Gifhorner Wohnungsbau-Genossenschaft

Three steps to climate protection – inventory, concept, CO₂ reduction

The fundamental goal of minimizing carbon emissions also applies to existing buildings in the housing industry – both to benefit the world’s climate and to reduce day-to-day energy costs. Christian Gronwald, Senior Manager Business Development and Pre-Sales at Kieback&Peter, approached Gifhorner Wohnungsbau-Genossenschaft in 2021 to gauge their interest in the CO₂ Roadmap and its potential for long-term consumption optimization. After learning about the planned procedure and intended goals, GWG declared itself very open to the idea.

All the relevant details were clarified after just a few weeks, and Kieback&Peter was commissioned with the gradual implementation of its CO₂ Reduction Roadmap in the cooperative’s various properties. The CO₂ Reduction Roadmap is a practice-based service package from Kieback&Peter. It comprises three steps that provide a clear and focused path to the ultimate goal: inventory analysis, detailed planning and technical concept. The aim is to achieve a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions and increase energy savings while maintaining the same levels of comfort for residents. Overall, the CO₂ Reduction Roadmap delivers a welcome efficiency boost to ensure optimum building operation.    

Technology tailored to the needs of the housing industry 

The team from Kieback&Peter’s Hanover branch effectively demonstrated how efficiently an eco-friendly savings concept can be put into practice: In collaboration with an established partner for pipeline construction and electrical installation, it provided the GWG with a one-stop solution by gradually integrating the necessary hardware for the CO₂ Reduction Roadmap in the various properties. The beating heart of each building is the management box, which is highly flexible and preconfigured for almost 95 % of all applications in the housing industry.

Produced by a Kieback&Peter subsidiary, this box is a type of switch cabinet in which a controller records all relevant energy flows of the respective property. The necessary data is supplied by sensors and consumption meters, which the team installed in the existing heating, hot water and power supply systems. By means of a secure VPN internet connection, the controller transfers the collected data to Qanteon CS – a unique, cloud-based software solution for building and energy management from Kieback&Peter. It can be used to visualize and evaluate all energy flows for a single building or an entire property portfolio.

Qanteon CS highlights optimization potential

The persons responsible for technical and commercial matters at GWG can access Qanteon CS on their PC workstations to analyze the energy flows of the connected properties. The software provides a number of practical tools for this purpose. Is the supply temperature of a heating circuit too high? At what times does the heating need to supply heat and in what quantities? Can the hot water temperature be reduced at certain times without affecting the comfort of residents? What level of efficiency does the installed heating technology achieve? Qanteon CS provides fact-based answers to these and many more questions. This allows the persons responsible to take targeted action and thereby optimize the energy system for maximum efficiency.

Qanteon CS delivers facts for making informed decisions 

The wide range of evaluation options provided by Qanteon CS helps building operators to implement short-term goals such as CO₂ reduction and energy savings. But Qanteon CS also supplies relevant information for more far-reaching action: For example, the data from the digital system can indicate whether switching to an alternative energy source, such as heat pumps or district heating, would be possible and which performance values would be required in this case. 

Carbon footprint already reduced by 500 t

For GWG and the residents of its properties, the benefits of opting for the CO₂ Reduction Roadmap from Kieback&Peter are clear to see following its implementation in the first buildings. Between 2022 and 2023, the adjustments made by the GWG technicians on the basis of the newly acquired, in-depth insights into the individual energy flows effectively reduced the carbon footprint of the integrated properties from 3200 t to 2700 t. Our climate is thus subjected to 500 t less CO₂ thanks to one-off costs per building in the lower four-digit range. This benefits everybody – not least the world’s climate.