Natural daylight, a challenge for energy efficiency
Variations in the outdoor climate
The newly built Italian headquarter of the chocolate company, Lindt, is located in Induno Olona, near Varese in northern Italy. Here nature offers a mountainous landscape and some of the most known lakes are found in the near distance. Together and as a consequence, the outdoor climate is highly variated throughout the year.
The 4-storey office of 1 500 m2 is located on the south side of the production site and features large glass surfaces around the entire construction. The building’s basement is primarily made for warehousing but a larger conference room is also to be found on this below-ground level. A factory shop is located on the main floor and the two top levels are designed for offices which are laid out along the perimeter of the building. This leaves open space in the centre of the structure, creating a large well of natural daylight.
Natural daylight is much more than light
It is well-known that the rays of daylight helps humans to synchronize with the natural rhythm of life. Adequate amounts of daylight helps sleep, reduces stress and enhance comfort and well-being. Common to all daylight is that it is the complete opposite from the lightbulb glow, rarely perceived as static, flat or tiring. Colour temperature, intensity and brightness change endlessly in the natural light which enhance readiness in everything we have at hand.
However, natural light is also energy, energy that when it strikes a glazed-façade is changed into heat. A window’s traits will be the main determining factor of how much the inside is heated, and further how much a room needs to be cooled to maintain a good comfort level. Having that said, the indoor climate solution must be designed according to various requirements and also be able to cope with alterations throughout the day.
More about light in our indoor climate guide
A complete solution
At Swegon we got the opportunity to create a complete solution that takes the numerous changing parameters of heat and cold, inside and outside, into account and secure a productive and comfortable indoor environment. The customer emphasised the importance of a reliable energy consumption, considering the variations in the indoor and outdoor climate.
The solution we provided consists of Swegon GOLD air handling units, all of them with energy recovery heat exchangers, over 100 Swegon PACIFIC chilled beams and a BlueBox OMICRON multifunction unit which provides simultaneous and independent demand for hot and cold water production with energy recovery.
To complete the solution, a Swegon WISE system for a demand-controlled indoor climate was provided. It allows a for ventilation, heating and comfort cooling to automatically be adjusted to the level required at all times, instead of operating as if the need was persistent.
