Smart heating of sports centers: modern heating equipment

A modern sports center can be a complex of buildings or premises with gyms, exercise rooms, swimming pools and saunas. It may include tennis courts, outdoor sports fields, jogging tracks. To ensure the comfort of customers, a certain temperature must be maintained. Moreover, we are talking not only about sports halls with ceilings of 5-6 m, but also street "points" of heating. It is obvious that the entire complex requires huge heat costs. Is it possible to provide cheap heating for sports centers with expensive energy resources?

We organize modern heating of sports centers

Our readers will be interested in an approach showing what stages professionals go through to make a project for heating sports centers. In a specific case, "smart" heating is considered. That is, a heating complex based on scenarios and sensor data. They must be installed in rooms to obtain a comprehensive "reaction" of the system to changes in climatic characteristics.

Stage one: pick up fuel

Since we are talking about a system with high heat consumption, you should select not only heating equipment, but also a heat source. The table of the cost of a kilowatt of heat speaks volumes about the choice of a heat source.

Fuel	Calorific value according to standard	Required amount, 1 kW * h	Estimated fuel price	Fuel cost per kW
Main gas	8.6 kWh / m3	0.116 m3	8.07 UAH / m3	0.936 UAH
Liquefied gas	12.8 kWh / l	0.0782 l	11.60 UAH / l	UAH 0.907
Wood pellets	4.96 kWh / kg	0.202 kg	2,3 UAH / kg	0,464 UAH
Diesel fuel	11.1 kWh / l	0.91 l	15.80 UAH / l	UAH 14.37
Electricity	—	1 kWh	1.68 kWh	1.68 UAH

Savings in the case of sports centers will be "spent" again on heating. For this reason, cost reduction is extremely important. Selection of pellet granules for heating a sports center is also associated with the availability of suitable heating equipment for organizing air heating. It is this type that is recommended for rooms with large cubic capacity.

Stage two: lay out the heating circuits

The layout of heating circuits is the most important stage in the design of a heating complex. In the case of a sports center, the following are used:

• water radiator heating circuits (high temperature);
• low-temperature warm floors for study rooms;
• air heating;
• thermal curtains;
• heating of tennis courts and jogging tracks is also organized.

Each type has its own characteristics, but, in general, we are talking about water and air heating. The latter can be organized in the case of direct heating of air by a boiler or using a water circuit.

It does not hurt to use infrared ceiling panels as backup heating devices. They heat the human body at a distance of 3-4 meters, in contrast to convection heaters, which first heat the air.

Stage three: choose heating equipment

Pellet boilers for air, water or hybrid heating of industrial type are used as heating equipment. The FOCUS brand offers heating equipment for a mini-boiler room that will operate on pellets.

The equipment complex includes:

• solid fuel boiler FOCUS with microprogram control (100, 200, 300 and 500 kW);
• automatic pellet burner FOCUS (from 17 kW to 900 kW);
• auger for fuel supply;
• storage bin for pellets.

A pellet boiler house of Ukrainian production, as a rule, is cheaper than pellet boilers, while being more convenient in operation.

Automated heating of sports centers: sensors

To implement a heating project, you will need to deploy a sensor circuit. It can be realized using thermostats or special temperature sensors. The work of sensors is organized collectively on the basis of scenarios, including those working on the basis of data from motion sensors and a given schedule of classes. All temperature indicators and heat consumption in such heating systems of sports centers are controlled by automatic equipment.