RUDI KRONOVŠEK, the founder and current procurator of the company Termo-tehnika d. o. o., who has been working in the field of heat pumps for over 43 years, was employed in Gorenje on scholarship; he took over the development of freezers directly after finishing his diploma at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Ljubljana. At the time of the first energy crisis at the beginning of the 70s, he was the initiator of the Slovenian production programme of heat pumps in Gorenje. He developed the first generation of serially produced DHW heat pumps. With the disintegration of the company Gorenje RR and the discontinuation of certain departments, particularly the development departments, he decided for an independent career and thus established the company Termo-tehnika d. o. o. in 1990.
In a small business building he and three co-workers set up a temporary workshop and developed an entirely new generation of DHW heat pumps. The first series of heat pumps were modular versions for installation onto boilers and mostly for contractual customers – the boiler factory Lentherm Invest. The initial quantities were between 70 and 100 units per year. Experience and needed knowledge in the field of cooling systems resulted in Termo-tehnika expanding their field onto other programmes such as cooling chambers, drying devices for wood and hay, cooling devices for wine, industrial cooling devices and systems, use of waste heat, etc. The technology for wine cooling was developed further by the company; it has equipped some hundred small and also some large winemakers with the entire cooling technology.
The growth in interest for DHW heat pumps was the reason for the company to expand the programme with modern, beautifully designed and functional products in the second part of the 90s; the company has also increased the number of employees and actively focussed on promotion and marketing which led to great success – their yearly production was raised from 30 to 40 per cent. Beside the dealers and installers, their larger customers remained: Gorenje GTI, Gorenje Tiki, Termo-tehnika from Novo mesto and Lentherm Invest from Lenart. After many years of testing and certifying the devices on the institute SIQ for verifying safety and adequacy of the devices the company Termo-tehnika signed a contract for the supply of heat pumps to one of the biggest European producers of DHWs – Austria Email in 2004, this company has remained their biggest export partner up to the present date. In 2010, the founder and director up to that date Rudi Kronovšek handed over the management of the family business to his son Bogdan Kronovšek; he himself still offers his help to the company and cares for the satisfaction of users of heat pumps and other products.
