Buildings In Germany Research Articles

The impact of auxiliary energy on the efficiency of the heating and cooling system: Monitoring of low-energy buildings

This paper presents a detailed meta-analysis of end and primary energy use for heating, cooling and ventilation of 11 low-energy non-residential buildings and one residential building in Germany that belong to the EnOB research program launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economy. In particular, the analysis emphasizes the substantial impact of auxiliary energy use on the efficiency of heating and cooling performance. The investigated buildings employ environmental energy sources and sinks – such as the ground, ground water, rainwater and the ambient air – in combination with thermo-active building systems. These concepts are promising approaches for slashing the primary energy use of buildings without violating occupant thermal comfort. A limited primary energy use of about 100 kWh prim/(m 2 neta) as a target for the complete building service technology (HVAC and lighting) was postulated for all buildings presented. With respect to this premise, a comprehensive long-term monitoring in high time resolution was carried out over the course of two to five years, with an accompanying commissioning of the building performance. Measurements include the energy use for heating, cooling, and ventilation, as well as the auxiliary equipment, the performance of the environmental heat source and sink, and local climatic site conditions.

Book Review: New Hospital Buildings in Germany, Volume 1: General Hospitals and Health Centres, Volume 2: Specialist Clinics and Medical Departments

New Hospital Buildings in Germany by Philipp Meuser and Christoph Schirmer (English edition translation: Cord von der Luhe), Berlin: DOM Publishers. ISBN 3-938666-18-8 (Volume 1, 304 pp.); ISBN 3-938666-19-6 (Volume 2, 304 pp.)Meuser and Schirmer have given us a solid and sophisticated two-volume set of 608 pages describing more than 100 projects (new buildings as well as renovations) from all over Germany. The books claim to be the most extensive collection of examples of new hospital buildings since the German Reunification. Volume 1 covers general hospitals and health centers. Volume 2 addresses specialist clinics and medical departments. Meuser earned a Master of Architecture degree in 1995 and, in addition to a Berlin-based architectural partnership with Natasha Meuser, he has been a freelance journalist. Shirmer has written other books on hospital architecture and collaborated with Meuser on other works.All of the projects are well presented with clear plans and high-quality photographs, including brief, to-the-point text. The layout and presentation is as thorough and well organized as one would expect from a German team of expert authors: many of the drawings are on the same 1:2000 scale, all plans have been analyzed according to the functional color scheme defined in the DIN 13080 (which is illustrated on the inside flap of the dust jacket), and a smart set of markings and pictograms has been added to provide quick insight into the typology and functional groupings of complex healthcare buildings.Volume 1: General Hospitals and Health CentresReview by Bas MolenaarThis book fills a gap in the specialist literature after the recent publications on healthcare architecture from France (Fernand, 2005), Great Britain (Monk, 2004), and the Netherlands (Wagenaar, 2006). It always is helpful to recognize the context of one's own work in relationship to what is being done in other countries and cultures.The introduction offers a sweeping history of hospital design. The three short essays addressing the design exigencies of medical buildings should be required reading for all architects and designers in this specialized field. Pawlik & Hofrichter describe the function of the out-patient department, Rauh covers the function of the operating room, and Labryga discusses nursing and patient care. The essays cover the fundamentals of hospital design that would not be obvious from studying individual projects.Architects working in the healthcare field will find it useful to compare the specific plan details of the many individual project examples and to consider contemporary German thinking with regard to choice of building materials and furnishings. The spaces look clean and well lit, with large amounts of natural sunlight. The current trend is to abandon the monstrous technical medical machines that hospitals have become and convert them to human-friendly health centers; this is illustrated in elegant projects, yet many feature a spare and simplified design with little or no ornament. The medical facility of the future is described and linked to the German tradition of Kurorte and natural healing, which are the basis of the architectural quality of these projects. The word Kurorte means place for curing and is used to describe traditional spa towns.One of the introductory essays quotes Hippocrates (ca. …

The German Experience: Evaluation of German Library Buildings from the Last Decades

The period after the Second World War was a golden age for library buildings in Germany — especially when investment in higher education was increased in the ‘Bildungsexpansion’. Typical examples of new and reconstructed buildings are checked against modern demands, based on a survey of the German university buildings in 2008. The paper gives an overview of the development of library architecture in Germany. It is a first case study for future evaluation activities in this field as well.

Subjective complaints in persons under chronic low-dose exposure to lower polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been in widespread industrial use in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite a worldwide reduction, environmental exposure remains an issue especially in contaminated buildings. Due to the ubiquitous presence and poor degradation of PCBs, public health concerns continue to exist; however, evidence on the actual health effects of chronic low-dose exposure is scanty. The objective of the present study is an assessment of subjective complaints of exposed subjects in comparison to a non-exposed control group and their inter-relation to plasma levels of PCB congeners. The plasma concentrations of PCB congeners were measured in 583 subjects who had worked for an average of 14.7+/-9.6 years in a contaminated building in Germany, and 205 control subjects working in a non-contaminated building. Subjective complaints were assessed with the 24-item 'Giessen Subjective Complaints List' (GSCL-24). The subjects under chronic low-dose exposure scored significantly higher values on all the GSCL subscales except 'stomach complaints' in comparison to the non-exposed subjects and a 'normal' sample derived from the literature. However, thorough statistical analysis revealed no correlation of symptoms and PCB congener plasma concentration; the scores on the subscale 'exhaustion were even higher in subjects with low PCB concentration. Subjects working in a PCB-contaminated building report more subjective complaints in comparison to non-exposed subjects, but the complaints are not related to current PCB plasma concentrations.

Monitoring Results of a Naturally Ventilated and Passively Cooled Office Building in Frankfurt, Germany

Ventilation, cooling and air-conditioning contribute significantly to the energy consumption of many existing office buildings, particularly when primary energy factors are taken into account. “Lean” building concepts however can diminish this energy consumption by natural ventilation and passive cooling strategies. Compared to fully air-conditioned buildings the resulting indoor temperatures float in a broader band during summer and might exceed the boundaries for thermal comfort for short periods. This paper presents the monitoring results of a naturally ventilated and passively cooled bank building in Germany and shows that, even during the very hot summer of 2003, the indoor climate could be held in an acceptable range by only passive means if the rooms were operated properly. The air quality was shown to be high with natural ventilation. Investigations on the night ventilation strategy revealed an incorrect implementation of design parameters in the building management system. Further optimization potential for nocturnal airflow was found by simulations based on recorded data. The low total primary energy consumption for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting of 115 kWh m-2a-1 confirmed an excellent performance of the building. Monitoring proved to be a necessary and efficient way to optimize the building’s operation.

Innovative Low Energy Renovation of an Office Building: Concept and Simulation

Energy considerations are often neglected when it comes to refurbishments in office buildings erected in Germany during the first postwar decades. With a primary energy consumption ranging from 200 to 300 kWh/(m2a)*, it is worthwhile thinking about lowering the operating costs for these buildings using ambitious design concepts for their capacity to lower building energy consumption. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs tries to encourage model refurbishments in a funding program called ENOB – ENergy Optimized Building. Within this program, an interdisciplinary planning team developed a concept ready for realization for the office building of the DEGEWO company, located in Berlin (see Figure 1) [1].Seventy-five percent of the existing buildings in Germany were built at times when there was no heat protection legislation in force. They account for about 90% of the heating energy demand in the country. Thus, the challenge is to improve the building stock, and this requires a lot more creativity than designing an energy efficient building from scratch [2].The funded project of an innovative low energy renovation of an office building is of overriding importance to the planning of similar building types: the single elements of the energy concept and the general principles are transferable and adaptable to almost all office buildings erected in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The experiences and findings of the planning concept can be utilized independently of the specific project.This paper first describes the energy concept and its components as a result of an integral planning approach. In its second part, the application of dynamic building simulations as a powerful analysis tool during the conceptual phase of this project is demonstrated. The design team is introduced in section 3.

Bioclimatic Design of Tall Buildings

The concept of tall buildings is determined by the level of civilization and technological progress of the countries, where their heights in some regions can exceed 400 meters. With increasing the importance of the public environmental problems and the rapid increase of tall buildings in city centers, it became necessary to study and define how these buildings are compatible to the environment. This research aims at surveying the design considerations of tall buildings in order to study the bioclimatic design of these buildings to satisfy the comfort for the building's users over the year by using passive energy sources, which depend on natural ventilation and the utilization of Sun light. This reduces the energy consumption and the associated emission of carbon dioxide and other pollutants of the surrounding environmental. This research is focused on the study of the design features for tall buildings including service cores (which ensure natural lighting and ventilation for these cores) as well as orientation of the building and defining openings' places in facades (for energy conservation) and natural ventilation (in order to design the spaces in these buildings to move air from outside into inside taking into account the minimum limit of privacy, which is requested by the building's users). This research is concluded by studying the Commerzbank Headquarters Building in Germany being considered one of the examples of bioclimatically-designed tall buildings.

Thermal comfort and workplace occupant satisfaction—Results of field studies in German low energy office buildings

The issues of comfort and workspace quality in buildings have gained much importance with the European “Energy Performance of Buildings Directive” of 2001. New energy efficient building concepts and technologies require a revision of comfort standards, which were developed for air-conditioned buildings only. Particularly, the question of recommendable upper indoor temperature limits needs further investigation. In addition, a broader approach to occupant satisfaction in buildings is necessary with respect to overall building performance. The results of a 4-week summer field study on thermal comfort with 50 subjects in a naturally ventilated office building in Karlsruhe, Germany, show that thermal sensation votes do not correspond to calculated predicted mean votes, but a very good agreement can be seen with adaptive comfort models. The dependence between thermal comfort and the outdoor temperature in naturally ventilated buildings could therefore be confirmed. A survey on workplace occupant satisfaction in 16 office buildings in Germany revealed that the occupants’ control of the indoor climate and moreover the perceived effect of their intervention strongly influence their satisfaction with thermal indoor conditions. The paper also introduces a method for assessing the building performance by occupant surveys calculating the weighted importance of every satisfaction parameter in relation to the general acceptance of the workplace and then ranking the different satisfaction parameters.

Solar control: A general evaluation method for facades with venetian blinds or other solar control systems

A general method for realistic performance evaluation of solar control properties of facades for facades with sun-shading or other solar control systems has been developed. It is particularly designed to be used for venetian blinds. It can be used used ‘stand-alone’ or within building simulation programs. The new method has proven to be of great practical value to planning teams of huge office buildings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The method is presented in detail in this paper. It can be used either ’stand-alone’ (without building simulation) for comparisons of different facade variants or within building simulation programs. Some parts of the proposed methodology could be used in standards (e.g. EN13363) or to improve the accuracy of building simulation programs which are currently on the market. Practical experience with the new methodology led to insights which are the basis for the design of two new products. These new products are compared with state of the art products in [T.E. Kuhn, Solar control: comparsion of two new systems with the state of the art on the basis of a new general evaluation method for facades with venetian blinds or other solar control systems, Energy and Buildings, in press] on the basis of the new methodology.

A Study on the legal system behind the vertical use of street space by roads and buildings in Germany

A Study on the legal system behind the vertical use of street space by roads and buildings in Germany

A Study on the legal system behind the vertical use of street space by roads and buildings in Germany

本研究は、道路と建物とを立体的に整備した多くの事例を持つドイツを対象に、実例を検討した上で制度面を明らかにすることにより、今後の我が国で「立体道路制度」を発展させる方向を考えることを目的としている。ドイツでは、幹線道路による市街地の分断や交通騒音を解消するなどの目的で、道路と建物の立体化が行われている。我が国の「立体道路制度」に比べ、市町村が街づくりの観点から個別事情に応じた柔軟な対応をしていることが特徴的である。そのための法制度としては、道路の計画確定、特別利用許可（又は契約）などとともに、特に Bプランで各種利害を衡量した上で立体的な用途指定を行えることが重要な役割を果たしている。

Operational performance of grid‐connected PV systems on buildings in Germany

AbstractThis paper presents operational performance results of grid‐connected PV systems in Germany, as collected and elaborated for the Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (PVPS) of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Performance ratios obtained from 235 PV installations in Germany and from 133 PV plants in other countries are compared and discussed. For Germany, a significant rise in PV system performance and reliability was observed for new PV installations due to higher component efficiencies (e.g., inverter) and increased availabilities.There is a lack of long‐term experience in performance and reliability of PV systems, owing to the absence of monitoring programmes. As an outcome of IEA PVPS collaborative work, Task 2 provides reliable and worldwide monitoring performance data and results (www.task2.org). Technical and operational data is available for system planning and comparison, for teaching and training purposes as well as for future developments of financing schemes (e.g., feed‐in‐tariffs) in order to stimulate the PV market. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evaluation of the cost efficiency of an energy efficient building

This paper presents quantitative results on the economics of different levels of thermal insulation for a building envelope. Results are calculated on the basis of an example building in Germany, which is a recently built single family house with materials commonly used in light-weight constructions. Defining the cost efficiency of an energy efficient building allows one to identify solutions which are already economically viable as well as to determine specific costs of the investment in an advanced sustainable building.

Bruchmechanische Sicherheitskonzepte bei Schweißkonstruktionen

Cases of Structural Steel Building. Steel building in Germany is ruled by laws which shall effect sufficient reliability of the structure. They rely on technical rules for design and erection of welded steel structures. In cases where the rules do not apply it is necessary to make single case studies which demonstrate the safety of the structure. Within this frame and as a result of the development of the Annex C procedure to avoid brittle fracture in EUROCODE 3 a fracture mechanic based methodology has been developed which allows the calculation of the required safety in such special design cases. The methodology is going together with one single component test which is designed and performed in a way that the theoretical calculations are verified.

Energy savings go through the roof

From the outside, Sabine Glaser's apartment block in Ludwigshafen looks like any other building in the street. But there is more to the 70-year-old property than meets the eye – it is the first old building in Germany to be converted from a draughty energy-guzzling residence to energy-efficient homes. Dubbed the “3 litre house”, the heating bills for Glaser's 100 m2 apartment have been slashed from €700 a year to just €100 thanks to the latest advances in insulation and building technology.

Daylighting, energy and glazed balconies: a study of a refurbishment project in Engelsby, near Flensberg, Germany

The passive solar glazed sunspace taking the form of a sun-facing conservatory or glazed balcony has been encouraged as an energy-saving feature in both new and refurbished buildings. Doubts have been raised previously as to whether any real energy savings are possible and whether in fact these spaces increase energy consumption. Little attention has been given to the effect on daylighting where these have been added during refurbishment. This paper discusses these issues and describes the refurbishment of a high-rise social housing building in Germany where design solutions were developed to ensure good daylighdng and energy-saving potential. A contrast is provided with a refurbishment in France where glazed balconies were added instead of existing balconies being glazed.

Methanotrophs and methanogens in masonry

Methanotrophs were present in 48 of 225 stone samples which were removed from 19 historical buildings in Germany and Italy. The average cell number of methanotrophs was 20 CFU per g of stone, and their activities ranged between 11 and 42 pmol of CH4 g of stone-1 day-1. Twelve strains of methane-oxidizing bacteria were isolated. They belonged to the type II methanotrophs of the genera Methylocystis, Methylosinus, and Methylobacterium. In masonry, growth substrates like methane or methanol are available in very low concentrations. To determine if methane could be produced by the stone at rates sufficient to support growth of methanotrophs, methane production by stone samples under nonoxic conditions was examined. Methane production of 0.07 to 215 nmol of CH4 g of stone-1 day-1 was detected in 23 of 47 stone samples examined. This indicated the presence of the so-called "mini-methane"-producing bacteria and/or methanogenic archaea. Methanotrophs occurred in nearly all samples which showed methane production. This finding indicated that methanotrophs depend on biogenic methane production in or on stone surfaces of historical buildings.

Developments and applications of high-performance concrete

In High Performance Concrete structures, both the increased strength as well as the improved microstructure can be utilized. Both effects are achieved using an optimized concrete technology, namely an extremely low w/c-ratio and the addition of silica fume. In the case of High Performance Concrete, reinforcement can be minimized and/or the dimensions of the structural members can be reduced. This type of concrete is mainly used for columns, walls, etc. within high-rise buildings, as an alternative to steel structures. However, in comparison with normal reinforced concrete structures, some additional measures are necessary to obtain an adequate fire resistance. Some interesting applications for high-rise buildings in Germany are presented. The dense microstructure of HPC is mainly used in case where, because of chemical attack or abrasion, additional protective measures are necessary in normal concrete structures. These measures can be avoided by using such a concrete.

Confessionalization, Community, and State Building in Germany, 1555-1870

The principle cuius regio eius religio belongs to the fundamental structures of modem German history. Juridically set at the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, expanded to include Calvinists and reapplied at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, it governed political and religious relations in the German lands until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1803. Stipulating that the religion of the ruler should be the religion of the ruled, cuius regio eius religio constituted an attempt to ameliorate the vexing problems of religious coexistence, religious pluralism, and religious conflict that the Lutheran Reformation and subsequent Protestant reform movements introduced into the fabric of German society. These problems, in turn, powerfully influenced the special trajectory of German state and nation building, ensuring that the German path, more perhaps even than those of the French or English, would be marked by problems of religious, and therefore cultural, disunity. In what follows we will consider how religious division affected state building and civil society in Germany from 1555 to 1870. While historians of early modem Germany have recently devoted a considerable amount of research to this problem, suggesting complex interactions between confessional formation and the emergence of the early modern state, historians of nineteenth-century Germany have been slower to recognize the impact of religious division on nineteenth-century German society. Moreover, neither early modern historians nor their counterparts who deal with the modern era have attempted to trace the continuities and discontinuities across what has become a strict disciplinary barrier between the two periods. In this article we will consider both periods, but we will also focus on the continuities across the barrier. Such an analysis implies two sets of questions. The first concerns the creationsometimes by suasion, sometimes by force-of confessional unity: What impact did the formation of confessional homogeneity have on state structure, on the con-

Production of nitric oxide by ammonium-oxidizing bacteria colonizing building stones

Stone samples from corroding historical buildings in Germany released NO in significant amounts during oxidation of ammonium to nitrate. Nitrite intermediately accumulated to low concentrations. Nitrification and NO release were detectable only in stones with neutral pH. Addition of nitrapyrin inhibited both ammonium oxidation and NO production. NO was produced in stone samples containing Nitrosomonas or Nitrosovibrio, but was not produced in samples containing only Nitrobacter. Addition of nitrite stimulated NO production in autoclaved stone samples significantly only if dried to < 2% water content, or in acidic stone samples. In moist neutral stones, NO production was only slightly stimulated by nitrite giving less than about 8% of the NO production observed under nitrifying conditions. Most of the NO production by corroding building stones was apparently due to ammonium-oxidizing nitrifiers.