Energetic About Energy
- Portrait of Prof. Emeritus Enno Abel
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Since he started his career as a consultant and later on as a professor at Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg, Professor Emeritus Enno Abel has been truly energetic about the use of energy within building services engineering. He has now been honoured with ‘The Rehva Professional Award’ for his extraordinary work. We talked to Enno Abel about his life, problems facing the HVAC industry in Sweden and throughout Europe and his engagement in Swegon Air Academy.
Sweden’s first and most well-known professor of building services engineering, Enno Abel, came to Sweden by pure coincidence – or fate. Being born in Estonia in 1935 he was nine years old when the second world war came into its decisive stage. “When the Russians invaded Estonia for the second time in the year 1944 my parents, I and 20 other people left the country in an open boat”, reports Enno Abel. On the question why he chose Sweden while being on the run after leaving his home-country, the professor smiles and says, “We didn’t really have a choice. The boat’s engine broke after one hour on the sea and we had to use the sails. A strong storm was blowing us directly to Väddö. Then I stayed in Sweden. It was very easy to |
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FACTS
Name: Professor Emeritus Enno Abel
Born: 1935 in Estonia
Family: Wife Eva, three sons and five grand-sons (grand-child number 6 is on its way – everybody is hoping for a girl!)
Awards: Selection: Scanvac 1994, Stora Energipriset 2007, Rehva Professional Award 2008.
“And I was extremely happy and honoured about every single one.”
Member of IVA: Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Services
Languages: Svenska, Estniska, Tyska, Engelska, understands Russian and Finnish. |
settle down in this country. We learned the language quickly and I never felt like a foreigner here during the entire time.”
After his education at the Royal Institute of Technology he became a consultant within building services engineering at BS Konsult in Stockholm1967, before deciding for an academic career. In 1976 Enno Abel was appointed Sweden’s first professor of building services engineering at Chalmer’s Technical University in Gothenburg. In his 26 years at Chalmers, Enno Abel graduated 15 doctors of engineering, approximately 30 Masters of Philosophy (half a doctorate degree) and more than 300 engineers with their Master thesis in building services engineering.
Enno knows his history and he is especially interested in books about WW1.
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After retiring in 2002 this member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Services is still very active in his role as energy-expert, “Today I am just getting involved into things I really want to do and am interested in. I am not attending boring meetings any longer – just parties and dissertations.”
Of course, Enno Abel is still lecturing, not only for Swegon Air Academy. “The best part in being a lecturer is that nobody |
is objecting and contradicting”, says the professor emeritus with a wink. At the age of 73 he enjoys some spare time as well, “I work a bit around the house and love to read. Especially historical books about the 1st World War, the American civil war and the Habsburg family.”
But energy is still in Enno Abel’s focus. He remains involved in CIT Energy Management AB in Gothenburg, which he built up during his time at Chalmers. The centre of his work is the reduction of the overall energy use in non-residential buildings such as hospitals, offices, schools etc.
“The EU is expecting a reduction of energy use with 50% until the year 2050. To achieve this goal we have to focus mainly on existing buildings. We are evaluating many premises throughout Sweden and the outcome shows that the change of lighting, insulation and windows plays just a minor part in improving the energy-efficiency. The real decrease of energy use in non-residential buildings can only be achieved by changing the climatization and ventilation systems,” explains Enno Abel. The situation is different in houses and apartments, here the change of windows and insulation plays a major part. “Unfortunately many people in building and construction industry think of dwellings when designing non-residential buildings, even though these two kinds of houses are behaving entirely different,” complains the expert.
According to Enno Abel the focus has to be on existing premises, “Of course new buidlings have to be built in an energy efficient way but a new house does not help to reduce the overall use of energy; by building an energy efficient new house the use of energy is just increasing more slowly.” Enno Abel is thererfore strongly recommending to refurbish and develop existing buildings.
In Sweden Enno Abel sees the biggest problem facing building services engineering is a future lack of professional engineers and installation technicains. “For matching the government requirements of reducing energy consumption by 50%, Sweden would need around 400 engineers more during the upcoming years.” But the development looks different; universities are changing their engineer courses and reduce focus on building services engineering to around 4% of the entire education. In the meantime, the HVAC organisation is losing about 70 to 80 members per year due to retirements. “We are thereby endangering the energy program in Sweden,” says Enno Abel.
Building services engineering includes heating, cooling, fresh air, water and sewers, lighting, electricity, telephone lines, computer networks and elevators. “These elements have to be designed as energy efficient as possible. It is important that architects, consultants and construction technicians cooperate – nobody should sit isolated and develop an independent solution,” explains the professor emeritus.
“The consequences of different system solutions have to be evaluated and discussed between all partners involved – meaning that at a very early stage of the project the consultant needs to explain to the architect and investors what effects certain solutions have on the overall use of energy. Otherwise the solution is fixed and the consultant has to deal with technical rooms which are too small, window fronts which are too big and duct systems which are placed disadvantageous.”
Enno Abel is really emphasizing the importance of consequence analysis and the discussion of the different solutions. “How should the architects know if nobody explains it to them in an understandable way?” He also strongly believes in Swegon Air Academy’s role in this process, “Swegon Air Academy has succeeded in being an objective forum for knowledge conveyance in exactly this sector. They are pushing the discussion between the partners and pointing out that consultants, architects and investors have to get together at an early stage to form a holistic building which works in an energy efficient way; and they are doing this all over Europe.”
Enno Abel and his colleague Arne Elmroth play a big part in this process as well. “I visited around ten countries with Swegon Air Academy and lectured in round about 20 seminars. We always had interesting journeys – one day in St. Petersburg with -30 ºC, next day Lissabon with 20 ºC. Interesting audiences, lively discussions afterwards and constructive ideas made the seminars meaningful every time,” says Enno Abel contentedly and adds, “Swegon’s initiative is extremely good for our entire industry all over Europe. This kind of engagement has been missing for a long time now and I am especially impressed that Swegon does it without marketing their product solutions.”
THREE QUICK QUESTIONS
Which talent would you like to have?
Enno Abel: I would love to be able to play the piano and speak French – and I am not!
Which people do you owe the most?
Enno Abel: Professionally Claes Allander – a professor of thermodynamics who taught me the entire technical background.
When do you consider a person to be old?
Enno Abel: That is easy! Those who are older than me!