Hydroniq Coolers’ customer Hotel Alexandra Loen, which is located in Stryn, Norway, has announced that the hotel has reduced its energy consumption by 40 percent after installing cooling systems from Hydroniq Coolers.
In February 2022, Hydroniq Coolers announced that Hotel Alexandra Loen in Stryn, Norway, was going to utilize offshore technology to heat up both its swimming pool and hotel rooms.
The family-run hotel in Indre Nordfjord on the northwest coast of Norway purchased two heat exchangers that are normally applied in the engine rooms of seafaring vessels, to help regulate the pool and room temperatures at both Hotel Alexandra Loen and the neighbouring Hotel Loenfjord.
Hydroniq Coolers supplied two “Pleat” seawater cooling systems to the hotel. This system is normally used to reduce the temperature of a ship’s main engine and other auxiliary systems to avoid overheating the engine and other critical systems.
At the hotel, however, the Pleat heat exchanger is now used to cool seawater collected from the nearby Nordfjorden to ensure that the water constantly maintains two degrees Celsius. Moreover, the Pleat is connected to a heat pump for the purpose of extracting heat from the seawater and thereby help the heat pump to heat the hotel’s water. In turn, the hot water is used to heat the swimming pool and hotel rooms.
The reason for using a heat exchanger is that it allows you to extract heat energy from the ocean to the hotel’s heat pumps. Heat pump technology is renowned for getting more energy out of every electric kilowatt input. As seawater is difficult medium, including marine growth and the like, the heat exchanger must be easy to maintain. The hotel therefore chose a Pleat cooler. A self-cleaning filter has been installed to ensure as stable operations as possible. The delivery also includes a self-priming seawater pump.
In a recent article in regional Norwegian newspaper, Sunnmørsposten (NB: article behind subscription wall and in Norwegian only), Richard Grov, Hotel Alexandra Loen’s managing director, highlights that the hotel has its reduced energy consumption by 40 percent through this solution.
“We produce all the energy we need through seven heat pumps, where we recover the energy and reuse it. The facility we have built is designed for 50 percent more square meters than we have today. In other words: We have, so to speak, free energy for future development at Hotel Alexandra, says Richard Grov to Sunnmørsposten.
“If we did not have this system, we would have used around seven million kWh electricity annually. Now we are using about 4.5 million kWh. And with a significant reserve potential that means we can utilise our facility for many years,” adds Grov.
