A 120-year old cottage, which had been owned by the Festetics Family, houses the High Cedar Social Home located in Kőkút-Gyöngyöspuszta. The operators of the establishment had decided to replace the high priced tank PG gas in 2004. Thereafter, the Somogy County Municipality published a public call for tender in September 2004 to install a hot water producing solar collector system for the social home.
The call described the daily need for producing 8,000 liter hot water at 50 ºC. According to the estimations this is the amount necessary for the 210 people taken care of and for the kitchen operating in this building as well. The installment of the solar collector system had to fit in the existing storage capacity, using 35 AP-30 Apricus vacuum tube solar collectors, as well as the belonging pumps, heat exchangers and other mechanical elements. The capacity of the tailored system can produce 65% of the energy needed to supply the total amount of hot water annually. In order to modernize the heating system of the building, the old heaters were replaced with condensation boilers in 2007.

TECHNOLOGY

The technology used in Gyöngyöspuszta is the largest system built from Apricus collectors with drain-back technology in the world, including 35 pieces of AP-30 vacuum heat-pipe solar collectors. The advantage of the drain-back system is that it does not require antifreeze liquid. Water only flows in the collector during “operation”, so it can be used even at extreme temperatures with safety.
75 000 kWh heat energy is produced by the system annually that is used for supplying the social home with hot water. The collector system also includes two 2000-liter tanks each.
The life span of the built-in technology is 30 years long, the maintenance costs are low, so the cost of the project pay back many times over the operation period.

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ECONOMIC ASPECTS

The project costs was financed from the own resources of the Municipality of Somogy County. The necessary amount was lent for the social home, and is deducted from the budget kept for the running costs of the establishment every year. Tank PB gas is the most expensive energy resource in Hungary that have been replaced by the solar collectors, so the payback period is very short, 4-5 years. One can expect 1.8 million HUF savings annually compared to the costs before the project. Furthermore, the savings will most probably increase thanks to the operation of the new condensation heaters in 2007.

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SOCIAL EFFECTS

The project site has been the first location in Somogy county, where a renewable energy project had been applied on institutional level. The contractor had installed the first Apricus 30 collector system of a large size on the building of High Cedar Social Home. This type had been the first on its own in the Hungarian market, so the project could be considered as a reference, and serves as the plot for presenting the technology. The social establishment can be visited by anyone interested.

ENVIROMENTAL EFFECTS

The solar collector system replaces 10,400 kg of PB gas per year. Estimations show that the CO2 emission of the building is less with 22000 tons so it explains how the project helps to reduce the greenhouse gas emission.

DIFFICULTIES, PROBLEMS

The installment of the solar collectors had originally been planned for February 2005, but due to the authorization procedures it had to be prolonged with four months. The project was also delayed because of the condition of the roofs that had to be strengthened to be able to carry the weight of 20 kg/m².

FOLLOW UP

There are plans for reducing the extremely high costs of the building by completely replacing the tank PB gas with renewable energy resources. In the past years, surveys have been done for applying geothermal energy, as well ass the possibility of using biomass by operating a wood gasifier boiler.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Lehoczky and Büki Airconditioning Technique Plc.
7562 Segesd, Kossuth L. str 107.
Tel./fax: +36-82/598-045, 598-046;

E-mail

Kardos Labor Ltd..
1172 Budapest, Rétifarkas str. 5.
Tel: 06/1-402-0478
www.kardoslabor.hu;
E-mail

High Cedar Social Home
7531 Kőkút-Gyöngyöspuszta
Tel: +36-82/719-412
www.magascedrus.hu

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