A cosy atmosphere at 34 degrees – controlling large amounts of air cleverly.
Euskirchen. A town with as many as 57,000 inhabitants. But without wanting to offend the town – if you don’t actually come from the Rhineland area, you do have to take a look to see where Euskirchen actually is. And there you go – it is very nicely located: it is joined by the Eifel region to the west and south, not far away to the east is Bonn and Cologne is to the north. The inhabitants of Euskirchen have many possibilities for spending their leisure time; they only need to travel a few kilometres away. But they can also stay there and enjoy a local attraction: the Thermen & Badewelt (spas & bathing world) Euskirchen. As an attraction, it works the other way round. People don’t travel away, they come in: whether from the holiday regions of the Eifel, from the cities along the Rhine or the rest of the surrounding area – the water park attracts visitors from a large radius. And it surprises with a clever air conditioning solution.
“Large” is a good buzzword. It all starts with the operator of the Badewelt Euskirchen, the Wund group of companies always thinks in large dimensions. And it owes this to its founder, Josef Wund. The German architect and businessman designed the world’s largest cantilever gas concrete suspended roof hall at the age of barely 27, shortly afterwards, he built an entire facility for ThyssenKrupp with a guaranteed date of completion and fixed price and designed the German Pavilion for the 2000 in Hanover. Yet the passion he maintained the longest was for building swimming pools. Unfortunately we have to speak of Josef Wund in the past tense, as he tragically died in December 2017 in a plane crash.
CLEVER: the air flows in Euskirchen from many sources.
The Wund group of companies is thus continuing the founder’s heritage. And that means building and running gigantic pools. Even the Therme Erding, which was the cover story in KAMPMANN HEUTE No. 7, is a Wund project – it is the largest indoor pool in the world.
But was does “indoor pool” mean? A striking feature that is common to all Wund water parks is the huge glass roof above the main pool that can be opened at the push of a button. This is how the company succeeded in keeping the water parks attractive throughout the whole year. The visitors also come on warm summer days. Another recipe of success is based on a fact we all know: Adults prefer peace and quiet, children and youths prefer action, which usually involves a lot of noise. A conflict that Josef Wund solved with his water park concept. This can be read up on in the most recent Wund project: the Thermen & Badewelt Euskirchen.
“My holiday paradise under palm trees” is the motto of the water park. This is where one focus of the water park resonates: personal relaxation, for children under the age of 16 are not allowed into the “Palmenparadies” bathing area nor the “Vitaltherme” or sauna. Even if that is bad news for children, the adults are pleased about the quiet atmosphere. And after all, every Saturday is family day – everyone can go then.
309,440 CUBIC METRES OF AIR PER HOUR
CUMULATIVE HVAC POWER: Units by NOVA in the technical facilities room.
But let us stay with the subject “size”: a maximum of 309,440 cubic metres of air per hour are moved in Euskirchen. 23 HVAC units of NOVA Apparate GmbH are responsible for this huge amount. Eleven air circulation units make sure that such tropical temperatures prevail in almost the entire building complex that are expected in a palm tree paradise. Ten supply air and exhaust air units are responsible for the ventilation of the swimming pools and the wellness and changing areas. Two more units are designed especially for the catering area.
The two kitchen units are designed as per VDI 2052 in such a way that odours, air pollutants and humidity are extracted and that no hygienically critical air is supplied. As per the VDI, kitchen units by Nova are always designed with a grease trap filter in the extracted air duct, capsuled extract air motors and a second filter level in the supply air duct.
And the swimming pool units of the NOVA AquaLine series are of even more high quality. Due to the special chemical-physical requirements, they are always painted. A two-layered paint system is used comprising a two-component undercoat (epoxy) and paint on a PU basis. In addition, the majority of the unit construction is manufactured from V2A and V4A stainless steel.
CLEVER SOLUTIONS FOR REDUCING THE RUNNING COSTS
ELEGANTLY SOLVED: Towel dryer and air outlet in one.
In order to circulate air volumes in such dimensions as at the Badewelt Euskirchen, it goes without saying that a lot of energy needs to be generated. Yet where a lot of energy is consumed, a lot of money can also be saved. NOVA thus developed a particularly efficient unit concept for the water park.
Thanks to the optimised layout and design of the components and multi-leaf dampers, only those components are flowed through that are required for the active function, depending on the operating mode. This reduces losses in pressure and facilitates energy-saving operation. In addition, it was designed for dehumidifier operation without mechanical cooling energy. This means that the swimming pools are solely dehumidified by outdoor air, which consequently results in an enormous reduction in costs.
As impressive as the engineering is both in view of the sizes and of the performance – not much can be seen of it in the waterpark itself. The guests naturally feel the climate that is very warm, but not hot and muggy. The reason for the ideal climate is, however, mostly concealed from them because the supply air outlets are elegant and in some cases extremely cleverly integrated into the architecture. As a shadow gap under the gallery with sunbeds in the palm tree pots, integrated in the benches of the bathrobe wardrobe – the air in Euskirchen flows from the most improbable sources. And at the same time, it takes on another purpose: just like with the towel rails that are placed above an air supply duct lowered into the floor, allowing the towels to dry particularly quickly. No less thrilling: the temperature of the saunas (including all of the theme saunas by the way) is also maintained via NOVA HVAC units.
Great climate thus meets small finesses. Together, this results in: new climate.
Picture credits: convertible roof of the Badewelt © Thermen & Badewelt Euskirchen GmbH