The challenge
Hotel Bella Italia, a new hotel in Sønderborg, Denmark, uses an OJ GreenZone® solution from OJ Electronics to manage heating and ventilation in the rooms, ensuring that guests get exactly the comfort they need – and that the hotel itself enjoys greatly reduced energy consumption.
Expanding the family business
The two brothers run a successful restaurant in Sønderborg and could perfectly well have rested on their laurels, but when the opportunity to build a hotel adjacent to the restaurant turned up, they jumped at the chance. They embarked on a three-stage project: a gentle remodelling of the restaurant itself and a two-stage construction project to build an entirely new hotel. The first stage of the hotel project was completed in November 2015.
Intelligent and
energy-efficient solution
Thomas Grosen, who was project manager for all ventilation aspects of this project, immediately brought in OJ Electronics and suggested that the new OJ GreenZone® system should control the indoor climate of the hotel’s individual rooms. OJ GreenZone® is a sophisticated VAV zone control system capable of handling different temperature and comfort settings in up to 125 separate zones per AHU – while also saving plenty of energy in day-to-day operation. As Thomas says: “What we wanted to do at Bella Italia was to create a system that is intelligent and which saves energy. The intelligent aspects are obvious from the fact that you can access full information about the system and its performance at any time.”
Energy savings pay off
“But the really huge benefit for the hotel is the fact that the VAV zone control system saves plenty of energy. I am firmly convinced that spending a bit of extra money on controls in the beginning pays off – you’ll soon see returns on that investment. At 
this hotel the OJ GreenZone®-system automatically controls the radiators and the cooling functions as required – this means that you never overshoot your targets, and you don’t see things counteracting each other. In conventional systems you might easily see guests switching on their radiators while also setting their ventilation system to cool the room, and that sort of thing guzzles up plenty of power for no reason at all. That won’t happen with the OJ GreenZone® system. It also switches off the radiator and the ventilation system in the room if the guest opens the window. When the window is shut, everything is switched back on.”
“Energy consumption
is important to us”
“But the really huge benefit for the hotel is the fact that the VAV zone control system saves plenty of energy. I am firmly convinced that spending a bit of extra money on controls in the beginning pays off – you’ll soon see returns on that investment.
“the GreenZone system was a perfect match for our position on energy savings”
At this hotel the OJ GreenZone®-system automatically controls the radiators and the cooling functions as required – this means that you never overshoot your targets, and you don’t see things counteracting each other. In conventional systems you might easily see guests switching on their radiators while also setting their ventilation system to cool the room, and that sort of thing guzzles up plenty of power for no reason at all. That won’t happen with the OJ GreenZone® system. It also switches off the radiator and the ventilation system in the room if the guest opens the window. When the window is shut, everything is switched back on.”