Contents

1 - Audemars Piguet: expansion and improvements in Le Brassus
2 - Designing the first Minergie-ECO® production unit
3 - Minergie-ECO®: the requirements of the new label
4 - A wood-fired heating system
5 - Telecommunications: playing it safe
6 - Revitalisation and reforestation of the Brassus stream area
7 - A welcoming entrance to the village
8 - High and medium voltage: the end of overhead electrical lines

A wood-fired heating system

Rather than building a wood-fired heating plant exclusively for the new production unit’s use, Audemars Piguet launched the construction of “Brassus Bois SA”, a public limited company, partnership between the municipality of Chenit and Audemars Piguet. Its remote heating network will eventually supply heat to around one hundred of the village’s buildings.
Located next to the new railway station, the heating plant will be equipped with two wood-fired boilers, each with a 2,000kW capacity, and a high-performance fine dust filter.
Space has been reserved within the plant for the future installation of a third 2,000kW boiler.
The price of the energy produced by the wood is comparable to that of fossil fuel while supporting the local forest industry.

The filter system
The filter system that was chosen for the heating plant provides two times better filtration than the Federal Air Inspectors’ latest requirements. The cost of the filter system represents approximately 10% of the overall heating plant investment.

Soundproofing
Special attention was paid to soundproofing the heating plant. No perceptible noise will be heard, day or night, in the nearby homes.
The heating plant’s peak noise level is just 85dBA, comparable to that of a lawnmower or the beeping of a car horn. The quality of the building’s outer walls and the mufflers placed in the chimney reduce this level to 4dBA at a distance of 5 metres away from the plant, which corresponds for example to the noise level of an average dishwasher. The legal noise limit for the closest dwellings (32dBA, similar to that of a walk in the forest) has thus been respected.

The network
During the initial phase, between 2008 and 2009, the plan is to hook up to some 40 buildings for a total heat supply of 3,600kW. At that point, the remote heating network will extend across 1,600 metres.
The buildings that will be connected to the network are currently equipped with oil furnaces. In time, the remote heating system could be hooked up to a hundred buildings along the 2,450 metre network.

Supply management
After the initial construction phase, the annual rate of wood consumption will be around 7,500m3 of particles, equivalent to 3,750 of steres or 2,700m3 of solid timber.
A coverage capacity of 5,400m3 of wood particles, located just a kilometre and a half away from the heating plant, is being built simultaneously. The wood bundles will be prepared and stored there for a minimum of 2 months, which allows the wood to ferment, increasing its heating capacity by 10% compared to green wood, and reduces the production of steam during combustion.
The exclusive use of forest wood, excluding recovered wood, limits the amount of dust generated when the wood is poured into the silo deep within in the heating plant.
The fuel wood potential from the Risoud forests ensures amble supplies for the Brassus Bois installation. Previously, this wood was sold at low prices for manufacturing paper or simply left in the forest. A more intensive exploitation of these forests will actually improve their quality and provide employment for the people living in the region.

Environmental benefits
The CO2 emissions generated by the oil furnaces that will be replaced by the remote wood-fired heating system are estimated at 1,680 tonnes per year. Since the wood-burning CO2 assessment is neutral, that means the town will reduce its annual CO2 emissions by 1,680 tonnes. Transportation of the wood fuel will require 190 lorry shipments to be made each year from the warehouse. The shipments will involve 2 lorry loads per month in the summer and 21 per month in the winter. Transport will be handled by a local company and represents about 570 kilometres of annual road transport, each trip lasting only a few minutes. By comparison, the delivery of oil for the furnaces of the current Audemars Piguet buildings alone (production unit and office space: 9 buildings all together) for the trip from the warehouse in Yverdon-les-Bains to Le Brassus, is approximately 1,300 kilometres per year.