We are thrilled to announce that our research paper titled “Assessment of Thermally Activated Inner Building Components or a High Temperature Stone Storage System to Utilize Surplus Renewable Electrical Energy” has been honored with the Best Paper Award at the NSB 2023 conference.
The NSB 2023 conference, with its focus on heat, air, and moisture transfer in buildings, provided an ideal platform for our study. The conference theme, “Building physics as a key player for sustainable built environment,” perfectly aligned with the findings and challenges addressed in our research.
In electrical grids with a high percentage of renewable energy, power production is heavily reliant on weather conditions rather than demand. Our paper delved into the issue of overproduction during periods of substantial wind energy production, leading to shut-offs of wind turbines due to grid limitations.
The study explored two innovative thermal storage systems to bridge periods of lower electricity production by harnessing surplus energy. The first system incorporated thermally activated building components (TABS) such as inner walls and ceilings to store and dissipate heat. The second system focused on a standalone high temperature stone storage system (HTSS).
We introduced advanced simulation models within a comprehensive building simulation framework, which were verified using field measurements conducted by our co-authors at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP). These models evaluated the loading speed and potential of the systems to provide heating and domestic hot water (DHW) in high-performance buildings, without substantial additional electricity, for up to 13 days.
Receiving the Best Paper Award at NSB 2023 highlights the significance of our findings in advancing sustainable building practices. Our research contributes to the understanding of the capabilities of medium term thermal storage systems to reduce stress on the electrical grid. We extend our gratitude to the conference organizers and look forward to further discussions on innovative and sustainable building technologies.

At the ASHRAE conference in Atlanta, Phius and C3rro signed their agreement to work together. In this collaboration we aim to provide the adjusted suite of softwaretools to support the passive house community the best.

Under the research grant number 03EN1070C the German ministry for economics and climate protection awared a research consortia with the C3rrolutions GmbH a research grant. The title of the research project is “Verbundvorhaben EnOB: EQWIN-P – Steigerung der energetischen Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit von Gebäudehüllen durch effiziente Bereitstellung und Nutzung der Produktdaten in Planungssoftware – Teilvorhaben: Hygrothermische Daten und Methoden, exemplarische Integration in cloud-basierter Software”.

The services and products of C3rro were introduced to the Phius community at the Phius Con 2023 in Chicago.