VUB

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel has three different campuses: Etterbeek, Jette and Gooik. It also has various other buildings spread across the capital, and the hydraulic systems in all these buildings need optimising.

Central platform for all calculations

‘The main advantage of Hysopt,’says Eric Noels, ‘is that we now have a central platform where we can implement all the calculations for our complex heating system. Another benefit of the software is that it allows us to share models with partners as well as internally with our own departments.’

Traditional calculation methods no longer adequate

‘Our heating system was originally designed for a high temperature regime, but the Paris Climate Agreement meant we had to reduce this temperature. Unfortunately it was virtually impossible to switch from the overheated network to a heating system with a lower temperature using traditional calculation methods, but thankfully the Hysopt software was able to resolve this problem for us. One of its most important features is the simulations which have enabled us to work out and refine the best design,’ explainsEric Noels.

€600,000 investment recouped in two years

‘We invested €600,000 to optimise the heating system, but now we’re saving €300,000 a year, which equates to a payback period of two years. We want to continue developing our heating system further in the future and use the Hysopt software for all our upcoming projects. I’d definitely recommend Hysopt because it looks at the global installation as a whole and simulates the impact of every single modification to it. That simply wasn’t possible before,’ concludes Noels.

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