Office Building Shure, Eppingen, Germany

Office Building Shure

An innovative energy concept has been developed for the new European headquarters of Shure Distribution GmbH. The concept is based on a bivalent energy supply via geothermal heat exchanger and gas peak load boiler. Combined with a low temperature heating – high temperature cooling system these features result in a high primary energy saving.

The offices are heated and cooled by concrete slab activation. An individual adjustment of the room temperature is achieved by chilled ceiling elements along the facade. A mechanical ventilation system supplies the office space with approximately 4.5 m³ / hm ² of fresh air. An efficient heat recovery of more than 80% leads to high energy savings with good air quality. The occupants can individually open the windows and operate the external shades which leads to a high user acceptance.

The geothermal heat exchanger with 24 probes in combination with a hydraulically reversible heat pump of 86 kW provides around 70% of the heat demand. Most of the building´s cooling requirements is also covered by free cooling (geothermal heat pump operation only). A low pressure drop in free cooling mode results in extremely high COPs of more than 200 as proven during a monitoring session. Under extreme conditions the operation mode can be switched to active cooling, which still achieves a COP higher than 5. It was possible to detect several installation errors and furthermore eliminate controlling issues by monitoring the system technology for more than 1.5 years.

Transsolar performed dynamic, thermal building simulations for individual offices, conference rooms and common areas.