Customer application 5 January 2021
Sustainable Like No Other: The toom Home Improvement Center in Nieder-Olm

Equipped with the WAGO I/O System 750, toom Baumarkt in Nieder-Olm, Rhineland-Palatinate was the first home improvement center in Germany to meet the “Silver” certification requirements of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB).

A paradise for both professionals and do-it-yourselfers: At toom, customers can find anything related to building and technology, as well as interior design and ambience. Toom’s garden centers also provide a seasonal assortment of plants for indoors, balconies and garden beds. For toom Baumarkt, a subsidiary of the REWE Group, being a responsible member of the community is a key part of their corporate philosophy. As part of their sustainability strategy, they are equipping new and existing buildings with WAGO’s automation technology. By 2015, the chain seeks to reduce the CO₂ emissions for 360 German stores by 30 % per square meter of sales floor compared to 2006 emission levels.

With the opening of a new store in Nieder-Olm, Rhineland-Palatinate, toom took another step in the implementation of its sustainability campaign. This store, which was completed at the beginning of 2012, is the company’s first certified Green Building and was designed specifically to conserve energy and water during daily operations. Toom Baumarkt in Nieder-Olm was also the first home improvement center in Germany to meet the “Silver” certification requirements of Germany’s Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). “We made a conscious decision to get certified by the DGNB, because for us it represents the most sensible link between the environmental and economic aspects of quality,” explains Tobias Müller, who is in charge of energy management in toom’s properties.

toom Baumarkt in Nieder-Olm:

Environmentally and Economically Sound
A Welcoming Atmosphere for Customers and Employees
System Monitoring and Control
WAGO Automation Technology

Environmentally and Economically Sound

Müller was involved in ensuring that the REWE Group subsidiary can achieve its ambitious goal: Between 2006 and 2015, the CO₂ emissions per square meter of sales floor should be reduced by 30 % – in all its stores, of which there are about 360. This can only succeed if heating energy and electricity are used efficiently. The REWE Group also promotes renewable energies, and all toom home improvement centers are powered exclusively with renewable electricity. The Green Building in Nieder-Olm, Rhineland-Palatinate already supports the active reduction of greenhouse gas emissions with additional environmentally friendly technologies for obtaining energy, as well as construction elements like daylight-harnessing architecture and efficient insulation.

The automation side of things also went through a significant technological change. “Up until then, we mostly had proprietary systems installed in our stores, which meant we were quite dependent on the manufacturers – and there were a lot of them. We’ve now addressed that issue by switching over to the CODESYS programming environment and the WAGO I/O-SYSTEM across the board,” says the engineer. The sales center in Nieder-Olm covers just under 9,000 square meters and includes a total of nine WAGO 750-880 ETHERNET Controllers installed in decentralized control cabinets. J&K Lausser Regeltechnik of Starnberg, Bavaria handled the implementation. Use of a uniform automation system for instrumentation, control and automation, as well as for the electrical systems, made the data communication much simpler. This eliminated the need for special interfaces, which are otherwise the norm.

A Welcoming Atmosphere for Customers and Employees

The controllers feature PLC functionality and handle control and monitoring for the entire lighting system, as well as the complex heating and ventilation systems. The building’s ventilation system is combined with a heat recovery system. A heat exchanger installed on the roof uses the exhaust air to heat the supply air. In addition, sensors in the ventilation system measure the CO₂ content in the interior air. This guarantees that the store is always supplied with the optimal amount of fresh air according to the number of people in it – and with the lowest possible energy consumption. Furthermore, the airtight construction is especially economical: This approach reduces interior drafts and cuts the losses from the ventilation system by around 25 %. To maintain an ideal working climate at the checkout stations, employees can adjust the temperature at each register individually.

A 1,300 square meter photovoltaic array on the roof provides 189 kW of solar power to the green building. Furthermore, sunlight is not only used to generate electricity. The WAGO Controllers also take it into account for the DALI lighting control: Twelve large domed skylights, which cover 20 % of the sales floor space, are distributed across 5,500 square meters of roof space.

The entire lighting system is controlled by brightness sensors, which enables daylight-dependent lighting control, as well as greater energy efficiency. With this approach, only as much artificial light is provided as it needed at the moment. In addition, each of the 500 DALI lights can be controlled individually, so the store can tailor the lighting to its individual needs and light scenarios. This saves even more energy – and helps create a welcoming atmosphere for shoppers.

The sales center in Nieder-Olm, Rhineland-Palatinate covers just under 9,000 square meters and includes a total of nine WAGO 750-880 ETHERNET Controllers installed in decentralized control cabinets.
A total of three PERSPECTO^® CP 121 Control Panels with target visualization provide access to the building systems on site in the toom store in Nieder Olm.
The controllers feature PLC functionality and handle control and monitoring for the entire lighting system, as well as the complex heating and ventilation systems.

System Monitoring and Control

In addition to automation tasks, WAGO components play another crucial role at toom home improvement centers: All relevant data points are transmitted to a higher-level energy management portal. This gives toom a centralized overview of consumption, consumption groups and the status of individual systems, allowing comprehensive, continuous evaluation, optimization and control.

This monitoring strategy is an extension of the automation concept that toom developed together with WAGO Project Sales. The main meters and sub-meters for all loads communicate via M-Bus. The data collected includes the energy used by the lighting for the shelves, ceiling, exterior and garden center, the amount of heat consumed and the water consumption for both irrigation and other uses. Monitoring of system parameters like temperature, ambient air quality and switching status information provides deeper insight into the technical interplay among the individual building systems.

Especially for significant projects like this, it’s really fun to work with professional partners.

Tobias Müller

Energy Management Supervisor, toom Baumarkt

Three PERSPECTO^® CP 121 Control Panels with target visualization, which are installed at the information center, in the garden center and in the manager’s office, provide on-site access to the building systems. In addition, all the information can be viewed online via the energy management portal, which runs on a classic Webserver and can be shared with third parties, such as service technicians. Thanks to the data transparency and constant availability, the entire system can be gradually regulated toward an optimal setpoint. “Platform-independence and openness were quite important in our decision to equip all toom home improvement centers based on this model. One-to-one mapping is certainly not always possible, since circumstances always differ between stores; however, we have Nieder-Olm as a flagship project to guide us in achieving our goal of 30 % energy savings,” emphasizes Müller.

For tricky problems, feasibility assessments or special requests, WAGO Project Sales is always available for support. “That was also true of our M-Bus meter concept,” recalls Müller. “To enable clear identification of each meter, we wanted to access the secondary ID instead of the primary ID. The necessary adjustments to the CODESYS function blocks and all the affected configurations were made quickly. Especially for significant projects like this, it’s really fun to work with professional partners.”

Author: Jörg Gruner | 2013-10-01

Image sources: toom Baumarkt, Sven Hofmann/vor-ort-foto.de, WAGO

Product Overview

Item no.: 750-880

Controller ETHERNET ; 3rd Generation ; SD Card Slot

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Item no.: 762-1057

Web Panel ; 14.5 cm (5.7") ; 320 x 240 pixels

{ "id": "762-1057", "name": "762-1057", "nameEn": "762-1057", "listPosition": "2", "listType": "product-slider" }

Item no.: 762-1035

Web Panel ; 8.9 cm (3.5") ; 320 x 240 pixels

{ "id": "762-1035", "name": "762-1035", "nameEn": "762-1035", "listPosition": "3", "listType": "product-slider" }

Item no.: 762-1121

Web Panel ; 30.7 cm (12.1") ; 800 x 600 pixels

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Item no.: 762-1104

Web Panel ; 26.4 cm (10.4") ; 640 x 480 pixels

{ "id": "762-1104", "name": "762-1104", "nameEn": "762-1104", "listPosition": "5", "listType": "product-slider" }

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Customer application 5 January 2021 Sustainable Like No Other: The toom Home Improvement Center in Nieder-Olm