The citizenM chain of hotels has taken pride in providing luxury comfort in compact rooms. Guests have been provided with control of the indoor climate, which is optimal for both comfort and energy efficiency. Recently, a demand controlled ventilation system from Swegon has decreased energy consumption even further, leading to significant savings.
In contrast to many other hotel operators, citizenM fully owns the buildings. This allows the hotel chain to control the development and technical solutions in the buildings, which enables sophisticated design and innovative modular construction methods. The rooms are minutely planned and designed down to the tiniest detail, which allows citizenM to have a high focus on optimizing energy use and increasing energy efficiency.
Each hotel offers an identical high standard of comfort no matter where in the world it is located, whatever the geographic circumstances with regard to temperature and humidity. The rooms are not provided with radiators, the indoor climate solution provides heating and cooling, as well as ventilation. It is compact, built to exacting technical standards and causes neither draught around the bed nor disturbing sounds. Hotel guests can elect to individually adjust the indoor climate of their rooms via a provided iPad or a mobile app, or let system make automatic adjustments according to the needs in the room.
The climate solution was tailor-made by Swegon, and makes it possible to offer exactly the same high standard of comfort in each new hotel that is built. In this way, citizenM has a ready-to-operate, optimal solution that saves resources when planning new hotel projects, this makes things easier for everyone from the architects, construction contractors and sub-contractors to the fitters, installers and end users.
“We are really positive. Working with Swegon has made a big difference, and they really listen to the needs of us as a client. For example, they have developed a new unit that has made installation much simpler and therefore cheaper. We can trust them to provide the quality solutions we need,” says Steven van den Heuvel, MEP Manager at citizenM Europe.
To increase further energy efficiency, a solution for demand controlled ventilation has recently been added to the climate system. While hotel rooms are not in use ventilation drops to 10 liters per second (21 CFM), which reduces the energy demand. The instant the guest checks in, the flow increases to 24 liters per second (50 CFM) and the temperature is adjusted to 21 deg C (70 deg F) in a short period of time. This alteration has lead to significant energy savings. In addition, when people are present in the room the CO2 level is automatically held at 800 ppm, a healthy level.
“According to our calculations, the use of demand controlled ventilation consumes 18 percent less energy compared to constant volume ventilation. Variable volume is clearly paying off.”
“We are always looking at ways of reducing our carbon footprint, and reducing the amount of wiring is part of that. We at citizenM try to be the first in the hotel business to implement new technologies. Being disruptive has worked out very well for us,” says Steven van den Heuvel
