ECO-CULTURE Results

The Royal Danish Playhouse, Copenhagen, Denmark

The ten design target values for the Royal Playhouse are shown in the table. The expected values are shown together with the actually achieved values. A comment indicates the status of the design target.

The overall impression is that the targets have all been fulfilled or - in a few cases - the potential for fulfilling the target has been shown.
This is the case even in spite of a building that has turned out to be hugely successful in the first 1.5 year of operation, meaning that the time of operation has been much longer than expected. Thus, the electricity consumption related to especially ventilation, lighting and technical stage equipment has been larger.

Because of the complexity of the building, some of the systems have not functioned as designed during the initial phase of the life span of the building. This is the case for the cooling central, which has not yet reached its full potential, as the compressor units have only functioned as cooling machines and not as heat pumps. A flaw in the initial design of the cooling central has been changed, and the cooling central is now functioning to supply both heating and cooling to the thermo-active slabs. However, since only limited data exist, it has not been possible to show that the targets related to the cooling central have been met. Instead, the potential is shown by assessing the data that are available. Once the system has operated using the full potential in the cooling central, the energy consumption will drop to an even lower value than today.

Concerning heating energy, the building is using 19% less than expected. This is a big success and shows that the overall building design has a low requirement for heating.
Concerning electricity consumption, the building uses 23% more than originally expected. This is due to the fact that the time of use is over 40% longer than originally expected. If data are recalculated to the expected time of use, the building would have met the design target value.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the investigations made will lead to further energy savings, as several systems can be optimized to achieve even lower energy consumption. This is especially the case for ventilation and lighting. For further information see the Monitoring Report.

Amsterdam Library, The Netherlands

The library is extensively equipped with energy meters for heating, cooling, ventilation and electricity. The energy meters are connected to the BEMS and the building users have the possibility of surveying the energy consumption on an aggregated level through the BEMS. If necessary, a more detailed level is possible. At the present time, some corrections to the BEMs have to be made with respect to the correct presentation of the energy use. All facilities are installed, and the BEMS will become an important tool to reduce the energy consumption to a minimum.

The principal flows of energy are the heat, cold and electricity usage. In the table underneath, the overall results for the year 2008 are presented.

The data have not been corrected for degree days. These are the data on the meter level or so to say the level of the building. The data have to be calculated back to primary energy use. For the heat and cold, the Coefficient Of Performance (COP) has to be used to determine the primary energy use. For the electricity, the efficiency of the power generation in the Netherlands has to be taken into account. At this moment, a factor of 0.39 has been used. The COP and efficiency factors are in line with the factors used in the obligatory energy performance calculation. This calculation was made in order to get a building permit.

The electricity use of the in house restaurant is estimated to be 364 MWh/yr and is subtracted because this was outside the original design.
Looking at the data in the tables, a number of observations and comments can be made immediately:

• Heat and cold usage are within the target range. Additional cold usage can be explained by the larger electricity use and extra heat usage.
• The target values for heating have been met. For cooling and electricity the values are higher than expected. The main deviation is the electricity use.
• Electricity use is far off the expected value. Further analysis is necessary. This is currently under investigation.

The following table shows the planned and achieved energy consumptions and CO2 reductions.

Opera House, Oslo, Norway

The Opera House is one of Oslo's most famous tourist attractions and is therefore a perfect arena for demonstrating energy effective technologies.
The Opera House is extensively equipped with energy meters for heating, cooling, ventilation and electricity. The energy meters are connected to the BEMS, and the users have the possibility of surveying the energy consumption down to a detailed level through the BEMS. At the present time, the BEMS is not completely running, but is used. The BEMS has already proved to be an important tool to reduce the energy consumption to a minimum.

Corrected budget with respect to area:

In 2008, the energy consumption for the Opera House was 5 708 480 kWh from district heating and 9 712 245 kWh from electricity, which is much higher than the predicted. Calculations and measurements have been done to document the saving potential that is related to the operation of the technical plants in the Opera House. The results show that the energy savings potential at the Opera House are significant for both thermal and electrical energy.
According to calculations of a high and low energy budget, the biggest potential for reducing the energy consumption from district heating is related to ventilation, snow melting and room heating, respectively.
Simplified calculations considering running times of all the ventilation aggregates in the Opera House showed that the energy consumption can be reduced to almost 1/5 by changing operation conditions from continuously running of all aggregates on maximal capacity all year through to 10 hours' running a day, 5 days a week, with VAV systems running with an average capacity of 50 % during operation.

The difference between the actual and the predicted electrical energy consumption can be explained by several factors: the original energy budget for electricity did not include energy consumption for conducting the restaurant, the workshops or the electrical snow melting system. These are all major posts regarding the electricity consumption. In addition, the bus system that is managing the light control has been out of function. The light has therefore been on continually in the main part of the building. The bus system is programmed these days, and the electrical energy consumption will most likely decrease significantly when the control system is running
The findings from the tests and monitoring lead to activities as described in chapter 3.5 performance tests during 2. and 3. quarter of 2009.
Results show that these tests lead to great improvements and reduction of energy consumption. The following figures show the monitored monthly total energy use and energy use for district heating in the opera house in 2008 and 2009.

Figure 3.27 District heating consumption in 2008 and 2009

Both figures show a remarkable change in energy use the second part of 2009. This change is a direct result of the improvement process that will continue.
The results show that we are now within ECO culture target for 2010 for heating and cooling.

The solar cells on south façade of the Opera House have been running since 12 February 2009 and had produced 6112 kWh per 29 May. The solar panels had some reduced capacity due to problems with some inverters, only 22 kW was working properly a part of the year. This is now corrected. The expected production in 2010 is 16 % higher than the original budget. In addition to having a utilitarian value, the solar cells demonstrate to the public that the Opera House is focusing on renewable energy and is concerned with the environment.

Public Project Report

Final Report.pdf

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