Danish hotel VejleFjord improves their CO2 accounting with heat pumps
VejleFjord Hotel reduced their CO2 emissions by 1,000 tonnes in just three years. A large part of this is due to the switch from gas to heat pumps.
1,200sqm
1,000tonnes
3years
Energy renovating buildings from the 1900s has its challenges. At VejleFjord Hotel, they have been through the process several times - with new windows, insulation, a wastewater treatment plant and now heat pumps. The old hotel, which used to be a sanatorium, has replaced gas with two heat pumps from ThermoNova, which now heat the hotel's approximately 1,200 square metres.
"We have a dream of becoming carbon neutral at the hotel by 2030, and the switch to heat pumps has helped reduce our CO2 emissions from 1,800 tonnes per year to 800 tonnes per year," says hotel manager Flemming Jakobsen, referring to their carbon footprint, which has improved significantly despite more guests and increasing activities in recent years.
"It's clearly the right investment we've made," says the director.
The hotel's high gas consumption means that the payback time on the investment is just three years. And while the economics are important, there are other reasons to look at energy renovation in general.
"I focus on the long term. When our large customers choose a conference centre in the future, they will choose a place with a very low carbon footprint. And we also realise that this means a lot in terms of recruitment. The younger generation has a strong focus on sustainability and decency in the green area," says Flemming Jakobsen.
Due to the age of the hotel, the process of installing heat pumps has been a long one. Engineers were on the job to check the foundation and what was possible in terms of pipes. Sound tests were also carried out.
"We were absolutely sure that heat pumps were the right solution. But we were worried that they would be noisy, since they would be close to the rooms. But the hotel guests can neither hear nor see the heat pumps," says Flemming Jakobsen.
The hotel has also built a wastewater treatment plant that saves them two million litres of water a year. The next step in the energy renovation is solar cells.
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