Exotic birds call out to one another beneath the tall canopy of trees. Monkeys swing from branch to branch, and a sloth rests content­edly in a treetop. Down on the ground, small alli­ga­tors dart into the thicket, and frogs croak away. Yet this trop­ical land­scape is far from the equator. It is in Gothen­burg, Sweden. Here, endan­gered species live in the arti­fi­cial rain­forest of Univer­seum, the national science center. Each year, the center offers over half a million visi­tors a holistic perspec­tive on how human behavior is changing our planet in the hopes that those who under­stand the world are more likely to advo­cate for its continued exis­tence and a sustain­able future. In addi­tion to its educa­tional mission, Univer­seum also leads by example and pursues the goal of contin­u­ously reducing its own energy consump­tion.

The Universeum’s trop­ical rain­forest covers 18,000 cubic meters.

The animals need a constant room temper­a­ture of 28 degrees to live healthy and happy lives.

Visi­tors observe the animals across five floors—from the ground up to the tree­tops.

Life-sustaining heat

Modern­izing the rainforest’s venti­lation systems with a retrofit to save energy was actu­ally planned for a later date. But when the system’s only fan failed after 25 years, the issue became crit­ical. Gunnar Blom, COO of Univer­seum, explains: “Endan­gered animal species live in our rain­forest. Our main goal is to take good care of them and to ensure they live healthy lives, we must main­tain the temper­a­ture at exactly 28 degrees.” If this fails, the conse­quences are devas­tating. While birds and monkeys can tolerate temper­a­ture fluc­tu­a­tions for a short time, sloths require a constant climate to survive due to their slow metab­o­lism.

Oskar Söder­lund of System Intel­li­gence, a long-standing partner of Univer­seum for HVAC systems, knew how to remedy the situ­a­tion: “We’ve been working with ebm-papst on such tasks for several years. So, I also contacted Sales Engi­neer Henrik Heikel for this project, and together we devel­oped a solu­tion.”

Three RadiPac units are heating up the rain­forest

The facility’s old, belt-driven fan sucked in air, which was heated by a heating coil, and blew it through air vents into the rain­forest building. For the retrofit, Söder­lund and Heikel decided to replace the old fan with three new RadiPac radial fans featuring Flow­Grid from ebm-papst. These distribute the warm air more evenly in the room The effect is enhanced by the inte­grated Flow­Grid guide vane. Söder­lund explains: “Since the temper­a­ture loss is so much lower than before, we can reduce the outlet temper­a­ture of the heating coil while main­taining the same perfor­mance.”

To prevent down­time, they have ensured redun­dancy with three fans: “Should one of the new fans fail, the remaining ones will keep the temper­a­ture stable until repairs are made, so the animals stay warm.” But to ensure long-term oper­a­tional reli­a­bility, the retrofit part­ners are going one step further.

Trop­ical data collec­tion with MMCU

Computer-assisted real-time data acqui­si­tion of indus­trial processes is already wide­spread in Sweden. To inte­grate this tech­nology into Universeum’s existing system, Oskar Söder­lund and Henrik Heikel are installing a Modbus Monitor & Control Unit (MMCU) from ebm-papst in the facility’s control cabinet. This unit reads data from the Modbus inter­face, which is stan­dard equip­ment on the RadiPac. Henrik Heikel explains: “Since the fans work in high ambient temper­a­tures, moni­toring motor and elec­tronics temper­a­ture is essen­tial for long-term reli­a­bility. The MMCU acts as a kind of hub that allows us to monitor rele­vant infor­ma­tion. For example, the rota­tion per minute to ensure the correct temper­a­ture inside the enclo­sure. With Modbus we can also move beyond that and use real oper­ating data to protect the equip­ment and main­tain a stable temper­a­ture for the rain­forest.”

A consis­tent temper­a­ture also helps stabi­lize humidity levels, which is controlled via a sepa­rate system. In addi­tion, the MMCU moni­tors whether the fans in the warm envi­ron­ment main­tain their optimal oper­ating temper­a­ture so that they can operate safely over the long term. And the system can be adjusted as needed, says Söder­lund: “In the summer, we do not need to compen­sate for the outside temper­a­ture as much as we do at -16 degrees in the winter to main­tain the temper­a­ture in the rain­forest. This allows Univer­seum to save up to 60 percent of its previous energy consump­tion.”

Since the fans work in high ambient temper­a­tures, moni­toring motor and elec­tronics temper­a­ture is essen­tial for long-term reli­a­bility. The MMCU acts as a kind of hub that allows us to monitor rele­vant infor­ma­tion.

Henrik Heikel, Sales Engi­neer at ebm-papst

One step closer to the climate goal

Now, as a result of the retrofit in the Swedish rain­forest, nothing stands between a sloth and its cozy life. To achieve the center’s climate target, Gunnar Blom plans to modernize several more systems at Univer­seum over the next few years. He is opti­mistic about the future: “A strong rela­tion­ship between us as a client and our suppliers is the key to devel­oping solu­tions that benefit everyone. When a retrofit reduces energy consump­tion by around 60 percent, the bene­fits become tangible—even for part­ners who want to support us and our educa­tional mission.”
 

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