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Commercial build: House Without Heating: Office Building in Austria

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    Given the date, this may be another April Fool but the (oddly translated) article claims that this office building is 'accidentally passive', with no heating system and 'no mechanical ventilation' (although the window vents are BMS controlled!)

    http://www.detail-online.com/architecture/news/house-without-heating-office-building-in-austria-022818.html

    Would be interested to know how they achieve the air movement required to adequately supply fresh air.

    Steamy Tea may have something to say on the Thermal Mass claims too..!
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2014
     
    Not the same climate regime as the UK
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2014
     
    Seems to me that the use of the word “accidentally” here is part of the odd translation. Everything else seems to say it was quite deliberately passive (lower case 'p'). But yes, difficult to see how they get a decent fresh air supply without cold draughts in winter. Also, bit frightening that a major architectural practice needs to call in outside consultants for thermal modelling, unless the “experts from the U.S.A.” were from their US office, I suppose.
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: SteamyTeaNot the same climate regime as the UK
    Bit warmer in summer, bit cooler in winter but not dramatically different (in the way that bits of continents and major islands beginning with 'A' are).

    I suspect a graph of winter sunlight might be a bit more illuminating, though.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2014
     
    Posted By: Ed DaviesI suspect a graph of winter sunlight might be a bit more illuminating, though.
    Yes as they are on a parallel with Dijon.
    • CommentAuthorbarney
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2014
     
    I suspect they are trading air quality (in the sense that they only react to CO2 for the AOV's) and the high ceilings give a good zone for hot vitiated air above the breathing zone (flushed out at night).

    I'll bet the occupancy density is quite low in terms of m2/person and the building will run out of range occasionally - monday mornings might get a bit chilly for the first few hours and it may well run over 26C on late afternoons by friday.

    I don't really see why calling in external consultants to model the building is an issue - it's quite normal to do that (if only to shift risk)

    If it doesn't work, you can see the liabilites from tenant to owner occupier being quickly shifted to the building physisists - who will be equally quick to point out what constraints exist on the occupancy behaviour

    I get the impression that when it's cold outside, user control of vents is disabled and all bets are off in relation to air quaility in favour of maintaining temperature

    Regards

    Barney
  7.  
    What stands out about immediately about this buildings construction are the 76cm cavity walls!

    Built from 36cm bricks and I presume 4cm cavity.

    Thermal mass anyone?
    • CommentAuthorJonti
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2014
     
    The translation of 'accidental' is probably from the German word 'zufaellig' which also can be translated as meaning coincidental or unintended though not necessarily unwanted.

    Climate in Austria only really differs in the humidity levels compared to the UK and that it has a lot less wind.

    April fool's joke? maybe, maybe not.

    Jonti

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