VELUX Commercial (before 2019, JET Group) has held the maintenance contract at the great trade fair and exhibition centre Messe Karlsruhe in the Southwest of Germany for the last 10 years. A partnership that has led to a much-needed replacement of old ventilation systems.
As a maintenance partner, VELUX Commercial has been close to the project for a long time and our specialists know the building and its smoke and heat exhaust ventilation (SHEV) systems well. In an early stage, they began to identify functional problems with the old rooflights systems, and their advice was therefore to change the old units – not only to ensure proper functionality and avoid annually increasing maintenance costs, but also to comply with current regulatory standards. Project Manager at Bühl in Germany Udo Kist says:
It was really fortunate that we had this partnership with Messe Karlsruhe all this time.
"Over the years in the course of our maintenance work with the SHEV systems, we noticed that the old units were no longer fully functional." At one point we had to sit down with planners from the contractor company Concepture Group to come up with a solution, because it also became a matter of safety.
The customer wanted our product, but not for the daylight we offer VELUX Commercial were chosen as reliable partners for both the manufacturing and fitting of each rooflight. Messe Karlsruhe is an exhibition centre where artificial lighting is actually preferred when hosting events, so the primary objective with the rooflights was therefore not daylight, but the fresh air circulation and smoke and heat exhaust ventilation that we offer. However, there was still a wish from Messe Karlsruhe to better serve the environment when choosing new rooflights. A fully electronic and environmentally sustainable replacement By April 2022, the old SHEV systems were fully replaced. Where the old SHEV systems were previously operated by compressed gas, the new rooflights are purely electronic and automatic, which means they are also more eco-friendly. The environmental protection was an important factor for both Messe Karlsruhe and the contractor, Concepture Group. Project Lead from Concepture Group, Stefan Müller says: "With the previous systems, which operated using CO2, a large amount of gas had to be released during maintenance, and we needed to do something about that".
With this new electronic activation system, we have been able to secure a higher level of environmental protection.
According to Stefan Müller it was an easy decision to choose which systems would be the right for Messe Karlsruhe and sign a new agreement with VELUX Commercial: “One of the most important advantages of working with VELUX Commercial for us as engineers is to have a partner that simply has the manpower and the capacity to get moving right away. And VELUX Commercial has that. Moreover, VELUX Commercial is not only an installer, but also a manufacturer, meaning that the delivery was both fast and efficient”. The replacement took place between August 2021 and April 2022 and ended with an installment of 352 Automatic Opening Vent (AOV) Rooflights.
