Vinnhorst, a sports arena for handball and gymnastics
An optimal indoor climate for varying activity and occupancy
The Vinnhorst sport centre in Hannover, Germany, is built for both a gymnastics and a handball team, as well as for 700 spectators. An obvious challenge was to provide an optimal indoor climate considering the varying activity and occupancy levels of the facility. It was solved with a WISE system for demand controlled indoor climate. Thanks to WISE not only a comfortable and healthy indoor climate may be achieved but savings in both operation economy and sustainability is also possible. The installed air handling units, GOLD and GLOBAL, are as well contributing to savings in money and environment as they provide excellent energy recovery.
Vinnhorst – the home of top performing athletes
The German sports club, Vinnhorst, had ambitious targets already from the start of their sport centre project in Hannover. The budget of 15 million euro was dedicated to build over 8 000 m2 of floor area and a total facility volume of close to 54 000 m3. The ground breaking ceremony was held in 2019 and today the sports centre is the home of both a first division Bundesliga gymnastics team and a top performing handball team. All in all, the centre can host 700 spectators and about 300 active athletes.
An arena with a demand controlled indoor climate
There are varying requirements for the indoor environmental quality throughout the Vinnhorst facility. At times, the centre is fully occupied and there are up to 1,000 people in the building. That scenario gives completely different prerequisites for air quality, heating and cooling, than during training hours when only a team and their coaches are present. At times, their workout is not even held in the larger sporting hall, but instead in the significantly smaller gym.
A demand controlled monitoring system follows activity in a facility to adjust and adapt the indoor climate according to changing needs. In the case of Vinnhorst’s sport centre, our WISE system for a demand controlled indoor climate has been installed. It monitors a variety of different factors related to air quality, temperature and humidity by the means of a number of intelligent wireless sensors in the premises. The WISE system enable an optimal indoor environmental quality at all times through the entire building.
Reduced operating cost and a relief for the environment
There are two main sustainability investments in the Vinnhorst arena, both providing a prominent relief for the environment as well as notable economic savings during the service time of the installation.
First, the previously mentioned demand regulation by WISE can reduce the energy consumption significantly and thereby also lower the operating cost for an optimal indoor climate. Secondly, a large part of the ventilation capacity in the arena is provided by four Swegon GOLD air handling units with rotary heat exchangers and a Swegon GLOBAL LP flat unit with a plate heat exchanger. No matter the type of heat exchanger, energy recovery (heat or cold) is a particularly efficient way to reduce both energy use and operating cost as heating or cooling energy is reused in the ventilation process.
READ MORE IN OUR TECHNICAL GUIDE ABOUT ENERGY RECOVERY
Indoor sports are safe from the outdoor environment
Gymnastics and handball may be categorised as traditional indoor sports. The opposites, non-traditional indoor sports, are today more often moving inside to perform in a sound and controlled indoor environment. Primarily extreme weather conditions are intended to be avoided, and most indoor environments can keep the rain, wind and water outside. To this, the inside temperature is expected to be on a more moderate level than what the outside sometimes offers.
Furthermore, an increasing number of athletes want to avoid pollution and therefore seek to do their training, recovery and rehabilitation in comfortable and healthy indoor environments. Both World Athletics and researchers across the globe has put the indoor climate of training facilities in the spotlight. Great improvements are being done continuously and Vinnhorst sport center is a good example. The products and solutions chosen from us at Swegon filtrate the outdoor air, respond to high levels of several indoor pollutants and adjust the indoor climate to the exact need at the right time. The result is an indoor environment made for top performance and overall well-being.
READ MORE IN OUR GUIDE ON SPORTS FACILITIES
