The family managed three stars superior (3* +) Hotel Neu Heidelberg welcomes its guests with a pretty entrance hall. The innovative and state-of-the-art KNX technology provides the background for both, a pleasant atmosphere and an energy-efficient operation. This shows that smaller family managed properties benefit from KNX Intelligent Building Control as well. The hotel offers 44 hotel rooms of different categories of which 28 are located in the new building which has been finished in September 2012.
In addition to a pleasant atmosphere for tourists and business travellers, energy efficiency is a focus issue to minimize operational costs. For example, the building uses geothermal energy for passive cooling, a block heat and power plant is used for heating and for the generation of 67 % of the electricity required, the elevator feeds electricity into the in-house grid and the 15m² solar heat system on the roof supplies hot water.
This belief, that pioneering technology is the key to an economic hotel operation, is also shown by the new building which is an annex to the existing one (constructed in 1950). The efficient room climate control is supported by thermo-active ceilings respectively thermo-active gypsum walls and dormer cover panels at the top floors. Additionally, separated networks for fresh water and grey water ensure that the shower water can be used for the toilet flushing. Furthermore, the new building is lit by LED lights to minimize energy consumption and maintenance.
It was a special challenge to provide a unique atmosphere for the guest with the help of KNX. To achieve this, RGB lighting was implemented at the reception to welcome the guest with a specific mood which e.g. depends on the outside temperature and weather conditions. It was a further challenge to combine an energy-efficient operation of the hotel with a high guest comfort.
The decision to use KNX was made due to the compact and cost-efficient ABB Room Master devices. Instead of installing multiple KNX components for controlling one hotel room, a single KNX device combines various actuators and sensors. The installed Room Master Premium RM / S 2.1 is used to connect conventional pushbuttons and to control consumers such as lights, sockets and shutter drives.
With the Room Master extensive comfort features have been implemented. The floor lighting of the hotel room is switched off after a specified time when pulling the room key card. For achieving a convenient atmosphere various predefined light scenes can be called by using the controls of the switch series Future Linear of ABB Busch-Jaeger. A pleasant room climate is achieved by using the room thermostat RDF / A 2.1 in conjunction with the electronic switching outputs for controlling the valves.
Additionally the hotel rooms can be set with a special "check-in function" to a specified room state. Once the guest checks in at the reception, the heating control is set from "standby mode" to "comfort mode", the shutters are raised and the hotel room TV displays a welcome message. Furthermore a monitoring of the rooms' consumers via a visualisation helps to identify energy wasting.
A daylight-dependent control of shutters in combination with a KNX Weather Station helps to reduce the cooling demand of the hotel rooms. Furthermore, a presence dependent lighting control of public areas is realised with presence and motion detectors. If no movement or presence is detected, the brightness of the lamps is reduced to lower power consumption. Additionally, lighting and heating control of the hotel rooms is adjusted by a key card switch. If the guest is absent, the lighting is switched off and the setpoint temperature is reduced.