Ministry of Finance, GreeceMinistry of Finance, Greece

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Objectives
Integration of low energy and sustainable design and technology into the overall architectural design, optimising efficiency of applied measures and reporting on their implication

Description of work
Building system design and review meetings.

  • Evaluating methodology of the energy strategies, aiming to optimise the design and calculate the specific and overall performance of the building.
  • Defining the realistic limitations in implementing any design
  • Setting possibilities and targets - the selected approach scenario and strategy of interventions will be clearly defined.
  • Final Energy and Environmental design. The design will be integrating all the respective energy saving features into the architecture. (microclimate, building shell, indoor environment, HVAC systems, lighting and management controls.

Construction
Passive Heating and Cooling : Improvement on the buildings’ shell -

  • Construction and installation of advanced high reflectivity shading devices designed by Alex Tombazis to more efficiently control solar radiation gains both in winter and summer, but will also embody 20 m2 of semi-transparent PV cells to demonstrate solar electricity production and utilisation throughout the year for the operation of auxiliary machinery, pumps, servos, etc.. These will be incorporated into the existing construction, combined with HVAC thermostatic control
  • Use of low-e double glazing on the north façade thus contributing to the improvement of the buildings’ indoor conditions and to the energy savings

Night Ventilation techniques -

  • Intelligent controlled night ventilation up to 8 ACH depending on indoor and outdoor air temperatures
  • Heat modulation through maximum use of building thermal mass.

Ceiling Fans -

  • Installation of specially designed ceiling fans which allow the extention of the comfort zone up to an indoor air temperature set point of 28.5 oC.
Daylighting - Artificial lighting
  • Increased daylight in spaces through external elements, as well as through the atrium in the central area of the building.
  • Use of daylight compensation techniques to maximise the efficient use of natural light penetration (daylight sensors).
  • Utilisation of high efficiency lamps, improved

Improvements on the HVAC heating/cooling system
Heating
Installation of circulating pumps of the inverter type controlled by the BMS according to the internal and external temperature, as well as, the temperature difference between inlet and outlet of the heat water through the energy metres, which will be installed in each boiler. In every office a controller will be installed giving the user an adjustment capability of +/- 5 oC over the operation of the fan coil unit valve.

Cooling
Installation of a demand control cooling system per user. This system consists of a motorised valve which is controlled by a thermostat / transmitter combined with a valve controller. The thermostat transmits the temperature value to central controller in the ownership. The central controller is programmed for the temperature limits and the hours or operation of the ownership and it transmits a signal to the valve controller in order to activate it or not. The above mentioned controller will be set on a minimum cooling temperature of 26 0C. For the cooling consumption measurement an energy metering device will be installed in the area of each user. In this way each user will be have the possibility to control its own consumption. The reading of the energy meter will be transmitted to the above mentioned central controller.

Ventilation
Demand controlled ventilation techniques will be used to efficiently optimise and control indoor air quality, as well as application of advanced hybrid ventilation techniques involving optimal control of natural and mechanical ventilation systems. Plus:-

Economiser control
selective use of fresh air whenever this is cooler than the recirculated indoor air as well as redistribution of of cooler air from nearby indoor spaces with different indoor comfort requirements. And heat recovery on ventilation, by installing a heat exchanger unit in the exhaust air stream, energy recovery will be achieved during the whole year by preheating or pre-cooling the incoming ventilation air contributing considerably to the heating and cooling savings

Energy Management, Control & Monitoring
HVAC management with thermostatic control, remote valves, zoning techniques, distribution control (BMS) - use of optimisation techniques, application though the use of neural network and fuzzy logic control, telemonitoring of BMS by use of innovative ICTs like the Smart e-Box (Ericsson) or EuroBus EIB (Siemens), telemonitoring and continuous optimisation of control strategies to minimise energy consumption and to optimise indoor environmental quality and comfort.

  • Using radio controls, no cable installation is necessary which means that disturbance of the users will be avoided. All the readings will transferred to the BMS. Terminal via M-Bus protocols. The BMS. Will take into account the consumed energy and the water volume and will control the inverter pumps which will replace the existing ones and it will control the activation sequence of the chillers as well.
  • The BMS will gather all consumptions and monitor / allocate the energy costs. With the above described system, we have two types of controls. One in each zone, which gives freedom to the user setting of course certain limits and one in the production which works according to the weather conditions, and according to the end users demands.

Sustainability and Materials
Adoption of sustainability principles - application of Life Cycle analysis techniques during the whole building renovation on all aspects relating to, energy, materials, systems, etc. selection / adoption of strategies on systems / materials, according to the European directives on energy efficient building and building materials during the whole design phase.

  • Site supervision with special regards to implementation of design and technologies in the spirit of this project
  • Clarifications of the design and consulting in general
  • Minor modifications of the design, if necessary
  • Final site inspection,
  • Testing of installations and reporting
  • Channeling questions and answers between construction contractors and designers

Monitoring
Monitoring activities are necessary in order to evaluate in practice the specific and the global energy and environmental quality of the building. Thus, monitoring protocols and strategies will be defined and designed in order to get the necessary information which will then be compared with the theoretical results obtained during the evaluation - simulation phase.

In the frame of the present task, a very detailed monitoring strategy will be defined and the specific performance of each of the major subsystems defined will be monitored using the appropriate protocols and instrumentation. The protocols and monitoring techniques that are going to be used have been established either by international bodies and organizations or have been developed in the frame of previous research projects. In addition, a survey will be planned and performed among the employees of the building in order to evaluate the level of thermal comfort and indoor environment quality achieved.

The monitoring system will be included into the BEMS. For this purpose additional heating volume meters and electricity meters will be installed and a special performance specification for the BEMS will be written.

The monitoring phase will have the duration of a whole year and the obtained data are going to be analysed and evaluated in order to identify the efficiency of the implementation of the proposed energy saving strategies and technologies in the building.

Reporting
All results and actions will be described and documented with a comparison to an ‘’expected results’’ chart. Attendance of meetings, periodic progress reporting, etc.

Dissemination.
Preparation of deliverables and distribution to designers, engineers, clients and authorities in the field while using the opportunity to disseminate to the actual visitors of the buildings as education of the general public.

Progress

Electromechanical Part:

In the electromechanical part the innovation in general concerns:
a) the Lights
B) the F.C.Us
c) the MVDs
d) the Central Cooling and Heating System

Note: The electromicanical interventions become while all the employees were in their offices, as the Ministry of Finance is an informatic centre with a specific product line.

a)Lights
The installation of the new advanced lighting system (Lamps-Balanced Sensors) is completed.














b)F.C.Us
The installation of the new advanced system (Valves, Controllers, Open window Control System, Thermostats) is completed.














c)MVDs-Fans
The installation of the new Motorised Volume Dumpers and ceiling fans is completed.















d)Central Cooling and Heating System
For this part of the innovation procedure, temperature and CO2 sensors were installed. Also, the central wire and wireless network for each floor was installed. In the next few days the installation of inverters and calorimeters will be done.


























Planned actions for next period (till the begging of April):
Electromechanical Part:

a) Check the operation of the system in practice.

b) Development and installation of the “environmental kiosk” will be placed at G.S.I.S. in order to demonstrate the operation of the system and the summary of project’s outcome to employees-visitors.

Architectural Part:
a)The procedure of contractor’s election was started. In the next few days the contractor will be announced in order to undertake all the necessary tasks concerning the architectural part (installation of shades in south- west facades and replacement of the windows in north façade).

Upcoming papers / presentations:

The installation process was made while all the employees were in their offices. Thus, they have taken a first idea of how the system will work and also general information concerning the REVIVAL.

At the end of the electromechanical innovations a presentation from the contractor and the project team will take place in order for all the employees to be informed about the functionality of the new system.

In every convention in which a member of our project team will take place, a general presentation concerning the REVIVAL will be done. However, many conferences took place till today (e.g. in Thessalonica on October, in Kavala on December and in Patras on January) in which our project manager presented the idea of REVIVAL (the audience was consisted of local tax offices and customs offices managers).