Five months in operation and heating energy savings of almost 30 per cent: this is the positive result of the two combined heat and power plants in the Bad Nauheim retirement homes "Im Park" and "Am Kaiserberg". Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) has modernised the heating systems in both homes run by Alten- und Pflegeheim Schacht GmbH and optimised them in terms of efficiency. "The first few months clearly show that the collaboration with SWG is paying off. The energy supply in our retirement homes has become much more economical following the modernisation," explains Managing Director Carolin Reifschneider.
Highly efficient CHP at the heart of the system
The CHP units provide the decisive advantage. The operating principle: as soon as the CHP units produce heat for heating or hot water, they generate electricity at the same time. Experts refer to this as combined heat and power (CHP). A large proportion of this electricity is consumed by the residents and the operator of the two retirement homes. The surplus is fed into the public grid. As the heat output of the combined heat and power plants reaches its limits at peak load times - for example in the morning hours during the winter months - Stadtwerke Gießen has also installed modern gas condensing boilers in both buildings. This means that there is always enough reserve capacity for particularly cold days.
"We have thus found an optimal solution for both retirement homes," explains Oliver Kisigna?z from Stadtwerke Gießen. This is also reflected in the environmental balance sheet: in contrast to conventional heat and power generation, the new heating systems reduce the annual primary energy consumption by over 50 per cent.