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German manufacturer installs insulated prefabricated panels over inefficient apartments to reduce energy consumption.
With less than three decades left before existing building stock needs to transform towards a net-zero carbon future, the probability of ‘meeting and beating’ any notional or government mandated efficiency standards with existing retrofitting initiatives seems remote.
However, a German company called Ecoworks has developed an innovative proposition to a compelling dilemma. Prefabricated insulated panels are moulded to fit over an apartment building like a glove to reduce the buildings energy consumption.
A 3D scan is taken of the inside and outside of the building creating a digital twin of the structure, and the file is then shared with its suppliers and factory. Every facet of the building’s facade is then accounted for including windows, ventilation, and channels for pipes. The insulated modular roof also incorporates solar panels.
Installing an insulated prefabricated facade panel, according to company sources, can be done in as little as 20 minutes, and when fitting a entire building, including the removal of fossil-fuelled heating, it can happen in as little as two weeks.
On a 1930’s apartment test project before renovation, the 12-unit building used 450 kilowatt-hours of energy per square meter. Following installation of the prefabricated panels, the building now produces excess energy that it feeds back into the grid.
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Ecoworks uses AI to identify the buildings that are the best fit for its approach—it’s easiest to work with simple, block-like apartment complexes. But it plans to later expand to schools and eventually single-family homes, and begin working in other countries. There’s no way to meet the global challenge in time, Heisenberg says, without moving away from traditional construction. “You really need technology to solve that problem.”
According to the Germany Energy Agency, more than 30 million apartments will need to be renovated over the next 25 years.
See: www.ecoworks.tech
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