Energy Management at the University of Mannheim

Since 2012, the University of Mannheim has covered 100 percent of its power demand from renewable energy sources, which enables it to save 60 percent CO₂ (4,500 tons) annually.

Both the rooms in the Schloss and in the other buildings on campus are heated to 100 percent by district heating, 99 percent of which are obtained from cogeneration of heat and power (CHP). As cogeneration uses waste heat to generate heat, hardly any additional greenhouse gases are produced during production.

The University of Mannheim also relies on energy from photovoltaic systems: Existing new buildings are retrofitted in cooperation with Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg, and future new buildings are equipped with photovoltaic systems from the outset.

Since 2011, the University of Mannheim has been continuously developing and enhancing its energy management. Energy monitoring and building management systems are used to regularly control and evaluate energy consumption on campus. For electricity and heat consumption, for example, electronically readable meters have been installed that do not only record energy consumption for the building as a whole, but also for individual floors and utilization units.

Based on this, the adopted energy-saving measures have significantly reduced the energy consumption and costs of the University of Mannheim in recent years. This way, the university saves between 70,000 and 100,000 kilowatt hours and 40 tons of CO₂ annually.

In recent years, the university has adjusted the operating time of the heating, cooling, and ventilation systems to the actual room temperature: in the lecture halls, for example, presence detectors and CO₂ monitors were installed ensuring that the ventilation systems are only in operation when they are actually needed.

In addition, half of the unregulated heat pumps have been replaced by highly efficient energy-saving heat pumps so far.

In case of renovations and when new buildings are constructed, the university installs heat recovery and energy-saving free cooling systems. For the new building of the University IT in A5, for example, it is envisaged to install innovative cooling solutions for the machine rooms and to benefit from waste heat by using heat recovery systems.

Exceeding the legal provisions stipulated in the German Energy Conservation Regulations (Energieeinsparverordnung, EnEV) of 2014, both the university and the Land of Baden-Württemberg, in their function as real estate developers, aim at implementing highest energy standards in all construction plans for state-owned buildings.

For example, the energy performance of the building for research and teaching in B6, which is financed by the university, is 40 percent higher than required by the EnEV. Moreover, the energy yield of the photovoltaic system covers about 15 percent of the electric power demand for the building.

High energy standards will also be implemented in the construction plans for the new buildings around the Friedrichspark, including the construction of the building envelope according to passive house standards, sustainable constructing with the objective of achieving at least the “silver” building certification according to the Assessment System for Sustainable Building (Bewertungssystem Nachhaltiges Bauen, BNB), the partial on-site coverage of the energy demand, e.g. by the internal use of PV-gains from photovoltaic systems, as well as the implementation of technical monitoring and energy management to optimize the buildings during normal operations.

Special challenges arise with regard to the Schloss, which has the status of cultural property: taking into consideration the requirements regarding the protection and preservation of historic buildings, energy measures with respect to the shell of the building can unfortunately not be implemented easily or are not possible at all.

Offices are heated and aired according to their individual use. Reducing the room temperature by 1 degree Celsius already saves a considerable amount of energy. It is therefore important to correctly adjust the thermostat on the radiator: Stage 2 corresponds to a temperature of around 17 degrees Celsius, stage 3 to a temperature of around 20 degrees Celsius. The energy saving regulation issued by the German government (Verordnung zur Sicherung der Energieversorgung) has now become effective. It requires offices to have a temperature of no more than 19 degrees Celsius during the heating season 2022/2023. Therefore, please set the radiator thermostat to stage 2.5 during the day. During longer absences (vacation, long weekends, etc.), please set the thermostat to stage 2. Where possible, radiators should be free-standing to ensure proper function and ventilation. Reducing the heating to stage 2 can save further heating costs. For reasons of health and to prevent the buildings from suffering damages, the thermostat should not be set to anything below stage 2.

Lecture halls and classrooms, the University Library and student workstations at the University of Mannheim are usually equipped with their own ventilation system and are heated to no more than 19 degrees Celsius.

In the corridors of the university buildings, all radiators will be set at 1.5, in order to avoid a complete cooldown, mold and damages to the building by using a minimal amount of energy.

The University IT has tips on how you can contribute to energy-saving at the university.

For representation purposes, only the Schloss will be illuminated from outside. The outdoor lighting of other university buildings is turned off.
The current illumination of the Schloss area serves to make traffic routes safe, and must remain on due to the duty to ensure public safety.

Many students stay at the university long after lectures have ended. They use weekday evenings or weekends to study at the University Library. The library provides a modern, supportive learning environment and access to technical literature, which contributes significantly to academic success. That is why the libraries in the Schloss Schneckenhof, Schloss Ehrenhof, A3 and A5 remain open daily until 11 p.m., and until midnight during the examination period. During opening times, the libraries and the corridors leading to them need to be sufficiently illuminated to ensure the safety of the library visitors. From time to time, evening events in other university areas (especially in the Ostflügel of the Schloss) will require lighting.

Most corridors, staircases and bathrooms are equipped with presence detectors that automatically turn the lights on and off. This generally leads to more electricity savings than having individuals turn off the lights, which they can do more precisely but tend to forget from time to time.

Also during the day, common areas and inside corridors need to have a certain level of lighting as specified in the applicable guidelines on workplaces. Members of the university continuously test lighting levels, replace lamps, improve controls and adjust the running times of presence detectors.

New or renovated buildings are equipped with LED lighting only. Currently, the share of LED lighting at the university is at 25 percent. Most of the time, it is not possible to cheaply replace existing lighting with LED retrofit lamps, that is why most of the lamps inclusive of electrics have to be modernized.

Whenever possible, please use the stairs instead of the elevator.

In general, the sinks in the university buildings are only connected to cold water pipes. In the few areas with central hot water supply the temperatures are not reduced. Lowering the water temperature would increase the risk of multiplication of Legionella and other pathogenic bacteria in the drinking water installation. The small water heaters in the kitchenettes remain running for hygienic reasons.

In September 2022, the state government of Baden-Württemberg adopted a 5-point plan to save energy in state institutions, explicitly addressing higher education institutions. The plan includes measures regarding heat supply, energy-efficient building renovation, electricity saving, optimized use of rooms as well as training and information campaigns. The university is required to implement these measures where possible.

Fortunately, the University of Mannheim uses district heating, a heating method that is almost independent (also indirectly) of gas resources. In addition, our lecture halls and buildings are very energy-efficient, compared to other universities in Baden-Württemberg. But saving energy is the order of the day—that also applies to the university and its members. Saving energy is imperative in order to use limited global resources such as fossil fuels responsibly, to protect the climate, and, since 24 February 2022, to take a stance against the brutal war against Ukraine. Different types of energy are connected by a network of communicating vessels. If you are saving electricity now, you are also helping to fill up gas storage facilities which will become even more crucial once the temperatures drop. Due to soaring energy prices, this is also necessary from an economic point of view.