Europa Park Hotel, Germany

EUROPA PARK HOTELS BENEFIT FROM PERFECT TEMPERATURES BY PANASONIC

Germany’s Europa Park resort based in Rust, Freiburg, has recently undergone a major renovation within its ‘El Andaluz‘ and ‘Castillo Alcazar‘ hotels, where 300 rooms now benefit from Panasonic’s innovative VRF air conditioning systems.

The Europa Park resort is one of the most prestigious leisure parks in the world, boasting five 4-star themed hotels and over one hundred attractions, drawing more than five million visitors through its doors each year. The family owned resort, voted best theme park worldwide for two consecutive years, prides itself in its commitment to consistent, high quality standards surrounding its attractions, food and beverage, shows, gardens and, its themed hotels.

181 rooms of Europa Park’s ‘Spanish summer residence‘ themed hotel, "El Andaluz" required two phases of a complete renovation, and equipping the rooms with the latest air conditioning technology was high on the hotels brief. Similarly, 112 rooms of the ‘Castillo Alcazar‘ hotel, themed around a Spanish knight's castle also required a smart air conditioning system that would lower the overall bills of the hotel whilst ensuring guests comfort at all times.

Freiburg based Installer, BS-Air GmbH, was tasked with providing a reliable and sustainable heating and air conditioning system. The technologies needed to be of high quality, quiet when in use and as inconspicuous as possible. This was a major challenge as no two rooms across either of the hotels were the same. The hotels high volume of occupants meant it was imperative for a quick and easy installation to minimise the disruption and down time of the building whilst the rooms under-went its HVAC revamp.

The installation was implemented in two phases. Initial planning and design began in 2012, where detailed CAD drawings and air conditioning load calculations according to VDI2078 were first established. Between 2012 and 2013, 3,500 meter copper cables were laid within Hotel El Andaluz, whilst and 82 rooms were appointed with a new Panasonic air conditioning system within just eight weeks. The second phase commenced between 2013 and 2014 where 211 rooms between ‘Castillo Alcazar‘ hotel and "El Andaluz" hotel were commissioned within just nine weeks.

"The biggest challenge in the two hotels at Europa-Park was probably the strict time limits we were restricted to, “explains Peter Scheidthauer, Managing Director of BS-Klima GmbH. “We are proud that we were able to implement all systems throughout both hotels in such a timely manner, all thanks to our dedicated employees. We would also like to thank the management of Europa-Park for putting this trust into us to create a fully integrated and reliable heating and cooling system for two of its 4-star hotels".

Panasonic’s ECOi range of VRF systems were selected thanks to its impressive performance, new DC inverter compressor, new DC fan motors, a newly designed heat exchanger and its low power consumption which is achieved through the use of the high-performance refrigerant, R410A.

A total of 14 outdoor units were installed between both hotels, ranging in output sizes from 22.40 kW to 45 kW*. ‘El Andaluz‘ homes nine of Panasonic’s ECOi VRF systems whilst the ‘Castillo Alcazar‘ boasts five units, producing a total refrigerating capacity of 500.80 kW.

Once the outdoor systems had been fully installed, BS-Air moved into the indoor units of the hotels. In order to camouflage the systems against the low ceiling and interior design of each room, the installer decided Panasonic‘s MM1 series would be the ideal solution for indoor heating and cooling, thanks to its shallow channel devices. With a height of just 200mm, Panasonic’s MM1 Superflat channel devices offer the ultimate flexibility and are suitable for installation narrow, false ceilings. With its high energy efficiency and extremely low noise levels, this was the perfect solution for Europa Park’s indoor heating and cooling requirements.

For accurate and flexible control of Panasonic VRF systems, an interface designed and programmed specially by wholesaler Alfred Kaut GmbH + Co. integrates the VRF system into the hotels in-house building management system. This enables quick and easy central control and the detection of faults. Three heating and cooling settings are controlled via the building management system, which is set depending on whether the room is occupied, how many people are straying in the room, and also allows for a basic temperature set point. Each individual hotel room was also equipped with Panasonics CZ-RE2C2 Hotel Remote Controller for guests to adjust the temperatures at the touch of a button. This remote makes increasing or decreasing the temperature, fan speed or shutting off the system completely a hassle-free process.

"We could not close our hotels for more than a few weeks for renovation, therefore it was important that we put our trust into companies that we could rely on and that we could trust to not neglect the quality of equipment that was specified, and the implementation of these systems. BS-Air GmbH provided us with the best advice in recommending Panasonic air conditioning systems, and our high quality standard has remained firmly intact," says Roland Mack, owner of Europa Park.

The project has been such a success that it was awarded a Panasonic PRO Award for Best Hotel Installation.

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