International. The new Only You Atocha hotel, in Spain, opted for the installation of efficient solutions for its air conditioning and DHW production. The equipment has been installed by the firm Panasonic.
A control system determines whether the production of cold/heat should be covered by gas heat pumps, chiller or boiler depending on external conditions. All this translates into a project adapted to the needs and typology of a building that sought maximum energy efficiency.
The engineering company in charge of the project opted as a base solution for the air conditioning by seven Panasonic Gas Heat Pump equipment model U-30GE2E5, powered by natural gas and each connected to a hydrokit for the production of cold / hot water at temperatures of 7ºC / 12ºC and 48ºC / 43ºC respectively, since the air conditioning is carried out by fancoil type indoor units.
The cooling demand covered with gas heat pumps is 469kW and the heating demand is 560kW. The rest of the power to cover the total demand of the building is made with a traditional chiller and boiler system, respectively.
A control system determines whether the production of cold/heat should be covered by gas heat pumps, chiller or boiler. All this, depending on a series of external conditions and in such a way that the performance of the installation is optimized, controlling the cascade entry of the gas heat pump units.
Thanks to the use of gas heat pump equipment, the recovery of residual energy from the exhaust gases and engine cooling is used to preheat the hotel's DHW tanks. It has been calculated that with the residual energy of the equipment it is possible to recover up to 82% of the energy necessary to meet the DHW demand of the establishment. In principle, the water is preheated with the residual energy of the gas heat pumps and, if necessary, the DHW accumulation temperature is reached by boiler.
According to the calculations made by the engineering, the chosen solution represented a reduction of 27% in primary energy consumption and 22% in CO2 emissions.
