OnTop among the top ten
Nimbus successfully supported the OnTop team from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences in the Solar Decathlon 2014 competition
Nimbus has once more been engaged as a partner in the international collegiate competition Solar Decathlon Europe. Together with the OnTop team from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, the Stuttgart enterprise worked out the lighting concept for the team's PlusEnergy house, which won them first place in the "Social Housing" category.
Solar Decathlon Europe is all about developing the best solar house that is independent of external energy supplies. However the jury of renowned architects – including Thomas Herzog und Françoise-Hélène Jourda – does not rate virtual sketches of ideas but working and completely equipped houses on a scale of 1:1. Collegiate teams from universities all around the world participate in the competition every four years.
The final is a two-week exhibition in which all the solar houses are accessible to the public. This year 20 teams qualified for the final in Versailles in France, and one of them was the OnTop team from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. The team from Hesse entered the fray with a 100-square-meter PlusEnergy house that generates more solar energy than it needs itself and which can be placed on top of existing buildings. This idea shows that the OnTop team has its finger on the pulse. In Frankfurt, for example, so-called infill development plays a key role in the turnaround in Germany's energy policy: urban wasteland and the free roof spaces of numerous residential complexes from the middle of the 20th century are now to be developed. If infill development is realised with PlusEnergy houses, these constructions could supply the older buildings in the neighbourhood with their surplus solar energy.
"Maximum comfort and minimum power consumption." - that was the goal with which the OnTop team approached Nimbus last February. The students wanted to optimise their lighting concept together with the Stuttgart LED pioneers. And they had come to the right place: the Stuttgart enterprise is widely known for its highly efficient LED solutions and back in 2010 it supported collegiate teams from the Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences and the University of Wuppertal with their extremely successful entries in the Solar Decathlon.
In the end, the OnTop team used practically the full spectrum of Nimbus LED luminaires for the home: ceiling luminaires from the Modul Q range provide general lighting and Roxxane is used in various versions as a desk, reading and bedside luminaire. The L 120 suspended luminaire illuminates the dining table on the ground floor. On the way to the living room, the extremely slim ZEN ON wall-mounted luminaire lights up the staircase near floor level. Wall luminaires from the Air Maxx family produce additional lighting atmosphere. And last but not least, two Whisky Pur outdoor luminaires light up the terrace.
This lighting concept helped the OnTop team to achieve its goal: the diverse LED lighting from Nimbus offers all one could wish for when it comes to a cosy atmosphere. So it is no wonder that the OnTop team received first prize in the "Social Housing" category. In this discipline, one thing that the jury examines is the user-friendliness of the lighting. Moreover, the team from Frankfurt also won in the disciplines "Electrical energy balance" and "House functioning", whose results are measured rather than judged. Professor Fiedler is therefore very satisfied with his students' performance: "The house has not only proved its functional capability but has also shown that it can offer a very high level of comfort with a very low energy consumption – and does so better than all of the other competitors in the Solar Decathlon," he happily reports.