FACADE RENOVATION WITH DECENTRALIZED VENTILATION IN BERLIN

The Marienfelde Primary School is an open and bound all-day school in Berlin and focuses above all on two priorities: social interaction and a democratic teaching practice. To achieve this, all those involved in the school should feel comfortable, while at the same time the principle of the “Fair School” is implemented. The deliberate choice of the district in the school’s name shows the affiliation to the catchment area.

The main building, dating from the 1970s, was fundamentally renovated and made barrier-free. At the same time, fire protection deficiencies had to be eliminated and the energy balance improved – while increasing daylight supply and improving indoor air quality. To achieve this, the façade was stripped back to the load-bearing structure and replaced by modules in timber panel construction.

Funded, among others, by the Berlin Program for Sustainable Development (BENE), strict criteria were applied to the ventilation units. For example, the heat recovery integrated in the units had to show a heat recovery rate of at least 80%.

In the classrooms, decentralized TROX ventilation units of the type X-CUBE SCHOOLAIR-V-HE are used, which clearly exceed this requirement with a heat recovery rate of 84%. The high efficiency not only contributes to the improvement of the energy balance but also ensures a short payback period. With a footprint of only 600 x 400 mm, the units could easily be installed on the parapet and integrated into the room concept.

The main task of the decentralized ventilation units X-CUBE SCHOOLAIR-V-HE is the supply and exhaust ventilation of the classrooms. The central idea here is: Better learning through fresh air – numerous studies prove that learning results improve significantly with increasing supply of fresh air. For example, the normalized performance of pupils increases to 105% when the air exchange rate is raised from 21 m³/h/person to 30 m³/h/person.

Based on these results, three units are installed in one classroom; thanks to the master-slave connection it is ensured that all units behave the same way.

The units also offer further advantages: room temperature can be maintained at a comfortable level throughout the year, and pollutants such as dust or pollen are effectively filtered from the air. Disturbing outside noise is also minimized, optimizing the acoustics. Speech remains clearly audible at all times, and children can follow the lessons better.

Especially in times of the Corona pandemic, the units have a clear advantage: by permanently diluting indoor air with fresh air, the risk of infection can be significantly reduced. The three units can ensure corresponding room occupancy, provided that the “+L” is observed within the framework of the “AHA+L” rules.