Small investments, large results - energy saving in functional buildings
with CM Zone

SCHÖNAICH, September 2007 - Most of the energy consumption in a functional building is used for heating. The Gerling Allgemeine Versicherung insurance company recognised this, and decided to research ways of saving energy with the minimum investment. On the recommendation of facility management consultants GPO Mülheim mbH, the insurer investigated just how much energy could be saved with electronically operated, requirement-based heating. Between February and June 2006, Honeywell's electronic single room control system CM Zone was fitted in a number of the company's Cologne offices, while the radiators in similar rooms continued to be controlled manually. The results showed that savings of more than 30 percent were achieved with CM Zone.

For the field test, a total of ten offices in the Gerling Versicherung insurance company's "Gereonshof" administration building in Cologne were fitted with electronic metres to monitor and record the energy consumption. Honeywell also fitted the single room control system CM Zone in five of the rooms. Thus comparisons could be made between the behaviour of the electronic, time-controlled radiator controllers and the manually controlled thermostats used previously. Installation was deliberately kept simple: a fitter simply fitted 12 conventional thermostat heads via the electronic radiator controller HR 80, which in turn were controlled by staff using the CM67z control unit to suit office working hours. As the system works via radio, installation was fast and inexpensive; no cables were required, no dirt was caused, and it was carried out during normal working hours.

After the final reading in June 2006, it was found that average savings of 39 percent were achieved in the rooms with CM Zone. This means energy consumption there is significantly lower than in the rooms with manual control. Taking into account any inaccuracies resulting from slight variations in room temperatures, it can safely be assumed that average savings of 30 percent can be achieved. This means that with savings of 30 percent, the installation costs will have been amortized in slightly less than three years, and in four years based on the rounded figure of 30 percent.

The results of the field study confirm that it is well worth a company looking at its heating if it wants to save energy. One way of achieving this is to improve system technology, since investing in the appropriate heating control pays for itself after very few periods of heating. The remarkable results of this field test show that convincing energy savings can be achieved with the minimum investment and little work - and CM Zone. Gerling will be opting for CM Zone in all its future structural, and thus costly, modernisation measures.

You will find further information on CM Zone in the Internet at http://www.cm-zone.com.