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Description
HUUM OÜ is an Estonian company providing innovative sauna products. The focus of this project is to save heat and electricity through the development of an AI solution that takes into account heating inertia and a sauna ventilation product with heat recovery. For this, two new environmentally friendly products will be developed, aimed at significantly reducing the ecological footprint of the end-users, while also improving their user experience from using the sauna.
First of the new products is self-learning Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution for electric heater sauna controllers that predicts heating inertia to achieve the exact user-specified desired temperature in a sauna regardless of the parameters of the room and heater. The AI solution would be able to analyse and use data, such as the room temperature, heater data and other values that may influence the speed of reaching a certain temperature value.
Second product that shall be developed is a heat recovery ventilation solution for usage primarily in saunas that do not yet have any heat recovery ventilation systems. As opposed to the alternative solutions on the market today, which are designed for heat recovery functionality in entire residential and commercial buildings, this heat recovery ventilation solution would be made out of heat resistant materials and would be designed (and certified) for usage in saunas.
These investments enable HUUM to successfully develop and start production of the aforementioned two new products for the wellness/sauna sector. With the two newly developed products the yearly energy consumption of sauna end users would reduce by 4050 mWh and CO2 emissions from energy production would reduce by 1968,3 tonnes per year, resulting in significant improvement in the eco-friendliness of saunas.
Summary of project results
Project tackled the challenge of ensuring air ventilation in outdoor saunas. While heat recovery ventilation has become standard in residential buildings today, this is not the case in outdoor saunas. The ventilation of residential saunas is usually connected to the central heat recovery ventilation of the building. In outdoor saunas, the ventilation of steam rooms is generally solved with simpler and less efficient ventilation solutions, directing hot air from the steam room directly to the outside environment and, conversely, fresh outdoor air directly to the steam room. The sauna heater therefore has to operate at a higher power and/or with a longer operating cycle in order to maintain the desired temperature in the steam room stably.
Today''s bottleneck lies in the fact that in outdoor saunas, where the temperature difference between the outside air and the steam room can exceed even 100 degrees, it is important that the incoming air does not cool the sauna down excessively, and that the outgoing air does not lead to a loss of thermal energy. The simple ventilation system widely used in outdoor saunas today leads to significant heat energy loss, and the cold air entering the steam room cools the sauna excessively, thereby causing a longer operating cycle for the electric heater and higher electricity consumption. It is also important here that heat exchangers developed for residential buildings are not made of sufficiently heat-resistant materials for use in outdoor saunas.
In the project HUUM developed two new products: an AI control system solution for electric heaters that takes into account heating inertia, which allows for reducing electricity consumption and improving user comfort every time the sauna is used, and a sauna ventilation product with heat recovery made of heat-resistant materials to ensure more energy-efficient air exchange in outdoor saunas.
As a result of the implemented activities, the ecological footprint and energy consumption of saunas will be reduced – the development of new products will increase environmental sustainability in the sauna sector. With today''s solutions, hot air in outdoor saunas is mostly vented directly into the outside air, and the sauna is cooled down with cold fresh air coming from outside, which is why the temperature drop is compensated for by heating the sauna more intensively. In addition, today''s solutions for electric saunas do not take into account the heating inertia that varies depending on the room parameters. As a result, excessive energy is spent on heating the sauna to achieve the temperature target, which the heaters are not capable of achieving precisely with pre-project solutions. The cause is the heater''s heating elements and the stones surrounding them, which are still hot after the room temperature is reached, despite the heater being turned off, and increase the air temperature by several degrees depending on the room parameters. The products developed as a result of the project will solve both of the above-mentioned problems, improving, among other things, the user experience and comfort.
The products developed in the project will be launched on the market in the year following the project. Active sales will be used in the main planned target markets. According to the company''s financial forecasts, the useful life of the project results is estimated at 10 years (2024-2033). In addition, the development of new products and the subsequent sales activities will allow the company to achieve its ambitious growth goals.