Heating facility reconstruction in Kopaonik mountain resort, Kopaonik, Serbia

MK Mountain Resort is a company that manages four tourist facilities on Kopaonik since 2009:

• Grand Hotel & SPA ****
• Family Hotel Angella ****
• Apartments lodgings Konaci **** deluxe
• Restaurant „Zvrk“.

All facilities are located in the middle of tourist center, at the height 1770 m above the sea level. Due to the long and very cold winter 2011/2012 heating season lasted longer than the previous one. In spite of this increase in demand for complex heating, we have achieved a saving which is represented in a 10% lower fuel consumption in comparison with the previous season. 

Considering that all of the above structures were built during the 80’s of the last century, the new owner was faced with the extremely high energy costs for building heating. Also, due to the lack of automatic control for the heating installations, thermal comfort requirements within the complex were not in accordance with the actual needs of the user.

Solutions for the optimal energy use

Step-by-step reconstruction of the heating system was started in the year 2010 and involved the installation of Danfoss control equipment: straight-way and three-way control valves with motor drives, automatic balancing valves for hydraulic balancing and appropriate electronic controllers ECL Comfort 310. Seven control circuits were reconstructed on the systems that supply the heat to the most important parts of the hotel complex.

The results are very encouraging. Systems are energy efficient and do not waste energy and money. „Due to the long and very cold winter 2011/2012 heating season lasted longer than the previous one. In spite of this increase in demand for complex heating, we have achieved a saving which is represented in a 10% lower fuel consumption in comparison with the previous season.“ says Goran Lazic, Maintenance Manager at MK Mountain Resort.

Quick response to heating demands

Managing the reconstructed parts of the heating system is simple, fast and effective since all seven ECL Comfort 310 controllers have been linked by means of ECL Portal system for remote monitoring and control. ECL Portal gives an integrated display of all relevant parameters of the heating system, via standard web browser. Installation and connection of the controllers to the ECL portal was performed by company TRACO, Danfoss partner and system integrator. The possibility to use this application on the Smartphones as well proved to be very useful. “The hotel complex is a complicated and dynamic system where it is often necessary to react quickly and redirect energy where it is needed at that moment. ECL Portal applications for Smartphone enables quick and timely response because a physical presence in the substation is not necessary any more in order to change the parameters so that they are adequate to current needs.“ says Goran Trišić, TRACO company, system integrator.

The analysis leads to the operation optimization

There are numerous advantages of the Portal ECL system. In addition to the monitoring and managing the system from one central point, all of the data and system parameters could be used to analyze and optimize energy consumption. Data Log option allows the storage of all system parameters (temperatures and data from heat meters) over a longer period of time, in order to make an analysis of the heating system operation. This is a precondition for the solutions that lead to the operation optimization. Another fundamental characteristics is the possibility to obtain the data about alarm conditions automatically, by e-mail, what is a precondition for the quick service response.