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31 March 2015

Many shipowners find themselves in a quandary between balancing the costs of investing in a state-of-the-art HVAC system upfront, or upgrading later on. KNUD E. HANSEN’s team talks through the issues with Jon Ingleton. International Cruise & Ferry Review.

”Shipowners spend a lot of money testing various money-saving schemes in order to save small percentages” Finn Wollesen says.

An unspecified off-the-shelf HVAC system installed by the yard costs x, while an intuitive intelligent system specified by the discerning owner might cost 2x but deliver quarterly savings of x/3. You don’t have to be Fibonacci to calculate that only a short sequence of sailings with the latter system type equals an impressive ROI, so why do so many newbuild projects opt for the former? “Many newbuild budgets don’t stretch to the price point of the most up-to-date system,” explains KNUD E. HANSEN’s CEO Finn Wollesen.

“But it’s not uncommon for us to get a call to upgrade the system after the warranty period has expired, when the ship is in the hands of the marine operations department.” This isn’t a case of negligence; it’s the reality of the complexity of newbuild financing. “The marine operations team have a different budget from a different source and with different demands,” says Wollesen.

“Shipowners spend a lot of money testing various money-saving schemes in order to save small percentages. But on a cruise ship, the airconditioning and cooling accounts for around 30% of the total energy consumption of the vessel. So if owners can cut down 30% of these costs, they might be looking at a 10% reduction in energy spend. This could represent savings in the millions of dollars across even a small fleet.” Improved HVAC efficiency is not solely found from within the system itself. There are further gains to be realised elsewhere with the guidance of an informed practitioner.

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