BRANDENBURG EFFICIENCY AWARD FOR KIEBACK&PETER
Cottbus, Germany, September 19, 2016. The Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of the Federal State of Brandenburg in Germany has honored the city of Prenzlau with its Energieeffizienzpreis 2016 (2016 Energy Efficiency Award). Prenzlau fitted the high-school “Oberschule Carl Friedrich Grabow” with intelligent building technology produced by Kieback&Peter and managed to massively reduce the amount of energy consumed by the school. Minister for Economic Affairs Albrecht Gerber presented the award at the 18th Brandenburg Energy Day in Cottbus.
Brandenburg Minister for Economic Affairs Albrecht Gerber explained that energy efficiency is playing an increasingly important role in municipal governance: “The aim of our award is to draw attention to exemplary projects in this field and to motivate companies and communities to follow their lead,” said Gerber while presenting the award yesterday. The Energy Efficiency Award of the German Federal State of Brandenburg includes prize money totaling EUR 15,000 and was awarded for the first time this year. It honors companies and communities for particularly energy-efficient and economical projects.
The Prenzlau efficiency project impressed the jury of representatives from science, economics, administration and associations with its simple and economical implementation: The high-school saved around 22 percent of its heating energy and 44.6 tonnes of CO2 as early as the first year thanks to the efficiency technology provided by Kieback&Peter. And pupils and teachers do not have to forgo any of their usual comfort. The one-time investment made by the city has permanently reduced heating costs and paid for itself within three years. At the same time, the community has made an important contribution to climate protection.
The aim of the school project: energy savings and a good atmosphere
Hendrik Sommer, Mayor of the City of Prenzlau, set two goals for the project: On the one hand, he wanted to create an appealing learning atmosphere for the nearly 500 pupils at the school and provide optimum air conditioning for the classrooms. On the other, he was searching for simple ways to reduce energy consumption. He found the solution at Kieback&Peter, a specialist in building technology. The Berlin-based family company installed a cutting-edge building automation system throughout the school complex – from demand-based closed-loop control of each individual room to central monitoring software.
As part of the project, the experts installed the en:key system, which was awarded with the Bayerischer Umweltpreis (Bavarian environmental award) in 2015, in around 100 classrooms and staff rooms. The system consists of an intelligent room sensor and a radio controlled valve controller. The room sensor recognizes whenever no one is present in the room and transmits a wireless signal to the valve controller, which is fitted directly on the radiator. This automatically reduces the temperature and therefore the amount of energy consumed. The system also continuously learns: It creates an individual usage profile of the room to ensure that it is at a suitable temperature in time for its periods of use.
Installation and operation are as simple as possible
The city also chose to use en:key because it works so simply: The technicians were able to install and put the system into operation without any issue while school life continued. The system works without batteries and cables and supplies itself with free energy. Furthermore, all the automation in the building is interlinked and can be managed and controlled through a central software system. Thanks to the remote access, the operators, energy managers and service providers do not even have to be on site.