologies
www.otevrenazahrada.cz
The Open Gardens education and advisory centre built and managed by the Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation (Nadace Partnerství) is the best in its class. Thanks to the high-quality insulation and smart technologies used in both the new “C” building and in the reconstructed “B” building, Open Gardens is one of the most energyefficient office buildings in the Czech Republic. We save water and energy, and we recycle, reducing our impact on the environment. The technologies used in both building also reduce operating costs. It was simply a smart investment. We believe that good examples can lead to smarter cities and buildings. Imagine how our future may look! The Open Gardens can be an inspiration!
Under this cover the scheme of the area is laid out. Each piece of smartand eco-technology is numbered and marked in the scheme. The map legend is next to the scheme. Locate yourself on the map and then follow the numbers. Each number indicates a point of interest. Simply look for the number of your point of interest and you will then find the particular technology and relevant page number. Just go to the page to learn more. Small signs in the area will help you locate the right spot. Fancy a guided tour? Ask at the reception desk to join the next available group! See otevrenazahrada.cz
Awards –– 2012 Czech Energy Efficient and Ecological Project: in the category “Buildings” –– 2013 ABF Foundation and the Centre for Passive Houses Award –– 2013 Building of the Year: Awarded by the Minister of the Environment for energy efficiency; Skypaper Award for the building‘s extraordinary ecological, social and aesthetic benefits. –– 2014 Finalist in the Sustainable Energy Europe and ManagEnergy competition –– 2014 Building Efficiency Awards: 3rd place in the category “Commercial Property”
The Open Gardens map inside b
How to use this guide?
The Open Gardens map
Heat pumps
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8 Green roof 6
Drinking fountain WC
3 Sunblinds Recuperation 2 system 5
10
11 Compost Water tank 1
Bird 9 nests Photovoltaic panels
4 Well
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Solar collectors
Root-zone treatment
“C” Building (opened in 2013)
“B” Building (renovated to passive standard)
Main entrance from Údolní street
Café
Inside map “C” Building
Clay plaster
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Sunblinds
Ceiling heating
Water saving 14
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22 18
Rainwater flushing
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16
19 Lights
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20 21
Building management system
Legend
(To be found in the B Building)
Topics
1
Rainwater harvesting means saving water
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2
Where the building breathes in and out
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3
Our larch trellis will be green
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Our well
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HEATING AND COOLING
5
Where the building breathes in and out
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d page 1
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Drinking water for everybody
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Can we trap sunshine?
d page 5
8
The natural roof
d page 10
9
Where do bats and swifts sleep?
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Our extraordinary lake
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ELECTRICITY AND LIGHTS
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Your banana peel belongs in the compost
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12
Would you like sparkling or lightly sparkling water? d page 8
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Rainwater flushing
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14
Clay plaster sucks! Literally.
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15
Totally airtight
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Smart Venetian blinds
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Heating, cooling? Ceiling!
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You are part of our heating system
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Who turns the lights on? (C Building)
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Who turns the lights on? (B Building)
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Fan-coil heating
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Nothing compares!
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Building management system
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WATER SAVING d page 6
NATURE‘S WELCOME d page 9
1
Heating and Cooling
Our deep-well generated heating, cooling system and system of cooled ceilings have helped us to create the most energy efficient office building in the Czech Republic. The building does not require any conventional heating systems and requires very little energy to heat and cool the building space. Under normal conditions, the building is sufficiently warmed by the heat generated by human occupants, electric lighting and domestic appliances.
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HEATING AND COOLING
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5
Where the building breathes in and out The smart recuperation system allows air to be re-circulated in the building. The air dispelled from the chimney is the last stage in this process. On the terrace you can notice a shaft leading to the heat exchanger, which looks like a big cylinder full of small tubes. This is where heat is transmitted from the air, letting it in and out.
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Totally airtight A zero carbon building means having a perfectly airtight building. This can be achieved only with precise execution, good insulation along with air-tightened façades, windows and doors. We have proved this by using the Blower Door Test.
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Building management system Our building is smarter than anybody else in this building. It’s controlled by the BMS (Building Management System)— smart measuring and regulating system. It coordinates every active technology in the building. After a year’s experience, we and the Siemens engineers have now set the system so it can detect the most efficient combination of used technologies.
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You are part of our heating system Building heating also uses passive sources of energy—people and computers. Now that doesn’t mean we’re going to throw you into the stove! We only use the heat you or your computers emit.
HEATING AND COOLING
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Smart Venetian blinds Wooden frame windows are shadowed by outdoor Venetian blinds. Due to our sunshine, temperature and wind sensors, blinds know when to open or close. This helps us the building to maintain a constant temperature.
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Heating, cooling? Ceiling! How do we measure the temperature of the building? AÂ system of pipes run along the thermo-active concrete built into the ceiling. Heating or cooling liquid is streamed through these pipes and as a result, heating and cooling energy is generated from eight deep wells (boreholes) by 4 heat pumps.
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Fan-coil heating In the new C building, there is a system of pipes that run along the thermo-active concrete built into the ceiling. The B building uses a different system—fan-coils. This is a simple device consisting of a heating/cooling coil and fan installed under the windows.
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Electricity and Lights Our B building roof consists of photovoltaic panels. Thanks to the placement of these panels, we annually produce 13 MWh of electrical energy which covers the cost of four months’ consumption—enough energy to cover the consumption of one building! In the C building we also use smart sensors that automatically turn lights on and off.
ELECTRICITY AND LIGHTS
19 20
Who turns the lights on? Have you noticed that in the C building there are just a few switches? We don’t need them because the lights are turned on by our smart system sensors. That’s why we only turn on our lights when they’re needed. The lights in the B building are operated manually.
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Can we trap sunshine? Yes. Our B building roof consists of photovoltaic panels. Thanks to the placement of these panels, we can produce 13 MWh of electrical energy and cover the cost of four months’ consumption—for just one building. We also have solar collectors that heat water in the building.
14
Clay plaster sucks! Literally. Clay plaster accumulates water, so it helps us to control the level of air dryness. We really do have clay plaster even if it’s white coloured. We use white casein colour on the surface of the walls because casein increases reflection so that we can save the energy we need for lighting instead.
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Nothing compares! Our goal is to have a zero carbon building, which means that the entire consumption of the building will be covered by renewable sources. There is a similar floor area in both buildings, but their construction, façade materials, recuperation systems, etc. are different. Now we can compare them to show which is more efficient.
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Water Saving
Reducing water consumption and protecting water quality are two of our most important objectives. That’s why we capture rainwater in a water tank for further use. Our rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling systems along with our water-efficient bathroom fittings and fixtures, such as dual flush toilets and urinal sensors, enable us to use around 40 percent less than a typical conventional office building would require.
WATER SAVING
1
Rainwater harvesting means saving water We capture rainwater in a water tank under the terrace so we can use it for watering our gardens and flushing our toilets.
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Our well We capture rainwater for watering the garden and flushing the toilets. But what if the water tank is empty? In this case we use our own well. Thanks to all these measures we save on over 50 percent of our drinking water.
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Drinking water for everybody At one time there used to be many public drinking fountains all over Brno city centre. Nowadays you can find no more than ten of them—and one of them is right here. Have a drink! It’s cheap, safe and environmentally friendly.
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Our extraordinary lake This is not only an educational habitat but also a root-zone treatment area, where wastewater coming out of the building is cleaned. Nature cleans the water by itself, first by filtering the gravel-sand layer and then by the action of bacteria living on the plant roots.
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WATER SAVING
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Would you like sparkling or lightly sparkling water? Every single tap in the Open Gardens area uses Watersaver— patented technology that saves water. How? Watersaver aerates water and regulates the stream. Thanks to Watersaver we consume only 70 percent of our water!
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Rainwater flushing In this building we use rainwater for toilet flushing. These measures allow us to save and store rainwater in the water tank under the terrace, which means that we consume only 50 percent of our drinking water.
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Nature’s welcome We really want to be a part of nature. Our green roof plays an important role in improving the local microclimate, especially when used in a highly urbanized area like ours. In addition, roof and wall vegetation can provide habitats for birds and insects, filter airborne pollution and reduce the runoff of storm water. We also have a compost in the garden and bird and bat booths in the B building façade.
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NATURE’S WELCOME
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Our larch trellis will be green Our trellis made of larch wood will be covered by a climbing plant. Together they will cover a permeable layer, protecting the insulation of the building.
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The natural roof Our green roof returns the building to nature. The soil isolates heat and, especially during summer, it helps to protect the building against overheating.
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Where do bats and swifts sleep? Check out the B building façade! Do you see the round and oval gaps? They are called bird and bat booths. Bats and swifts have lost places for temporary shelter and nesting opportunities because of the isolated nature of the building. Our booths help them to survive. For the birds’ safety we have also stuck predatory bird-shaped stickers on windows.
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Your banana peel belongs in the compost We love our garden plants and flowers. That’s why we offer them fresh humus from our compost. It increases the soil’s quality and, as a result, plants can better absorb the water from the soil. Do you have some old banana peel? Compost it right here!
140-300 Houses built pre-1990
Consumption Charts
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140
70-140 Current standards
Heating Energy Consumption (MWh per year 2014)
130
120
C building 16.8 MWh (53%)
C
B
B building 14.9 MWh (47%)
Cooling Energy Consumption (MWh per year 2014) C building 10.2 MWh (27%)
2014 was the second year of the regular operation of our Open Gardens. This year it consumed vastly less heating energy then it did in 2013. We expect that the C Building’s consumption will very soon decrease under 15 kWh/m2, which is the top limit for passive houses.
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100
90
80
C B
B building 27.1 MWh (73%)
70
50-70 Energy-efficient houses
13.9 MWh
60
50
Energy from the grid consumed by heat pumps.
72.8 MWh Actual energy used for heating, cooling and hot water.
15-50 Low-energy houses
5.2 Our coefficient of performance Because of our smart technologies we multiply the energy from the grid by more than five times.
Heating Energy Consumption per m2 (in kWh)
40
30
17.2 kWh/m2
C
14.8 kWh/m2
B
20
5-15 Passive houses 0-5 Zero-energy houses
15 10 5 0 kWh/m2
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CONSUMPTION CHARTS
Saving Water (m
3
per year 2014)
Potable water used in the C Building and garden 220 m3 (28%)
Greywater used in the C Building and garden 329 m3 (42%)
Potable water used in B Building 231 m3 (30%)
In the Open Gardens we annually consume 780 m3 (2014) of water in total. By capturing rainwater, cleaning waste water and other measures we save more than 40 percent of potable water. Every tap in the area also uses Watersaver—patented technology that saves us up to 30 percent of our potable water.
Buildings share of electric energy (MWh per year 2014)
C Building and garden 47.2 MWh
C
B
B Building 40.1 MWh
Source Share of Electric Energy (MWh per year 2014) Photovoltaic production 11.8 MWh (14%)
Carbon Footprint
Electric grid 75.4 MWh (86%)
In 2014 the total electricity consumption of the building’s entire area was 87.3 MWh. Thanks to the energy from the photovoltaic panels on the roof of the B building we can produce almost 12 MWh which covers the cost of four months’ consumption for one building.
Carbon footprint is a total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the building operation. The Open Garden Ordinary Family House
48 t CO2 eq. 23.7 t CO2 eq. / m2 6.2 t CO2 eq.
41.3 t CO2 eq. / m2
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Where to find us
Open Gardens Údolní 33, 602 00 Brno e-mail: otevrenazahrada@nap.cz phone: 775 424 702 www.otevrenazahrada.cz
Obilní trh Údolní 33 Ombudsman
Open Gardens Špilberk park
Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation (Nadace Partnerství) is a leading Czech foundation supporting sustainable development projects in all regions of the Czech Republic and is also a coordinator of a network of sister foundation called Environmental Partnership Association. We assist in protection and improvement of their environment. We provide grants, expert knowledge, services and inspiration from abroad. We support tree planting, environmental protection, considerate transport, using renewable energy recources and quality public spaces. d www.nadacepartnerstvi.cz In 2012 we turned our Brno headquarters into a green office complex surrounded by Open Gardens, a truly unique space to experience nature, technology and city gardening, serving both as a model and blueprint for smart city development and a hub for nurturing civil society and environmental innovations d www.otevrenazahrada.cz
EPA is a consortium of six foundations from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia supporting community based projects whose goal is to protect the environment and support local communities and society. Over 20 years of its existence, the EPA has supported by foundation contributions more than 10 million Euros in total. d www.environmentalpartnership.org
Photos: Lenka Grossmanová, Zbyšek Podhrázský and Photo archive of the Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation. | Printed on recycled paper.
Co-funded by the European Union