Hospitality
Tourism is an important sector for the South African economy. International tourists are willing to pay high prices for their accommodation, but in return they expect a appropriate comfort and service.
In the hospitality industry the costs for heating, cooling, domestic hot water (DHW) are the main cost drivers with strong impact on profitability. Using heat pumps in this sector is almost a must, as the heating and cooling requirements are almost always present and are largely balanced. Using separate generation units is in many ways incomprehensible and inefficient. Using the best available technology here means not only reducing operating costs, but also conserving South Africa’s resources in the best possible way. At the same time you are creating a marketing argument for increasingly environmentally conscious customers.
Many hotels and B&B’s have a pool, but in usually the water is too cold to use it. While cooling the rooms, with a heat pump you could use the thermal energy extracted from the rooms to heat up the pool to comfortable temperatures. In some safari destinations, which are very popular, there is no or only unreliable grid connection but the need for cooling and DHW is high. The required electricity is then produced by a diesel-powered generator, which is not only noisy and expensive but also inefficient and inconvenient for the guests. As our heat pumps only need about 20% of the electricity of a traditional installation, we can generate enough electricity with solar panels to ensure a safe operation. Suitable storage media and an appropriate configuration of the system can also enable night operation.
Storage facilities are not only batteries for electric power, but also the possibility to store enough cooling or heating energy in insulated water tanks and to operate only small circulating pumps during the night to supply the respective point of consumption (AC or DHW). During the day, our e-manager uses the electricity generated in a PV system to charge the batteries and uses the remaining electricity to charge heat or cold storage tanks. At night only the circulation pumps are powered by electricity from the batteries.
Our “high power” HP heat pumps have no limitation in required performance and are available in size 12-40 kW, 15-70 kW and 25-100 kW. A maximum of 6 engines can operate in cascade with only one supervising and control unit, thus providing up to 600 kW performance. They are freely to combine thus enabling you to have the perfect sizing and to operate the heat pumps in the most effective design point. If one needs an even higher performance a second cascade could provide this.
Have a look at “Technology” to see how it works.