oh 456 - Plus Energy Office Building oh456

Status

completed

Summary

Starting point/Motivation

The Plus Energy Office building oh456 with its small hydro-electric power station wants to demonstrate ways and challenges for ecological sustainable buildings in the future, energy efficiency, health and economy and serves as a prototype to test new components as well as traditional techniques of craftsmen. The small hydro-electric power station is conceived as a power station open to the public. The project is located in Oberdorf, Riedlstraße 6, directly on the Fuschl river in Thalgau. At the place of an old sawmill which was located directly at the river, a shared office space for several planning offices including e center for events has been developed.

Contents and Objectives

One of the basic project objectives was to demonstrate that other factors also play an important role for the comfort and well-being of users and residents. These include daylight, artificial light, colors in the room, surface quality and therefore air quality, materials and acoustics.

Innovative facade and window elements have been developed and tested in big formats: newly developed insulation strips for highly insulated frameless glazing, improvement of currently available products on the market, testing of glazing types with prefabricated elements glass-only openings in combination with passive house window components.

The small hydropower plant and the solar power plant, which are part of the plus energy office building are used primarily for electricity generation for own use of the building. A common control unit for the water and solar power plant and the building technology has been developed, which is suitable for online monitoring, remote maintenance and optimization.

An additional element of the holistic concept of the Plus energy office is the charging station to provide electric vehicles with electricity.

Methods

The development of the proposed innovation was performed by experiments on pattern structures and appropriate tests locally on site and in laboratories. The coordination with the various project partners and planners took place regularly in meetings, planners meetings and appropriate construction and project meetings. In various workshops with the project participants, the targets have been discussed and defined in detail.

In the first usage phase a monitoring for some month took place, during this period also user needs and excitations have been discussed. After this first phase, there was an analysis and readjustment. The operation was optimized and the system was regulated in that way, that all values can be recorded and documented in a longer interval. Very important is the constant feedback from the experiences of users. In the long term this user experience is disseminated in the form of lectures, excursions, and sightseeing tours to interested parties.

Results

oh456 is a platform and provides a home for creative minds, who want to seek new ways and follow these ways. The idea was, that planners and creative minds from different fields who like to work together, move together and form a consulting network to increase their efficiency. The creative potential has been enhanced by the close cooperation and collaboration. A local economy with new strategies respecting the human aspects was initiated. In a community that is based on trust, social and environmental approaches to a different corporate culture based on the principles of public welfare economics are being tested.

Another benefit is given by satisfied users in the workplace. They spend most of their time in good ecological environment with excellent air and space quality. For potential clients all these impressions and experiences can lead to an authentic conviction. The creation of an energy-autonomous office leads to future benefits and definitely lower operating costs. Operating surpluses may be invested in sustainable renewable energy forms again, like the expansion of the photovoltaic system, wind power, etc.

Prospects / Suggestions for future research

Any know-how will be transferred to the next generation, to volunteers, young graduates. Future benefits will be given for the construction of other small power plants, and experiences for building projects of detached houses, multi-story buildings, office buildings and service buildings are gained.

sps-architekten zt gmbh
Sportplatzstraße 42 – oh123
5303 Thalgau
Tel.: +43 6235 20007-0
Fax: +43 6235 20007-77
E-Mail: atelier@sps-architekten.at
Web: www.sps-architekten.com