Energy Autarky of the Monte Rosa Cabin – A Challenge for the Building Services Engineering Concept

Close to Zermatt (Switzerland) the new Monte Rosa mountain cabin is going to be built in2008 at 2810 metres above sea level. This hut is designed to accommodate 120 mountaineers.Furthermore, it is going to mark a milestone in high alpine building presenting an attractive,unconventional architecture combined with both a surpassing comfort and a high degree ofenergy autarky of over 90%.Of course several measures have to be taken to achieve such a high degree of autarky whilealways keeping a limited budget in mind. Apart from the technical systems, which are basedon existing technology (combined heat and power unit, photovoltaics, thermal collectors),there will be an innovative wastewater treatment and, first and foremost, an ingenious energymanagement. Only an optimised operation taking into account external conditions such asweather forecast and anticipated occupancy schedules is likely to achieve the demanding goalof the high degree of autarky. Detailed thermal simulation is used on the one hand to dimensionthe building services engineering systems and on the other hand to develop the best energymanagement strategies.This is a joint project of the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) together with the Swiss Federal Instituteof Technology in Zurich (ETH), while the energy strategy and building services technologyconcepts are worked out by the Centre for Integral Building Technology (ZIG) at theUniversity of Applied Sciences of Central Switzerland, Lucerne (HTA).