News

Anne Milne and Sabine Hellmann created our new film about hybridGEOTABS. Here they tell us about the next stages of their journey post-filming making this remarkable film. hybridGEOTABS  Film - The Journey     Who would have known back in September 2019 when we began filming, that by the end of the project in April 2020, the world would be in lockdown from a global pandemic! The good news however is that we were able to film in Belgium, Luxembourg and Czechia before travel, both overseas and domestic became impossible for the majority of people. If you didn’t already read our report of this period of shooting then go to this link. After the completion of our filming and travels, we rented a small studio locally in Glasgow close to where we both live. There wasn’t sufficient heating in this space, so the cool air managed to keep our brains alert! We certainly understood the concept of ‘comfort’ during chilly winter editing days. The first big challenge was to transcribe all of the interviews, from the overseas trips, as well as the interviews we conducted in Edinburgh. Overall we had filmed many hours of footage and now we had to distill it all down into manageable chunks. Transcribing the interviews was the first step, so we could then create a working script. We also made a ‘paper edit’ using sticky notes, this helped us organise the content into sections on our timeline. It was also a useful tool to find nuggets of information on the wall as our script developed. The project partners were involved in this process too as we needed their input to make sure we were on the right track with regard to what the message of the video should be. We referred back to the exercises we did with everyone in Edinburgh, where we teased out the message and ‘must-haves’ of the video from all participating partners. We used this as a guide to help craft the script. It was during this time that we also realised that we would need a narration/voice-over to fill in some parts of the script which we couldn’t easily extract from the interviews. We scripted and recorded a temporary version (realising that voice-over professionals exist for a reason!) Once the script was in a more succinct and sharper form, we were then able to take those clips of interviews and incorporate them with the actual visuals which would make up the film. It was important to us that the viewers would be able to experience the buildings as we had. Our effort to capture a multitude of different angles and situations enabled us to weave an immersive visual experience for each building. We had also decided early on that showing the buildings from the air was important, as they are architecturally interesting. Plus aerial footage definitely gives a strong ‘punch’ to any video and places the buildings into the wider context of their surroundings. We went through a number of versions of our edit, so that by the time of the Maastricht meeting in early March, we had what we called a ‘rough cut’ to show the team. We heard that it was quite a successful screening event, and we were sorry to have missed it in person. With feedback in hand, we went back into the edit and just managed by the skin of our teeth to get the final version finished, and reached ‘picture lock’ before we all ended up in lockdown!   But such is the nature of our modern world, that all of the post-production work could continue as normal, only we would communicate digitally, using online data transfers. We spent many hours on Skype sharing the work in progress, working with a graphic designer who made all of the screen text and overlays, as well as a sound designer, who recorded a new voiceover with a voiceover artist. And last but not least the colour grade, which was the final piece of the puzzle. We are very happy with the final film and how it conveys the concept in such an engaging and beautiful way. We hope that it will help with future hybridGEOTABS research, funding and implementation.   Anne Milne annemilne.com Sabine Hellmann sabinehellmann.com  

During the MPC hybridGEOTABS project, GEOTER has been working selecting proper elements to monitor the underground temperature and the communication and connection systems to know the evolution with time of the geothermal resources, according to the demand of the buildings. In this context, GEOTER have developed Enhanced Geothermal Response Tests (EGRT) based on usage of a whole new gear for the realisation of an on-site thermal conductivity test and a continuous monitoring of the geothermal probes. It allows us a geothermal field sizing optimisation and will provide us the necessary data oriented to the MPC controller to decide the thermal management of the buildings. When it comes to sizing the geothermal borehole field, the use of a GRT (Geothermal Response Test) is the most prevalent practice. It consists of an on-site test to determine the thermodynamic parameters of the subsoil. A GRT is used for practical comparison of theoretical data since performing such test allows us to know the effective thermal conductivity (describes the heat transfer through conductivity in the subsoil) and the thermal resistance of the probe (indicates what should be the thermal resistance between the collector circuit and the subsoil for dissipation of power), with the aim to optimise the system and size a field of geothermal probes. The process of a GRT is as follows: 1) Before the GRT is started, the undisturbed ground temperature must be determined. This can be measured by measuring the temperature of circulated water through the borehole without heating. 2) After this initial measurement, the test starts and the heat transfer fluid is gradually warmed up making it circulate through immersion heaters. Temperature data are provided by two temperature sensors at the top of the borehole and power applied is controlled and collected during the process. Hence, the average thermal conductivity can be obtained. In one of the study cases, a GRT was performed in Spain (Gijón, Spain) from the 20th to the 23th of March 2018. The nature of the ground in this place is dominated by limestones, loams, clays and sandstones. The borehole was drilled using a direct mud rotary drilling method to achieve the introduction of the geothermal probe with a diameter of 40 mm to the depth of 124 meters, and backfill material with outstanding thermal conductivity was used to fill the borehole. The average thermal conductivity obtained was 2.91 W/(m·K).  

Anne Milne and Sabine Hellmann have been travelling filming our partners and buildings, and their users, in Belgium, Luxembourg and Czech Republic. It's all progressing well, and a plan for completing the film in April. Watch this space! Here's Anne's summary she kindly wrote for us: In October we went on a combined trip to Belgium and Luxembourg as the three buildings Infrax, Ter Potterie and Solarwind were not too far from each other. The first days we spent on the outskirts of Brussels to capture the Infrax (now Fluvius) building and chat to Damien and Wim. It was great to get such a detailed insight to the building and see the systems in place. We filmed in the Boydens Engineering office area and experienced the hybridGEOTABS comfort ourselves: No stuffy rooms, lovely bright open plan office and pleasant working environment. We also got an introduction to the technical rooms, filmed lots of pipes, sounds and technical installations. Then it was time to head to Bruges. It was quite a contrast to the more industrial estate look of Brussel’s outskirts to suddenly arrive in a picturesque UNESCO heritage town with cobbled streets, canals and pretty windmills sitting on the dykes that surround the old town. Despite having seen pictures of Ter Potterie, we noticed how big this building was in real life, but also how well it fitted within the town’s historic character. We met Ann van Dyke, the Technical Director of Mintus who runs the care home. She gave us an introduction to Ter Potterie and together with Fernand Mus, the Manager, took us around the different areas of the building. It was impressive to see the various ‘wings’, activity rooms, common spaces and get brilliant support from them to talk to staff and inhabitants in order to decide what to capture. We also had lovely weather, which resulted in us doing a variety of outdoor shots of the building. It was lovely to talk to some of the inhabitants and hear about their experiences. We also met Lieve, Wim, Jelle and Eline and captured more interviews. We also covered more of the technical aspects of the care home and quirky details that make this place really welcoming and homely. A Belgian drone pilot met with us to discuss how to best capture Ter Potterie and also Solarwind. An outing into the town’s centre to check out the tower from the movie In Bruges (we watched the night before) had to be cut short as we had a long drive ahead to reach Luxembourg. Away from the more Flemish culture, the landscapes changed and we arrived in hilly, autumnal forests of Luxembourg to capture a lovely sunset at Solarwind - an impressive building with lush living walls and solar panels. The next day we met Leif Chiotis from Boydens Engineering Luxembourg division and a representative of the building owner and received an in-depth introduction to the building, which sports a multitude of environmentally sound technologies. We were especially delighted to discover bee-hives on the green roof and had a sunny afternoon filming on the roof terrace with Leif. This time we also saw where the geothermal boreholes came out of the ground and also captured a huge water tank, a wood pallet burner, more heat pumps and ventilation shafts hidden in the 4-storey deep car park underneath the building. An intensive week of filming and meetings came to a close and yes, we were also introduced to the best Belgian fries by Wim Boydens :) In November, we undertook our second trip to Czechia and arranged to meet Jan Šulc at Libeznice school the first day. Although a much smaller building than the others, it was the most fun to film. Nestled in a cute town outside Prague, Libeznice primary school looked striking with its beautiful round shape cladded in wood. But it was the inside that revealed colourful, creative interior design that was really surprising. We spent lots of time capturing the colours, the solar system decorations and kids feet running around. And we were lucky that the mayor (who is also a Czech MP) was present and was able to give us a short interview in the school. In the afternoon, we met Lukas at his office of UCEEB and received an introduction to the research centre. This was a fantastic opportunity to see cutting edge technology of sustainable building research, right across the road from a more Soviet-looking gigantic factory setting. In the evening Lukas and Jan invited us to some traditional Czech food in a cosy, vaulted restaurant in Prague, where we could discuss the next day of filming. Of course, the Czech food did not disappoint. The next day the sun came out and allowed us to capture gorgeous autumnal outdoor shots and observations of the pupils in the classroom. We talked to one of the teachers and heard more about how the school works from Jan. It was a successful trip and we have now finished transcribing all the interviews, ready to develop a more concrete storyline.

from Anne Caminade (Lemon Consult), with contributions from Eline (UGent) and Wim (Boydens) Dear Practitioner, Part 1 - Intro The hybridGEOTABS project was born after a simple realisation that (hybrid)GEOTABS, although based on proven technology and one of the most energy efficient building solutions available on the market, was unfortunately seldom implemented in practice - and more specifically did not go very far in the race against other more traditional fossil fuel based technologies during early design. We believe that the main reason behind this is due to the high level of system integration required, which can be a significant challenge for HVAC designers and architects during the early design phases. After reviewing the existing methodologies available, it became clear that one major hurdle is the lack of available design sizing guidance and user-friendly tools that all HVAC designers usually rely on to get started with a design. For example, if you combine GEOTABS with a secondary heating and cooling system, what is then an optimal sizing for both systems? In answer to this, the hybridGEOTABS project team is developing a reliable and user-friendly tool for the feasibility study and pre-design of hybridGEOTABS buildings.   Part 2 - On what is our hybridGEOTABS design method based? Research and development towards a new hybridGEOTABS design method.   The new sizing methodology is based on splitting the heating and cooling demand of a building into a baseload that is covered by GEOTABS, and a remainder load, covered by the secondary systems. The load splitting algorithm is capable of working out the best size for the primary system components for you. On the other hand, dynamic building energy simulations of a variety of buildings in the EU building stock are performed, allowing the identification of heating and cooling demand curves for a wide range of buildings and building properties. The resulting building stock database eliminates the need for time consuming dynamic simulations by the building designer that are usually required for hybridGEOTABS design. The sizing methodology is also validated by comparison with a more complex control-integrated sizing approach, that allows to quantify the effect of different control strategies on the key component sizing. Because, in the hybridGEOTABS project, a semi-automated new and innovative control technique for hybridGEOTABS buildings is further devleoped, using a white box model predictive controller (MPC) which will help to further optimise the building operation and reach its optimal performance, with an additional 15-30 % savings in practice compared to a rule based controlled (RBC) similar building.   Having such a controller implemented on a building will also enable the drastic cutting down of control design engineering costs as well as installation costs that are normally associated with this high level of system integration. The MPC controller will be installed and commiissioned in  less time than required in a conventional control design, therefore reducing further the commissioning time (and cost). Its outlook towards predictive maintenance and automated fault detection is within reach. During the last year of the project, the main focus of the project will be clearly on wrapping up the results and rolling out a user friendly design tool as well as a guidebook to translate and apply these results into practice.   Part 3 - How will this design tool benefit you?   During this last upcoming year of the project, the main focus will be on wrapping up the results and rolling out a user-friendly design tool as well as a guidebook to translate and apply these results into practice. The design tool will be equipped with a user-friendly interface for simple data input: only few basic building geometry, building physical and boundary condition parameters will be required. The ultimate objective of the tool is to show the feasibility of hybridGEOTABS by answering questions such as:  Is comfort guaranteed in the building?  What is the payback time? What is the energy and environmental performance? and calculate key component sizing (primary energy & CO₂ savings).   It will display 3 main outputs (or results):   The early design size estimation of each system (primary vs. secondary components) and therefore the degree of hybridity of the building concept, based on the monthly heat balance of the building over one year. This will be complemented by an annual bore field heat balance to decide if or to what extent is regeneration of the ground heat storage necessary. A set of graphs showing the building load patterns for 3 representative weeks (winter, summer, and a transition seasons) helping the HVAC designer to gain further insight regarding the daily amplitude of the building peaks, based on the load duration curve generated for the building. This will define the level of hybridity required on the emission side (e.g. between 30-100 % TABS) and also what type of secondary emission systems is required (e.g. no need for a secondary emission system, or 2, 3, or 4-pipe fan coil units building ventilation only, etc.) A decision making table displaying the different design variations with a simple comparison of payback times, CO₂ savings and comfort levels summary (and all other relevant information required during feasibility and pre-design stages that can be easily derived from the results).   With this streamlined sizing method and interface tool putting our research results into practice, we believe to have eliminated some major design hurdles like the need for costly and time consuming simulations. Any HVAC specialist should then be able to size and draft a hybridGEOTABS concept in the same way as he would perform any other conventional design calculation, thus creating a fair level playing field for the possible concept approaches. All these concurrent measures developed in our research project should ensure that hybridGEOTABS solution is no longer overwhelming for building practitioners and also become a standard option to investigate right from the start of a building project, clearly displaying its potential in terms of energy-efficiency, costs and sustainability.

Professor Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt and Dr. Rick Kramer, our partners from the University of Maastricht, introduce their involvement in the hybridGEOTABS project and research.   The research discipline of Indoor Environmental Quality links the indoor environment of buildings to people. IEQ involves many aspects such as Air, which is mainly studied in the context of health, and Sound, Light and Temperature, which are mainly studied in the context of comfort. So, when we read or hear about health effects of the indoor environment, chances are high that it relates to ventilation or other aspects of air quality control. However, the research group TherMU of Maastricht University centres its research around the health effects of Temperature on humans’ physiological processes including thermoregulation and energy metabolism. Main emphasis of the research of TherMU is on individual differences in whole body physiology and the underlying mechanisms on cellular level, and on applying the scientific knowledge into the built environment. The fundamental aspect of the research line is the effect of environmental temperatures as we encounter in daily life on physiology and (thermal) behaviour. Prof. Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt was the first to put mild cold exposure and the physiological responses, such as non-shivering thermogenesis, on the international research agenda in the early 2000s. In follow-up studies his group was among the first that identified functional brown adipose tissue in adult humans. Brown fat is an important tissue to study that links to a healthy metabolic profile. Follow-up studies by TherMU showed that in adult humans brown fat is a flexible tissue that can be activated and recruited by regular mild cold exposure and weight loss. Moreover, the results show that such cold acclimation results in an improved glucose metabolism (increased insulin sensitivity in diabetes patients), a shift in comfort and increased thermal resilience. Interestingly, recent studies on mild heat exposure and acclimation have also shown beneficial effects on metabolic and cardiovascular health. Fig.1 - Office work in the climate/respiration chamber   All in all, these recent studies show that thermal variation can be healthy and that we should change our attitude from a tightly controlled indoor environmental temperature towards a more dynamic profile. Therefore, an important research line of TherMU is on how environmental conditions (indoor climate) relate to thermal comfort, long-term health and prevention of the metabolic syndrome (obesitas, type2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases). This research bridges the gap between basic physiology and health in daily living environment (care centres, dwellings and offices). UM works together with DTU in Work Package 5 - People planet profit validation: researching the impact of GEOTABS on indoor environmental quality (IEQ) aspects, including comfort, health and productivity, and defining key performance indicators (KPIs) for their valuation. Therefore, demo buildings are used to conduct experiments. Out of an inventory of existing GEOTABS buildings, a selection of demonstration buildings was made: a school building in Libeznice (Czech Republic), ‘Ter Potterie’ elderly home in Brugges (Belgium), ‘Solarwind’ office building in Windhof (Luxembourg), and, recently added, Infrax office building in Dilbeek (Belgium). Currently, indoor climate measurements and questionnaires are conducted in the demo buildings. Ultimately, the demo buildings and their occupants will be monitored while running on conventional control and with MPC, enabling us to compare the KPIs in the MPC scenario to the KPIs using conventional control.

YERA (Young Energy Reviewers Association), a group of students who review public articles that focus on energy, interviewed Lieve Helsen about cities of the future.   These are Lieve's thoughts following the interview, entitled, "What do the cities of the future look like?"   "Some weeks are more turbulent than others … last week was one of these … We have seen substantial technological progress with respect to energy systems in buildings. The classical oil-fired boiler combined with radiators is no longer the standard, more sustainable (mainly low-exergy and renewable and residual energy sources (R²ES) based) technologies and combinations of technologies are installed today. Consequently system complexity increases and attention should be paid to make all devices effectively work smoothly together. System integration is key! The use of data and anticipating future disturbances or changing boundary conditions may increase system gains, in all aspects. Model predictive control (MPC) is one way to realize this, and will be one of the next milestones that contribute to the optimization of energy systems in the built environment. I see a strong parallel with team work. Also the collaboration between human beings becomes more complex (among others due to the multitude of tasks we have, the speed of communication, the availability of data and social media) and attention needs to be paid to make all individuals effectively work smoothly together. To generate good results and to create impact it is not enough that intelligent individuals work very hard. The team members should work together towards a common goal, tackling  as a strongly connected team the disturbances faced in an atmosphere of open communication. People engagement is key! Again, interpreting signals (the use of data) and anticipating future issues may increase the global team (system) gains, in all aspects. Here, I do not believe that MPC is the solution. The solution lies in all of us. Let’s engage to connect, to take care and to lift the whole team to a higher level. I count on all of you ;-)" Lieve Helsen