The City of Antwerp has set itself the ambition to be climate-neutral by 2050. Heat networks are a key measure within the city's Climate Plan to green the city's heat demand.

In a first phase, the City of Antwerp is asking for the technical and financial adjustments needed to connect existing buildings to a low-temperature heat network. For this purpose, all possible construction and installation-technical adaptation measures were inventoried.

Building engineering concepts

We are responsible for the building technology concepts, investigating the building envelope of the cases and proposing building technology measures to reduce the heat demand of the buildings in function of the heat grid.

The emphasis was on concrete case studies, in which for concrete buildings in Antwerp the modification works necessary to optimally connect to a heat network were examined.

We searched for the necessary building measures to reduce the energy demand, a necessary part of the research into low-temperature solutions. The financial impact of the energy measures was examined per building and per scenario.

The study was carried out using the following research methods:

Drawing up a long and shortlist of possible structural and installation engineering interventions;
Site visit / Quickscan (incl. thermographic research) and analysis of the available information in function of mapping the current insulation quality of the building envelope;
determination of the necessary building measures per case and per scenario, by means of a heat loss calculation;
assessment of EPB requirements of the proposed measures;
determination of the investment cost per case and per scenario.

Installation technical research

The installation technical interventions (and associated investment cost) to enable a connection to the heat network, the strategy for heat production and distribution, and the coordination of the study was carried out by Ingenium.

Feasibility

The conclusions of this study will form the basis of the feasibility study on the extension of low-temperature heating networks to existing buildings by clarifying the financial and technical consequences of the extension of LT heating networks to existing neighbourhoods.

Meet our building physics specialist

From Team Sustainability, Energy & Comfort (1)

ir. arch. Robbe Verelst

Energie- en duurzaamheidsadviseur
Ingenieur bouwfysica

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Comfort & well being

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