Sustainable building complex

17/01/2012

Green Building AURON with Uponor Contec ON

Efficient, quiet, and draught-free heating and cooling – all are advantages that Uponor Contec ON concrete surface activation offers to the AURON office building complex in Munich. Along with high heating and cooling performance, fast response times and the use of renewable energy sources, the system also has advantages for a design that makes additional radiators in rooms unnecessary. The system allows for unlimited interior architectural design, based on the concepts of feng shui.

The first construction phase of the AURON office building has been certified in gold as a Green Building based on the standards of the DGNB, the German Sustainable Building Council. The concrete surface activation Uponor Contec ON heats and cools the 39,000 m2 of usable floor space with especially high energy efficiency, all while using renewable energy sources. The system therefore meets the demands for both sustainability and high capacities for heating and cooling.

In addition, the possibility of installing Uponor Contec ON as a monovalent system has made a strong impression on the owner, Employrion Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, a project company of Accumulata Immo-bilien Development GmbH and LBBW Immobilien GmbH.

A heat pump for thermal groundwater use and a dis-trict heating system supplies heat to the Contec ON concrete surface activation system. For heating, a supply temperature of 32 °C and a return temperature of 28 °C were selected. The thermally active ceiling has a heating capacity of 60 W/m² and 53 W/m² in safe drilling areas. For cooling, refrigerating machines are used together with the well water to attain a cooling capacity of 70 W/m² and, in safe drilling areas, 63 W/m².

Since Contec ON is installed close to the surface, the system has the advantage of a fast response time over conventional concrete core activation. This makes it possible to regulate each of the 200 to 400 m² units individually.

For the upper floors of the seven-storey building, the Contec ON modules were installed in two material qualities: on tried and tested plastic mats and on spe-cial metal mats. The grid width required for the ele-ments were prefabricated to ensure the desired heat-ing and cooling capacity as well as quick construction, and the precise vertical location of the heating and cooling pipes were already guaranteed during installa-tion. For the Contec ON modules with metal mats, a distance of only 10 cm between pipes was chosen. The Contec ON mats were placed directly on the formwork panels. Additionally, the manifolds were laid axially with spacing, which in turn enabled the installation of optional partitions in the interstices.

In areas near the façade, Contec ON was laid with a distance of approximately 20 mm from the bottom level of the ceiling with a distance of 85 mm between the pipes. This enabled the quick feeding and removal of heating and cooling loads, which led to rapid and efficient temperature control. About 50 % of the planned heating and cooling capacities is reached after 30 minutes. Inside the office areas and the floor side of the hall, the system was installed with a safe drilling distance of 60 mm from the bottom level of the ceiling, with the pipes being laid 100 mm apart. In these safe drilling areas, 50 % of the heating and cooling capacities is reached after about 60 minutes.

In rooms with special requirements such as corner rooms, cooling elements supplement the Contec ON capacities. The elements are connected by means of additional Uponor thermal sockets.

The first construction phase of the AURON office building has been certified in gold as a Green Building based on the standards of DGNB.

Since additional radiators in rooms are unnecessary, Uponor Contec ON allows for unlimited interior archi-tectural design.

Efficient, quiet, and draught-free heating and cooling – all are advantages that Uponor Contec ON concrete surface activation offers to the AURON office building complex.