Lindner receives 1st Prize at the German Cooling Awards

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Initiated by the Federal Ministry for the Environment to spur the development of energy-saving concepts by recognizing the most innovative projects, the German Cooling Awards are now in their third year. For 2011, Lindner and the Bavarian Centre for Applied Energy Research (ZAE) shared first prize for their joint project in the "Air-Conditioning of Commercial Buildings" category.

Initiated by the Federal Ministry for the Environment to spur the development of energy-saving concepts by recognizing the most innovative projects, the German Cooling Awards are now in their third year. For 2011, Lindner and the Bavarian Centre for Applied Energy Research (ZAE) shared first prize for their joint project in the "Air-Conditioning of Commercial Buildings" category.

The simplest way to cut power consumption is to save energy. Cooling and air-con units in particular use a great deal of energy and offer high levels of potential savings. Initiated by the Federal Ministry for the Environment to spur the development of energy-saving concepts by recognizing the most innovative projects, the German Cooling Awards are now in their third year. For 2011, Lindner and the Bavarian Centre for Applied Energy Research (ZAE) shared first prize in the category "Air-Conditioning of Commercial Buildings" for their joint project.

With the aim of establishing the sun as the foundation for year-round heating and cooling, in association with the use of panel heating and cooling systems, Lindner embarked on a 3-year research project with ZAE Bayern as scientific partner to develop the pilot plant "Solar air-conditioning combined with heated/chilled ceilings". By implementing a pilot plant with a total refrigeration capacity of approx. 100 kW, Lindner is setting new standards for the use of solar thermal energy in construction. Both the plant size and the combination of heated and chilled ceilings are pioneering achievements.

The core of the system is an absorption-type refrigeration unit powered by solar heat, which can be supported by fossil fuels to cover peak loads or sunlight shortfall. In heating mode, during the winter months, the plant is used as a heat pump, with the collector system serving as a heat source for feeding heat from low-temperature heat into the heat pump's evaporator. This ensures the plant's greatest possible solar yield is achieved during the cold season. To achieve high levels of energy efficiency when run in back-up mode with fossil fuels, a combined one-/two-stage absorption-type heat pump circuit is used, which makes it possible to switch flexibly between the low-temperature heat and solar power mode of the refrigerator unit and thus provide simultaneous heating and cooling. Used with heated/chilled ceilings from the Plafotherm® range, the all-in-one system is especially suited to structures with a high cooling load or for retrofitting existing buildings.

With this project, Lindner furnishes proof of the functional, economic and ecological performance of solar cooling combined with » Panel heating and cooling systems. This establishes the foundation for the future real-world execution – including project planning, implementation and support – of all-in-one solar air-conditioning facilities tailored to a specific building.