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Comfort Inn & Suites
Location:
Comfort Inn & Suites, Red Deer, AB
System Info:
- Rooms: 88
- Indoor Pool: 60,000 liters of water
- Indoor Hot Tub: 6,000 liters of water
- Solar System: 60 solar collectors
- Solar Reservoir: 60,000 liters storage tank
- Heat Pump: 90 t
How the system works:
The new system employs equipment normally used as a ground-source heat pump, designed to exploit the stable ambient temperature of the earth to provide seasonal heating and cooling. The Comfort Inn design, however, doesn’t have an underground loop of liquid-filled tubing for geothermal exchange; the heat pump is connected to 60 solar collectors and a highly efficient heat recovery system.
The system will also heat and cool the building and its 88 guest suites and it will also convert waste energy form the hotel's other systems. The solar panels installed on the angled roof of the building will be visible and tilted at a 50-degree angle to collect the most possible amount of sunlight.
"It sounds complicated because it's different," says Roger Huber, president of Swiss Solar Tech, "but technically it's actually very simple, simple and reliable. That's the beauty of it."
Because of the volume of water, the solar energy is never wasted. On a sunny day, if the automated system, which ingeniously shunts heat from areas requiring cooling to areas demanding warmth, can’t use the collector’s thermal energy anywhere else in the building, it stores it in the 60,000 liters storage tank.
Benefits:
- 5 to 6 year payback time
- Expected to save over $150,000 a year as a result
- Federal grant from the Renewable Energy Deployment Initiative (REDI) reduced the cost of the solar component by 25%
Customer testimonial:
"The result [of this installation] will be one of the most energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly green hotels ever built in Canada, if not North America.
I have always been environmentally conscious. Now I can do my small part to protect the environment. Also, the energy savings will result in a pay-back time of 5 to 6 years for this solar and heat pump system. "
Mr. Brad Gabrielson, owner
Pro Eco Energy project list
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