But how is the official residence of the Pope – the Palazzo Apostolico – actually heated? Anyone thinking that it must involve a plant of equally grand proportions would be mistaken.

Together with Vatican technicians, Hoval specialists matched the plant’s power output precisely to the actual energy requirements. The three previous boilers each had an output of 5.5 MW but have now been replaced by three Hoval high-performance industrial boilers, generating 3 MW each. As a result, the output has been reduced by around 45% overall, which means energy savings for the Vatican – but without leaving the Pope shivering in his chambers at the Palazzo Apostolico or anyone else frozen to the bone in the nearby rooms.

As a highly skilled and reliable partner, Hoval is responsible for supplying numerous religious institutions in Italy. It has been involved in refurbishing the Vatican heating plant and district heating network, which date back to 1920.

Larger buildings, such as hotels, schools, hospitals, warehouses and factories, require a lot of heat. The heat requirements of local and district heating networks can also be considerable. To cater to this, Hoval offers various oil, gas and biomass technologies in a finely graded range of output classes so that each installation can be precisely and correctly dimensioned. The Titan-3 three-pass boiler is not only a titan by name but also in terms of cost-effectiveness. The version from the highest output class is capable of delivering up to 20 MW.

Cost effectiveness is definitely the name of the game: a high-performance boiler will realistically last for around twenty years and, over the course of this service life, will generate operating costs that are many times greater than the initial investment itself. With its high-performance boilers, Hoval demonstrates that it is possible to reduce the operating costs massively: depending on the installation, customers can save more than six times the original procurement costs.