Xplorion – a pioneering multi family building with climate friendly solutions
Xplorion in Lund is a world-class innovation project for those who want to live sustainable. The building focuses on climate-smart solutions that are highly present in the tenant’s everyday life. Two solutions within COOL DH are demonstrated in Xplorion: Local energy solution with heat pump hot water topping and an innovative three-pipe solution.
This November a group of happy tenants will move into one of the most innovative multi-family buildings you probably have seen. Xplorion is LKF’s (a housing company owned by Lund municipality) most innovative and sustainable project so far. Including solutions such as:
- Smoke-free living. Also containing a smart demand-controlled ventilation with particle filter.
- Car-free living. Having an electric car and several electric bikes and cargo-bikes included in the rent via a combined car and bike pool. The house is built so that cargo bikes can be transported all the way to your apartment door.
- Integration of low temperature district heating and local renewable energy as a part of the COOL DH-project
- And much more.
Local energy solution with heat pump hot water topping
Xplorion is a 3300 m2 passive house with 54 apartments and a café / restaurant at the corner. Kraftringen has demonstrated a supply and user installation of ultra low temperature 5th generation district heating in the Xplorion-building. To create low temperature district heating in this particular building a heat exchanger from Cetetherm was used. The incoming district heating can be changed between 35-65°C to provide the heat pump with different temperatures to test various heating scenarios. This gives data for solutions for future buildings. The heat pump can also be manually by-passed if problems occur, ensuring that the tenants will not be affected.
The heat exchanger is seen in the middle of the picture; the pump and a small expansion tank is for the changing to low temperature. In the picture you can also see the heat exchanger for the heat pump and the bigger expansion tank for the house. An energy meter is placed on both the primary and secondary side.
Innovative three pipe solutions
The circulation of warm water to produce hot tap water is a bad solution for both house owners and energy companies as it results in increased energy consumption and an increased return temperature. Even though Xplorion is already an environmental friendly building, Kraftringen has demonstrated a solution to reduce energy consumption even further. Instead of a solution with warm water circulation that normally requires five pipes, an innovative three-pipe system is installed. It includes only one pipe for supply of hot water and one for return (partly as a twin pipe). The third pipe is for cold tap water that produce hot tap water in the apartment – thereby avoiding separate hot tap water pipes and circulation-pipes. Furthermore, a plug flow system is used to avoid the risk of legionella.
Each apartment has its own micro heat exchanger to provide floor heating and hot tap water.
More information
If you are interested in learning more about Xplorion or the specific solutions that are demonstrated in the building, please contact:
Dennis Kerkhof, Construction Project Manager at LKF
E-mail: Dennis.Kerkhof@lkf.se
Holger Feurstein, Project Manager at Kraftringen
E-mail: Holger.Feurstein@kraftringen.se
