In this article we will explain some more of the energy measures taken in Pulse. Pulse is meant as educational building, to be used by all staff and students of TU Delft
These days as you have understood, the building layout was an important aspect of the sustainable design. Here you see a plan of the second floor. If you look well, you will see educational spaces on the right, which is the north-east side of the building. Since these spaces are used by large groups and for longer times, it was good – next to giving them daylight – to put them at a relatively cool orientation.
On the other side we see traffic space and open workspaces for students, where they will only move and sit infrequently. Therefore, daylight is desired but a bit of sunshine also does not matter.
In the middle we find utility spaces, such as lifts, stairs, bathrooms, technical plant rooms and also large lecture halls, which require mechanical air treatment anyway and for which too much daylight is not desirable.
Part of what we told you can also be seen in this perpendicular section, from north-east (left) to south-west (right). Left at the top are the educational spaces we mentioned.
It should be note that most public functions – also for an audience that does not come to Pulse for education – including catering facilities can be found at the ground floor, adjacent to the square on the north side. Catering is locally climatised so that it does not disturb the educational activities.
The picture below represent the open space on the west side of the building. And these are the open, relaxed places to sit and work next to the west façade.
Here you see that the façade has had shading screens installed to avoid overheating.
The photo below show the north façade of the educational building, where daylight is suitable and which receives no direct sunlight, which makes it suited to do all sorts of graphical work.
One of the nicest places in the Pulse building is this large open space, which is meant for various kinds of activities, lectures, presentations and debates.
You can also see that space in this section, here on the north side of the building.
The daylight catchers of this building is very important, they are also the bearers of solar panels on the roof.
You can see them here from within the building. They may not seem to have large windows, but since they are position on the roof, they capture a lot of daylight from the sky.
The next photos demonstrates how this shedded roof works.
Let’s look at a cross-section. The sheds have PV panels to the south, and these produce all renewable electricity the building needs. And from the north they capture daylight.
As you can see the number of panels is quite impressive.
Pulse has an aquifer thermal energy storage, a heat and cold storage in the underground, connected to a heat pump system. If you want to learn more about underground energy storage system please follow link below. But we will a bit explain about this system and how it work in the next paragraph :
In the photo below you can see a cross-section of the Pulse building and a part of the underground. The aquifer about is a sand layer in-between clay layers, which carries water. In summertime, cold water is extracted from the cold well in this aquifer. It goes through a heat exchanger, the building is cooled by it via the underfloor system, and remaining warm water is pumped into the warm well.
In wintertime, warm water from summer is extracted from the warm well, it passes the heat exchanger, a heat pump boosts the temperature to the desired level, and warm water runs through the underfloor heating to heat the building. Cold remaining water goes into the cold well.
the Pulse building also uses direct current for its lighting and some USB connections for phones and computers. Furthermore, the building has a green inner wall.
