This paper in
troduces and evalua
tes a novel hea
ting and cooling concep
t employing
thermo-ac
tive building sys
tems and environmen
tal energy, harnessed from
two 11-m
3 rainwa
ter cis
terns for a 285-m
2 residen
tial building in passive house s
tandard in Germany. The building s
trives for a significan
tly reduced primary energy use wi
th carefully coordina
ted measures, such as high quali
ty building envelope, by means of vacuum insula
ted panels, supply and exhaus
t air sys
tem wi
th hea
t recovery, reduced solar hea
t gains (solar shading), and
the in
tegra
tion of
thermal solar collec
tors and pho
tovol
taic in
the plan
t sys
tem. On
this premise, a comprehensive long-
term moni
toring in high
time-resolu
tion was carried ou
t for
the building for
two years wi
th an accompanying commissioning of
the building performance. Measuremen
ts comprise
the energy use for hea
ting, cooling, and ven
tila
tion, as well as
the auxiliary equipmen
t,
the performance of
the environmen
tal hea
t source and sink (rainwa
ter cis
tern),
thermal comfor
t, and local clima
tic si
te condi
tions.
The analysis focuses on the performance and the efficiency of rainwater cisterns as natural heat source and sink as well as the heat pump system. The paper discusses the performance of thermo-active building systems, investigates the thermal comfort, determines the efficiency of the heating/cooling system, and evaluates the total end and primary energy use of the building.