Engineering Department’s Civil Section visits GUTech’s Eco-house
The Civil Engineering Section of the Engineering Department at Shinas College of Technology organized a one-day field visit to German University of Technology (GU Tech)’s Eco-house, on September, 30, 2018, Muscat, Oman.
Head of the Department (HoD) Dr.Mahmoud Khazalah, and Engineering lecturer Mr. A. Kandasamy, made necessary arrangements and accompanied the Bachelor Project students.
Said visit was organize for the students to acquire practical knowledge about a green building, and to understand the green building techniques suitable for the development of Sultanate of Oman.
During the visit, Mr. Nikolaus Knebel, Manager of Eco-house, Department of Urban Planning and Architecture, explained to the group the concept of Eco-house including the main aspects of green building such as sustainable sites, water efficiency energy and atmosphere materials and resources and indoor environmental quality.
In the Eco-house at GU Tech, active cooling system is used to reduce the heat load from the atmosphere. Air handling unit (AHU) is also installed in this building. Special inlets and outlets along with heat exchangers assist in improving the indoor environmental quality.
Solar PV panels have been installed to produce electricity for the building and the excess is fed to the main grid using a bi-directional meter. A solar water heater too has been installed. In this way, renewable energy is utilized as much as possible for the operation of the Eco-house