New construction of an energy-surplus day care center for children to experience energy-efficiency

Initiated by the commitment of the mayor and public participation within the municipality Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn in the South-East of Munich, the need for generating new child care facilities led to the realization of an energy-surplus day care center. This building illustrates how ecological and economic sustainability can go along with innovative techniques and architectural design, achieving high comfort and energy efficiency, simultaneously providing a child-oriented and enjoyable surrounding. This lighthouse project aims at increasing awareness and interest within the community and beyond for the issue of energy efficiency. Ensuring the successful implementation of this demanding task, a feasibility study was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics to define crucial key parameters for the design stage. In collaboration with the researchers a qualified team of architects and installation engineers closely worked together from the very beginning of the design process up to the end of execution, joining forces and knowledge. The project was awarded a prize by an expert committee and is supported by the Ger- man Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology within the funding program "Research for energy-optimized construction" (EnOB). This includes scientific guidance in planning, construction and start-up as well as a two-year monitoring phase. The energy concept, which is based on minimizing the energy need, includes a variety of features, partially influencing each other. Amongst others, these include a high level of thermal insulation, an optimized and demand-controlled ventilation system using preheated air and heat recovery in winter, a solar chimney for passive cooling and ventilation in summer, intelligent control systems and the use of renewable energy sources by highly efficient thermal heat pumps, solar thermal panels for hot water generation and photovoltaic panels. This solar electric system is designed to provide more electricity throughout the year than required for running the building with all its need. As electricity is the only energy carrier, both types of energy balances, primary and delivered, will result in a surplus.