Warema is at an important stage in its development as a company. In these times of digitalisation and the smart home, Chief Executive Officer Angelique Renkhoff-Mücke is steering the European market leader for technical sun shading products into the future. With innovative and networked technologies, Warema optimises the performance of its products and actively helps to shape people's living environments. At the R+T 2018, the world's leading trade fair for roller shutters, doors/gates and sun protection systems in Stuttgart, the sun shading expert will be presenting new product highlights, trends and scientific findings that will shape everyday life in the future.
Under the motto of "Sunlight in new dimensions", Warema will be introducing modern concepts for living and working in the future. The manufacturer will also demonstrate a greater and deeper understanding of its sphere of activity and the many and various aspects of the topic. This means that with new services and offers, Warema will be even more flexible and more closely orientated to the customer in 2018. And in product development in particular, the company will achieve new dimensions in trends, variety and technology. "All our considerations focus on what people need," says Angelique Renkhoff-Mücke, Chief Executive Officer of Warema Renkhoff SE. "We address specific questions with regard to the home of the future, to the coming living and working worlds, and to the options for helping to shape them with professional sun shading products. Light and heat management are important factors in our well-being and also in our performance. And this is an area where Warema plays an important role as a company by working permanently on future-oriented solutions.”
Findings for the
future
One important success factor in this is continuing to
think through current tendencies, anticipating future developments and
preparing for them accordingly. With regard to the roles that Warema will play
in people's living and working worlds in future, the company focuses on three
findings in particular:
- People feel better when the boundaries between indoors and outdoors blend and they are close to nature.
- Modern rooms will provide even more flexible and more user-friendly options for using them for the most diverse activities.
- Digitalisation supports the optimum energy efficiency with the smart and networked control of household appliances and energy supply.
Core areas
Outdoor Living, Home Comfort and Smart Home
Based on these findings, Warema has defined three core
areas for its business activities. With "Outdoor Living", the garden
becomes a "feel-good room". Modern sun shading creates additional
outdoor spaces that people are able to use for living. Innovations in this
range include the Lamaxa slat end roof, which facilitates targeted sunlight
control and can be set up anywhere in the garden; the weatherproof Perea
pergola awnings, and the new awning collection in the latest patterns and
fabric qualities. "Home Comfort", the second area, to Warema doesn't
just mean retreating entirely into one's own four walls in the sense of
cocooning, but above all also refers to the optimum utilisation and enjoyment
of daylight from outside, on the inside. The balance between visual privacy,
glare control and a view out that this requires can be achieved with external
venetian blinds such as ProVisio, where the angle of the slats is aligned to
the human viewpoint. The third area is the "Smart Home", which
enables digital control and networking of the sun shading system. The trade
fair innovations include an integrated WMS sensor system for Climara
conservatory and Perea pergola awnings with the secudrive® guide
system. The wind sensor detects the forces that are applied to the awning,
causing it to retract completely when the pre-determined limit values are
exceeded.
Award-winning
innovations
Developing new products with a tangible added value is a
key factor in the company's strategy. Three Warema products have been given the
R+T Innovation Award 2018 at the trade fair to acknowledge the company's
far-sightedness, its pioneering spirit and its innovativeness.
"Smart", the new programming cable, replaces nine different adjusting
cable options by various manufacturers, and can be controlled by smartphone
using an app. The Warema roller shutters with SecuKit combine the intelligent
control of motor drive in everyday use with the additional function of manual
belt operation for emergencies. And the cassette roller blind Stretch lets
varying levels of brightness into a room depending on the level of elongation
of the special fabric, allowing the user to easily change from a clear view to
effective glare control.
"We are delighted that our innovations have received this award. It is important to us that we blaze new trails and don't stick to what is familiar, which makes it even more of an honour to receive the important R+T Innovation Award. We are proud that our creative solutions are being acknowledged by the industry in this way," says Angelique Renkhoff-Mücke.
Study on energy
savings with automatic sun shading
The "Study into the balancing measurement of energy
flows at windows with and without automatic sun shading systems" also
leads to new paths in energy efficiency. The engineering offices of Prof. Dr.
Hauser GmbH, Kassel, carried out the study on behalf of the trade association
Industrievereinigung Rollladen-Sonnenschutz-Automation (IVRSA). Under the
leadership of Dr. Stephan Schlitzberger, the year-round energetic balancing of
the system "Windows and automatic sun shading" was examined for the
first time ever. The study was deemed necessary because the Energy Saving
Ordinance (EnEV) had previously only contained requirements for heat protection
in new buildings in summer. It did not consider redevelopments of existing
buildings or heat protection in winter. However, figures have shown that
automatic sun shading systems in modernisations can permanently lower heating
requirements in winter as well as the need for cooling in summer resulting from
excess heat. In winter, heat radiation from the sun is guided into rooms during
the day. At night, the sun shading system is used for heat insulation. In
summer, the sun shading system prevents rooms from overheating during the day,
while the sight and glare control mean the windows can be opened for
ventilation at night. Automatic control systems such as Warema WMS are a key
factor in achieving the optimum use of solar energy. They automatically retract
or extend the sun shading system before the user would normally respond, with
the result that there is also a pleasant climate in the room while achieving
the maximum energy efficiency at the same time.
Energy savings
comparable with NPP energy production
The result: depending on the building, its age and the
number of windows, the right combination of windows and automatic sun shading
can reduce heating energy by up to 30 percent. Depending on the type of
automatic sun shading system, the costs for cooling may be more than halved. If
every single home in Germany were fitted with automatic sun shading, the annual
savings for heating energy would be comparable with the annual energy
production of between one and two medium-sized nuclear power stations. It would
also prevent up to six million tonnes of CO2 emissions in comparison
with buildings without automatic sun shading. Furthermore, around 50 percent of
this amount could be assumed for savings in non-residential buildings.
As a member of the Industrieverband Technische Textilien – Rollladen – Sonnenschutz e. V., the Industrial Association for Technical Textiles, Roller Shutters and Sun Protection (ITRS), Warema will be using the data obtained in the study in order to share with its partners the tremendous potential for intelligently planned automatic sun shading systems.