A LEED Gold certified hotel in Warsaw
Nobu Hotel Warsaw, a past and a present
Nobu Hotel is a five-star hotel found in the very center of Warsaw, the Polish capital since the year of 1596. The hotel was built in a tenement house that survived the second world war but which was completely restored and adapted to its current use. Only a few external and internal walls, construction walls and a staircase was left of the pre-war apartment house. Since then, the foundations have been strengthened and three stories have been newly constructed. In August 2020 the hotel officially opened and offered 117 rooms, a conference floor, wellness and spa.
Luxury with a touch of fame
The hotel in Warsaw is part of the Nobu luxury hotel chain, founded by Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro and film producer Meir Teper. The history of the Nobu brand dates back to the 1980s, when Robert De Niro became a regular guest at the restaurant run by chef Nobu Matsuhisa. The actor persuaded the latter to open more restaurants and today the unique flavours of Nobu cuisine are found in more than 40 locations around the world, often at a Nobu hotel.
A hotel of LEED Gold standard
The investor behind the Nobu hotel in Warsaw has a clear focus on sustainability in regards to its property portfolio and it was decided to certify this building in Warsaw according to the LEED standard. The Nobu hotel reached the level of Gold in the category of hotels thanks to a number of well considered activities and choices.
For instance, the green wall and plants on the Nobu terraces were planted to act as an anti-pollution filter and materials with a low or no content of harmful volatile organic compounds were chosen as an overall concern for the environment. And the people in the building. Last but certainly not least, the air handling units from us at Swegon were carefully selected as they improve air quality in a way that makes a significant difference to productivity and health, comfort and well-being of both hotel guests and employees.
Requirements straight from the contractor and investor
The customer’s concern about supplying the hotel rooms with adequate amounts of fresh air was perhaps not the biggest challenge, but the requirement initiated productive discussions.
Our knowledgeable Swegon associates got the opportunity to have direct contact with the potential contractor and the investor's representative. The latter had clear requests in terms of product quality and reliability in relation to pressure and filters, as well as in terms of energy consumption throughout a solution's service life.
Fresh air with high quality products
Swegon comes from a long line of indoor environment inventors, and already from the beginning, true commitment to quality and innovation was established. Having that said, clear advantages and reliable quality of our Swegon products were presented early on to the customer in this case.
There is a relationship between air density, temperature and air pressure, where air density increases with pressure and decreases with temperature. As our products are sold on markets where the temperature may differ between -25 and 40 degrees Celsius, and the air density therefore also differ*, we have developed a functionality where the fan speed is automatically adjusted to keep pressure intact even though the temperature and density varies. This is not only to ensure the need of fresh air inside the premises, it also eases the commissioning process as time and attention is not spent on fan speed adjustments.
The image to the right is borrowed from Nobu Hotel Warsaw
* between 1,47 kg/m3 and 1,13 kg/m3
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Perspectives of reliability
When the indoor climate solution is about to be designed, we have the opportunity to use a variety of carefully developed Swegon software. These support us with numerous specifications and performance details of our products.
In this case, AHU Design answered the customer’s question regarding reliability as we were able to show the proposed air handling units’ capability to supply fresh air without considerable pressure drops or excessive fan activity, even when filters are medium to well filled. Indirect, it also showed that an energy efficient operation was secured in a wide range of operating cases.
A lot to gain from good heat recovery
A number of different Swegon GOLD and GLOBAL air handling units was chosen for this project. They were provided with advanced heat exchangers where the warm extract air is used to heat the colder supply air, or vice versa, the heat exchanger can be used in a highly efficient manner to recover cooling energy too.
To recover energy is obviously a relief for the environment as less energy is needed to cool or heat the supply air and to keep the temperature indoors at a comfortable level. When energy is used in an efficient manner there is normally a direct and positive impact on building economics.
Learn more in our technical guide
Humidity control for a higher level of energy efficiency
Our Swegon GOLD air handling units may be equipped with sorption treated rotary heat exchangers. The sorption coating improves energy recovery through its ability to absorb moisture from the air when the humidity is high, and to release it when the humidity is low.
The sorption rotor can also recover both sensible and latent cooling, which has a positive impact on the cooling power demand as well as the cooling energy consumption. All in all, a sorption type rotor has a number of advantages in terms of energy savings, while enabling a higher level of comfort inside.
The image to the left is borrowed from Nobu Hotel Warsaw
Read more about humidity as a factor affecting the indoor climate
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