Intelligent concrete core activation...

...using sustainable energy forms image database
The use of sustainable energy forms is creating new possibilities for the use of concrete: solar thermics and geothermics combined with concrete core activation are opening new perspectives for the supplying of energy to buildings. IMMOSOLAR, specialist in solar thermics and geothermics, will present innovative solutions and clever products at the international concrete trade fair in Portugal from October 20th to 24th 2009.
By 2020 at the latest, at least 14 percent of Germany’s warmth must come from sustainable energy forms. The new Heat Law (EEWärmeG) aims to reduce the poisonous greenhouse gas emissions, to protect resources and to ensure a safe and lasting energy supply. For this reason, since January 1st 2009, builders are also required to use sustainable energy in all new buildings. According to the law, all forms of sustainable energy may be used, including solar radiation energy and geothermics. At the same time, the government has increased incentives to 500 million euro per year. The IMMOSOLAR heating systems comply with the legal technical requirements. Concrete core activation plays an important role under these parameters.

The solar thermic unit is used mostly in spring and summer to heat the industrial water and underground brine reservoirs of the geothermic unit, while concrete is valid in autumn at the latest. Concrete is able to absorb and release thermal energy, thus concrete ceilings or concrete foundation slabs are ideal heat reservoirs for the colder seasons. Solar heat energy can be conducted to the concrete building substance with hardly any reservoir loss with the aid of the IMMOSOLAR thermoactive building component systems. Even low initial temperatures due to bad weather and in winter are used efficiently by solar units. Pipe registers are installed in the concrete ceilings for the circulation of water warmed by the solar thermic unit. The water releases valuable heat to the concrete while moving through the integrated pipe system. The result: rooms are heated effectively, in winter the heating requirements are reduced considerably. Large radiation surfaces are created together with a low temperature heating system which make the regulation of a heat pump very effective.
Even in the warmer seasons the concrete core activation offers attractive possibilities to save energy. In the summer the same system can be used to cool the concrete and thus the building. The concrete forms a cool surface when cold water from a heat pump or cooler machine flows through the pipe register which collects and removes the heat in a room, thus reducing the costs for cooling the building.
The transfer system in the TABS is made up of register mats which are hydraulically optimised and which can be installed very quickly. Not least this is a decisive factor in the manufacture of active concrete core elements.

It all depends on clever regulation

The large concrete surfaces in the rooms allow for remarkable outputs to the room, even at higher or lower temperatures which are already low. For this reason, the TABS systems are able to effectively use the low temperature differences of natural temperature changes in summer or from heat sources in winter compared to the room temperature.
The correct regulation of energy producers, consumers and reservoirs is very important: the combination of warmth from solar thermics, underground, ground water or air proves itself to be an optimal cost efficient energy producer when all components are fine-tuned with eachother. The EnergyManagementSystem from IMMOSOLAR provides the optimal activation of the TABS so that the heating and cooling reach the correct places in the house and finally in the concrete. In this manner the TABS are always loaded or emptied at the right time and so they warm or cool. This kind of TABS activation is the only one of its’ kind on the market up to now.
IMMOSOLAR has turned concrete into an active building component which serves as both a mass reservoir and a transfer surface for heating and cooling. This leads to a comfortable room climate and is of long term benefit to both the environment and the purse.
IMMOSOLAR will introduce the thermoactive building component systems (TABS) and other products such as the EnergyManagementSystem (EMS) at the international concrete trade fair Concreta in the Portuguese Porto from October 20th to 24th 2009.