Minergie

Minergie is a worldwide registered trademark for sustainable construction. It is one of the cantons of Berne and Zurich, which they put to the club for free unlimited use. The association operates the certification and the marketing of this label.

Minergie is the most important energy standard in Switzerland for low energy houses. The successor Minergie P is similar to the passive house standard in Germany (see passive houses). The requirements are defined differently for twelve building categories (MFA, EFH, administration, schools, retail stores, restaurants, meeting halls, hospitals, industry, warehouses, sports facilities, indoor). Also different are the requirements for the renovation of existing buildings and for new buildings.

Currently, about 13 % of new buildings and 2% of the renovations in Switzerland are certified to Minergie. There usually are residential buildings, some still exist in the other categories not one built building. The goal of the National Energy Program Energy Switzerland is a market share of 20 % of new buildings by 2010 and 5-10% of the renovations.

The Minergie standard is similar in approach to the German standards KW40 (new buildings ) and KW60 ( renovations).

Minergie, as well Minergie -P, can also be as Minergie ECO, respectively Minergie -P -ECO certified if additional criteria relating to " healthy " Housing, consumption of resources in the creation and further ecological criteria are met, be.

Since 2011 building can be certified with the new Minergie A ( and A- ECO). This corresponds to a net zero or net - plus energy house.

History

The idea was created by Heinz Uebersax and Ruedi Kriesi 1994, the same year the first two Minergie houses in Kölliken, Switzerland could be realized. Base was taken with the construction and operating experience with the 1988-90 realized by the energy engineering Ruedi Kriesi and the architect Ruedi Fraefel Zero energy settlement, Wädenswil. The brand was then privately owned by Heinz Uebersax until it was taken over by the cantons of Zurich and Bern, 1997. During these years, compacted Kriesis vision and technical concepts and Uebersax 's marketing concept and business model for today's operational concept of Minergie, with Kriesi as head of the Zurich Energy Office as the first implementer to the founding of the Swiss Association 1998. Since then acts Franz Beyeler as the first Managing Director. The canton of Bern, represented by Ruedi Meier, played as an organizer of the construction and Minergie fair a pioneering role. The association is also natural and legal persons. The first product was Minergie as a low energy standard. The end of 2001 was introduced Minergie P. The brand and its standards are developed by a dynamic nature and other products and standards have been and can be expected. These efforts will continue. In mid-2007, there are over 6700 certified Minergie and almost 130 Minergie -P objects.

Standards

Today, there are Minergie different certification standards, some of which are defined differently depending on the building category:

• Minergie for different categories of buildings: eg for new residential 38 kWh / m² including space heating, hot water, electric ventilation
• Minergie P for different categories of buildings: eg for new residential 30 kWh / m²
• Minergie A: heat consumption is zero or less than zero ( energy contributions from biomass allowed)
• Minergie ECO: Can be combined with any Minergie standard and contains additional requirements for health (daylight, pollution, low noise and radiation levels ) and ecology ( readily available raw materials, low environmental impact during production, deconstruction ).

Certification

The certification Minergie is based on the examination of planning values ​​, so there is no guarantee that the certified values ​​are respected in practice. Studies of the University of Technology, Business and Social Work of St. Gallen, however, show that the values ​​are below in rehabilitated residential buildings and newly built single-family house on average, only in newly built residential buildings, the standards are exceeded scarce in practice.

Minergie tries to energy standards primarily with a compact, well-insulated and tight building envelope, supplemented by an automatic ventilation with heat recovery.

The certification of an object is not free, for example, a normal house ( <500 square meters), the fee is currently 900 CHF.

For certification, there are two ways: The system detection and the standard solution.

System verification

For all categories of buildings with the exception of newly built single-family house, proof of the expected energy demand per area must be provided. The energy demand must not exceed new EFH and MFH 38 kWh / ( a). For renovations, a limit of 60 kWh / (a ) applies. As energy fossil energy is called essentially. The hot water is included in the limit sake of simplicity. If the house is entirely heated by solar energy, primary energy consumption is irrelevant. For buildings over 800 meters above sea level. M. raise the limits.

Standard solution

For the ease of detection of newly built single-family house can be an elected five standard solutions. The standard solutions are available:

Further, in the choice of standard solutions insulation values ​​must be respected, for walls 0.2 W / ( ) new since 2010: 0.15, for windows 1.3 W / ( ) New since 2010: 1.0. In addition, a heat recovery ventilation system is required.

Appreciation

With the label of clear standards in the field of building heating energy were created for the layman. In addition to the ecological effect the prescribed isolation leads to higher surface temperatures and together with the increased tightness and comfort ventilation to more pleasant sensation of comfort and better protection against external noise and moisture damage. Reliable protection against mold includes an important aspect of health. The energy savings are significant, a Minergiehaus but requires only about one-third of an average building. The standard was designed from the outset as a rolling, pragmatically orienting the state of the art instrument with broad appeal. Already in 1997, was by Kriesi and Uebersax a reduction scale defined, positioned on the 2001 Minergie P according to the prior art wurde.2005 then followed the adaptation of the standards of the Association eco-bau to the needs of Minergie standard Minergie Eco, which the formulated in the basic standard concerns were taken into account by theming ecological aspects.

Criticism

The standard to be met with various criticisms:

• Since today the room air is used as the heat carrier in living spaces, writes Minergie automated ventilation with heat recovery before. The necessary ventilation installation requires maintenance such as regular changing of the air filter and cleaning the ventilation pipes.
• The label is primarily used as a selling point for non-experts when buying new, ie in the advertisement to draw attention to the low energy consumption and good construction quality of the building. Of course, there are also buildings that do not bear the label and still meet the criteria, because the energy consumption can be demonstrated with real consumption costs the owner / agent with the technical specifications ( insulation thickness, heat transfer coefficient, heat recovery) or in older objects.
• Minergie need not, but may be high for an overall consideration. The structural and technical measures are usually associated with higher investment costs. In contrast, the operating costs are reduced by the low energy requirements. The savings outweigh but usually at pure residential investment costs not fully on why the decision for such a building occurs not infrequently due to the increased utility and resale value (health, comfort).
• The criterion of Minergie that the additional costs compared to a "conventional comparison object " may only account for a maximum of 10% shall be demonstrated only on demand of the certification body because they are well below the normal case. In construction practice such information is generally very inaccurate, which is why comparisons of the costs of Minergie and Normalbauten are difficult.
• The energy consumption per square meter, says nothing about the energy consumption per capita. In other words: who, although residing in a Minergiehaus, but a large area claimed ( ie heated), not living resources.

Existing objects

In Switzerland, leads every fourth new one Minergie label. In the canton of Zurich, the Minergie standard has so far prevailed as the standard, that only the Minergie P label is funded by the cantonal Construction Authority.

The best known renovated Minergiebauten are:

• MGB -rise office building Migros
• Former UBS office building and now council offices building Werd in Zurich
• Former Swissair administration building in Balsberg, Zurich -Kloten

The best known Minergie new buildings are:

• Messe Luzern Hall 2
• Allotment Ringgstrasse in Chur ( Minergie Eco)
• Office building Leonardo ( Credit Suisse) in Zurich -Oerlikon
• Sihlcity in Zurich
• Sunrisetower (BVK ) in Zurich
• IBM Zurich Switzerland Headquarters
• SAP building in the rain village
• ZKB new building in Zurich - Hard
• Construction of the district school in Schaffhausen
• Commercial building Boletta in Chur
• Various administrative buildings of Swiss Re in Zurich and Knives
• New IKEA in Spreitenbach
• Swisscom Business Park in Bern- Love Field
• Green Offices in Givisiez, Freiburg, the first Minergie -P -Eco - office building and winner of the 2008 Watt d'Or
• Westside in Bern, shopping center designed by architect Daniel Libeskind
• Hector Egger wood construction in Langenthal ( production facility )
• SOL -ARCH ² - first plus-energy house in Minergie P Eco, Matten bei Interlaken