Real-life Technology – Clear-up’s Test Beds
Clear-up is Developing Clean and Resource Efficient Buildings for Real Life (both existing and new buildings).

Thierry Juif is an engineer who graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers (France). He has been working in Bouygues Group for twenty years, in different Technical Departments of the company in France and International Divisions. He is now a Design Manager in Pertuy Construction, a branch office of Bouygues Construction located in the east of France. His main focus is on the design of schools retrofitting in Private Public Partnerships. E-mail: t.juif@pertuy-construction.fr

Clear-up aims to develop clean and resource efficient buildings in real life for both new and existing buildings. A key part of the project is therefore the validation of research results, in real, working buildings. These tests aim to:

• measure the efficiency of the components (separately, and combined);
• determine the interactions between the different systems e.g. HVAC and window shading;
• test the durability over a year’s operation;
• and importantly, get feedback from the end users – building occupants and building managers.

The outputs of the long term tests will serve, on one side as feedback to the RTD activities for comparison with models and laboratory tests, and on the other side as a basis for the dissemination activities.

Selection of good test beds is challenging, as they need to satisfy a range of criteria:

• requirements for installation of components (façade orientation, size of the rooms, availability of a building management system (BMS), active/passive components, etc…)
• experimental constraints (similar rooms, control facility, combination of components, etc…)
• easy access (location, cooperation of building occupants and managers, etc …)
• widespread applicability (representative location, common building type, etc…)

Clear-up has selected two very different buildings to act as test beds.

The Engineering Faculty Building at the Czech Technical University in Prague is an example of 1970’s architecture. The building has limited insulation and no ‘active’ systems such as centralised air conditioning or building management. It is scheduled for refurbishment shortly, and provides an excellent test bed to demonstrate how clear-up’s technologies can be retrofitted to older buildings.

By contrast, the Siemens building in Steinhausen, Switzerland, is a modern building which already has many technological features such as HVAC and an advanced building management system. Clear-up will use this location to test new control system concepts in large spaces.

›› These extended Test Bed Buildings will Start Testing
During the Year 2010
Clear-up will equip six identical offices in the Engineering Building to enable side by side comparison of different component and control combinations. The offices are of a similar size to rooms in a normal dwelling and the occupant’s activities and concerns are similar to the domestic situation. In Steinhausen, we will be able to explore clear-up developments applied to an open office space. This will help us to understand how clear-up results can be applied to public spaces such as shops, classrooms or reception areas.
The team is now working on the detailed design for the integration of the components in these buildings, and we will start testing during the year 2010.