Component
Activation

Heating and cooling
with cross laminated timber

The eight-person research team in the fields of timber construction and smart building, led by Thomas Schnabel and Markus Leeb respectively, at the Kuchl campus of Salzburg University of Applied Sciences has already proven using model tests that component activation doesn’t only work with concrete. The application of wood activation in a tiny house is set to deliver further concrete research results over the course of the year.

This works relatively easily with cross laminated timber thanks to its layered structure

The “aHolz” research project, funded by the state of Salzburg and carried out in cooperation with the two FH degree programmes “Wood Technology and Wood Industry” and “Smart Building”, is looking into the possibility of heating and cooling houses in timber construction using component activation. Similar to concrete-based component activation, pipe systems are integrated into ceiling or wall elements.

Holistic building

The research results confirm that the activation of solid wood components has great potential for the future.

Thinking about buildings holistically and designing components smartly at the same time – this is the future of construction. The more functions walls and ceilings combine, the more efficiently energy and resources can be saved. “Component activation with concrete is already state of the art for non-residential buildings and is also on the rise in residential construction. The future lies in ecological construction methods, including timber construction.

The question

“Why not activate cross-laminated timber in the same way as concrete?” says Leeb, explaining the motivation behind the research project. Initial digital models showed promising results and a comparison with reality also revealed good results for heating and cooling performance. However, concrete is twenty times superior to the natural material wood in terms of thermal conductivity. This means an increased heat supply is needed to activate the wooden components.

One advantage

Conversely, the storage capacity is also many times greater, which is an advantage. Energy-efficient, storage-capable buildings with an ecological design could therefore be temporarily taken off the electricity grid in order to reduce utilisation at peak times. A largely self-sufficient building of the future seems within reach, even though it is not yet realisable at present. Leeb and his team hope to gain more precise insights from the test phase of the activated cross-laminated timber elements installed in a tiny house. The research team at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is an absolute pioneer in this field.

Further
through the
wood blog

Overview