Savings

Energy

TermoDeck® Buildings fulfill high requirements from an energy, environmental and thermal comfort perspective. Therefore, high ratings have been achieved by methods used for green buildings such as BREEAM, LEED, Passive House standard, Miljöbyggnad, etc.

• In Sweden two residential projects have achieved the Passive House Requirements and more recently two other residential projects have been designed to achieve ”Miljöbyggnad Guld” criteria
• In UK, a commercial building was awarded a BREEAM rating of 87.5% in 2007 which was the highest ever BREEAM rating at that time

For more information, scroll down the page. ↓

The TermoDeck® System has been proven to have very low energy consumption in several countries. Why?

Large amounts of energy (heat or coolth) can be stored in the hollow core slabs of a TermoDeck® building and utilised later, which leads to very energy efficient buildings.

Therefore, the highest energy savings are achieved in cooling mode in commercial and institutional buildings with high and fluctuating internal loads that are stored in the slabs during daytime.

• In cold and temperate climates passive cooling can be used during nights using mainly cold night air to cool the building. Very little cooling is needed during day time
• In hot climates, where nights are often hot, off peak cooling is used by running the chiller (AC-system) both day and night. During the night, the efficiency (COP) of the chiller is higher as the outdoor temperature is lower than during day time. The supply air is circulated through the uilding during the night using no fresh air

In residential buildings the energy savings are smaller but there are examples showing that residential projects using the TermoDeck® system are also energy efficient buildings.

Energy consumption in Scandinavia and UK

Operational experiences of existing TermoDeck® buildings in Scandinavia and UK show energy consumption for heating to be between 20 to 50 kWh/m2 per year.

Middle East

A report carried out in 2005 by ASA Consulting showed that TermoDeck® would save around 40% in running costs compared to conventional HVAC systems.

Source: ASA Consulting (2005)

CO2 Emissions

The CO2 emissions are heavily reduced in TermoDeck® buildings since the energy consumption in new buildings is normally reduced by 10-30% compared to equivalent buildings with the same initial costs. This leads to large cumulative savings of CO2 during the building’s life cycle. In older buildings the energy savings have been higher in many cases.

A report commissioned by British Offset concluded that the increased utilisation of TermoDeck® in Saudi Arabia would lead to estimated savings of CO2 emissions until 2020 of 18.2 million tonnes.

• Click here to read the summary of the report.

Capital costs

Independent reports have been carried out comparing capital costs of TermoDeck and conventional HVAC systems.

All these reports demonstrate that the TermoDeck system has a lower capital cost compared to conventional HVAC systems. This makes TermoDeck unique as both the capital costs and the operating costs are lower than for conventional systems.

The main reasons are:

• Elimination of water radiators
• Elimination of chilled beams or fan coils
• Reduction in cooling loads by35-50%. This results in savings due to smaller sized chillers, less electrical connection charges, less transformers, etc
• False ceilings can be eliminated or heavily reduced if required

Capital Costs Comparisons

Middle East:

The ASA Consulting Report. See Table 1.

TABLE 1: RELATIVE COST COMPARISON TES AC / CONVENTIONAL AC

Source: ASA Consulting (2005)

UK:

A cost comparison called “TermoDeck Cost Analysis”” by Gardiner & Theobald and Mott McDonald has been produced which shows that TermoDeck has lower capital costs than Comfort Cooling (chilled beams).
See Table 2.

TABLE 2: COMPARISON IN CAPITAL, RUNNING & MAINTENANCE COSTS (UK)

Source: Gardiner & Theobald and Mott McDonald (2000)

Sweden:

A cost consultant compared the installation costs for three HVAC systems for an office
building in 2007.

Table 3: Capital Cost Comparison (Sweden)

Source: VVS-Ekonomen Bernt Svensson AB (2007). Installation Costs HVAC excluding design and VAT.
Prices in June 2007. All prices in Swedish kronor. 1 SEK = 9,45 Euro.
Four storey office building: 60 x 16,5 m
** Conventional HVAC: Mechanical ventilation & Air-Conditioning + water radiators

Peak cooling loads

Reduction in Peak Cooling Loads

The installed cooling loads for some TermoDeck projects in Saudi Arabia (one of the hottest climates in the world) have been compared with the designed cooling loads using conventional HVAC systems.
Installed Cooling loads (capacities) have been more than halved leading to a reduction in Peak cooling loads by over 50%.

Source: ASA Consulting

During three to five hours the reduction in peak cooling loads can be further reduced up to 90%.
See illustration below.