Pomme d'Or Hotel - DEU18-035

Auto cleaning ducts a big air conditioning money saver for hotels

Air conditioning has become the norm in most new and refurbished hotels. Today’s systems keep guests cool during summer – and additionally provide cost-efficient heating during winter periods. Daikin heat pumps use renewable energy to do this, cutting hotel operating costs. And there’s also a positive impact on indoor aesthetics.

As a leading manufacturer of heat pump systems, Daikin is at the forefront of technology. Far from concentrating solely on temperature control, its engineers and designers are constantly working to improve the ‘total solutions’ for key market sectors such as the hotel industry, offering cooling, heating, hot water, ventilation and refrigeration with a single point of contact.

The latest control innovation is the stylish ‘Madoka’, a wall-mounted intuitive touch button controller enabling guests to adjust room temperatures for greater comfort. Its Bluetooth connection gives maintenance staff access to all other system settings. With a choice of white, black or silver housings, Madoka fits any hotel interior design.

Another recent innovation is the auto cleaning duct – an accessory that attaches to a Daikin ducted unit – typically in a hotel bedroom ceiling – and automatically cleans the filter. This was a key component that prompted a high end Channel Islands hotel to switch to the Daikin total solution when its old systems were due for replacement.

The Pomme d’Or Hotel on St Helier’s Liberation Square heads the hotel and leisure portfolio of Seymour Hotels of Jersey. The long-established 143-bedroom art deco hotel has a prime location close to the island’s main business district and overlooking the port and marina. It enjoys year-round popularity among business and holiday visitors.

David Donoghue, group maintenance manager, says:

“We chose the Daikin solution for heating and cooling because it included the auto cleaning duct on the indoor units.”

The auto cleaning duct avoids accumulation of dust on the filter – which would otherwise affect the efficiency of the unit and increase operating costs. In fact, the accessory is calculated to cut operating costs by 20%. The attachment cleans the filter periodically and stores the dust in a dust box which can be emptied by housekeeping staff with a vacuum cleaner.

David Donoghue says:

“This is the big selling point that tipped it for us. We used to spend a lot of time cleaning the filters by hand every two or three months. It was only about 30 minutes in each room, but it was disruptive and expensive. And as the engineer had to remove ceiling panels to access the filters each time, it inevitably led to decoration issues such as damaged panels and dirty ceilings.

“The big benefits are that we get greater efficiency from the systems and we can deploy our maintenance team more efficiently.”

The Pomme d’Or Hotel’s system is ultimately controlled by a Daikin Intelligent Touch Manager mini-BMS, which gives a central view of the entire system.

To find out more about Daikin’s total hotel solutions visit www.daikin.eu/hotels

Every year in May we will provide an update of this text.