Montabaur castle: Good planning is half the battle
This is the dream of (almost) every client: The minimisation of building materials, the reduction of future operating costs and ensuring an all-round "green" approach through clever planning. The Academy of German Co-operatives has fulfilled precisely this dream. It is the owner of the castle which sits high above Montabaur, Germany, and which is now used as a training centre. It is home to a hotel, business spa and a newly developed training and event centre. Today, the 1000-year-old castle meets state-of-the-art energy efficiency standards. In 2009 the Academy centre was awarded the status of "Green Building Partner" by the EU.
Drinking water installation à la "green building"
The planning of the sanitation installation for the new extension to the castle also adhered closely to the notion of "green building". Not only was absolute energy efficiency taken into account but also the entire spectrum of actual energy requirements through to resource-conserving use and reliable operation. The pipe network of the drinking water installation has been designed in line with the actual, empirically established demands of the event centre and not the general theoretical assumptions. Thus energy usage now corresponds more closely to the real drinking water requirements.
The use of software to avoid overdimensioning
The entire design was planned using Viega’s software Viptool Engineering. In addition to need-based concurrences, the program calculated using real resistance coefficients of Viega’s Raxofix piping system. As such, the design is determined by the actual zeta values. The result of holistic planning by the client and planner: Despite the vast extent of the building and the generously sized sanitation facilities, some 270 m of the 700 m of this comprehensive drinking water installation could be realised using piping measuring 16 mm in size. The dimensions 25 and 32 mm, as the largest diameters, were only used on a total of 65 m in length.