The Jordan Hotel - Sunday River, Maine
Viessmann’s largest condensing boiler helps resort reach new levels of fuel efficiency.
Challenge: Assume 100% of luxury resort’s heat/Domestic Hot Water (DHW) load
For the Jordan Hotel at Sunday River, a 187-room luxury ski resort in Maine, the same winter weather that attracts tourists brings immense fuel challenges. To achieve significant savings without incurring large capital costs, the Jordan Hotel has contracted its heating services to Alodyne, a Portland based clean energy company. Under the 15-year agreement, Alodyne assumes all the risk: in exchange for a fixed monthly payment, Alodyne is responsible for monitoring performance, mechanical upgrades and guaranteed efficiency targets. Should the equipment fall short of expectations, Alodyne would suffer the loss.
Solution: Large-scale, high-mass condensing technology
In the first phase of work, completed in 2013, Alodyne swapped one of four 4.6 MBtu cast iron sectional boilers with a Viessmann Vitorond 200 950kW boiler (VD2-950), assuming 90% of the load for heat, DHW, pool and Jacuzzi. With an approximate 85% efficiency, the Vitorond 200 installation achieved a 30% reduction in Jordan’s fuel costs.
Phase II, completed May 2017, completes the transformation by taking on 100% of the load. According to Christine Rogers, Alodyne Operations Manager, in addition to the improved efficiency for the remaining 10% of demand, Alodyne “removed the last three H.B. Smith boilers and the pumps that serve them,” eliminating an unnecessary source of heat loss and electricity demand.
But when this project was designed in 2016, Alodyne had an opportunity that was not available in 2013: condensing boiler technology capable of meeting huge heat demands. Hans Roth, Jr., Chief Engineer at Alodyne explains: “We were thinking of adding another VD2-950,” he says. “But when we talked to Viessmann, they introduced us to a new boiler, the Vitocrossal 300 CA3, a high-mass boiler that condenses and is much more efficient.” Three years ago, the largest available condensing boiler was 1,700 Btu, much too small for the resort’s demands. But with the Viessmann Vitocrossal 300 CA3, the hotel can get 4 MMBtu from one boiler.
There was another large advantage to the Vitocrossal 300 CA3: it can support two separate loops for heating and hot water. “We get the high temperatures we need for DHW,” Roth explains, “while heating the main building with much more efficient lower temperatures.” The Vitocrossal 300 CA3’s large size, with two built-in burners and exchangers, also “guarantees we can go as low as 15% - 20% of capacity to reduce cycling.”
Results: An additional 12% reduction in fuel consumption
Once the Vitocrossal 300 CA3 installation was completed, the three old boilers were removed and the previously installed Vitorond 200 transitioned to support for peak loads and redundancy. Alodyne expects the CA3 to reach 90% efficiency, reducing the Jordan Hotel’s fuel consumption by another 12%, and its greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 153 metric tons a year.
Click Here for Information about the Vitocrossal 300 CA3 gas condensing boilers
