Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH services

When attempting to reduce the heating, cooling and electricity demands of a building, a key question is: „Where is the heating and cooling energy coming from?” If a connection to a high-efficiency district heating plant is available, then perhaps highly insulated walls and high-efficiency heat recovery are less critical and resources could be spent more effectively on other improvements. In other words, one should consider not only end-use energy but also energy supply to give the best results for the project overall.

"The difference between a mediocre city and a great city are great parks and a fabulous outdoor space" ¹ But what makes a good outdoor space? Apparently, that it is built to a human scale and is adaptable for various uses, such as recreation, markets and social gatherings. But who is responsible for the outdoor space? The book “Learning from New York” ² explains that careful, thoughtful city planning and governance, as well as engaged citizens, can create fabulous outdoor spaces in streets, parks and squares. In other words, a city’s planners and politicians are not the only ones responsible for outdoor space, its citizens are too.

We follow a three-step approach to minimize energy use and maximize comfort in a master plan. Included in our analysis are the three architectural forms: buildings, streets and open spaces. First, we consider the layout of the site to take advantage of the energy and comfort performance potential of the local climate. This includes optimizing building massing and street layout for solar, wind and daylight potential. For example, a series of tall office towers along a narrow street can create an uncomfortable wind tunnel effect for pedestrians and should be avoided. The tall buildings also shade the shorter, neighboring buildings; this reduces the daylight availability in the shorter buildings, which is detrimental for energy and comfort performance, as people use electric lighting more and lose visual connection to the outdoor environment.