Modern Building Services

22 MODERN BUILDING SERVICES OCTOBER 2021 FEATURE VERTICAL FOCUS S lough is on an exciting journey of renewal as new iconic buildings regenerate large swathes of its townscape. The cornerstone of the town centre’s revival is a striking £48 million mixed-use development that has transformed the former Old Library site into the first double- decker hotel of its kind in the UK. The new nine-storey Marriott International hotel, which operates under the Moxy and Residence Inn brand, is part of a wider mixed- use scheme delivered by Morgan Sindall Construction for Slough Urban Renewal (SUR). Next door is Novus Apartments, a collection of 64 apartments with 4,100 square feet of restaurant and retail space on the ground floor. Guest satisfaction is everything in the hotel business. Ensuring optimal temperatures in guest rooms, supplying plentiful hot water for showers and providing delicious food and drinks in the restaurant can all require a significant amount of energy usage. So, for hotels, achieving maximum comfort while minimising the carbon footprint of their building can be a tricky balance to strike. Heating and hot water, often one of the largest users of energy in hotels, are central to optimising guest comfort. Ensuring an energy- efficient solution that would meet all the requirements at the Marriott International development was therefore critical to the success of this project. And it’s a challenge that has been successfully achieved, as the new dual-branded hotel development has been awarded a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating for its energy performance. The rating, which reflects the energy efficiency of the building, how sustainably it was built and howwell it will respond to user needs, is particularly rare for a hotel, given their typically large energy consumption. Early engagement So how did the design of the heating and hot water services contribute to this impressive outcome? Early engagement between Morgan Sindall and Baxi Heating was instrumental in driving design efficiency from the outset, providing the opportunity to collaborate on the most appropriate total commercial heating and hot water solution that wouldmeet all requirements. With 244 luxury bedrooms in total across the two hotels, and a restaurant and bar in each, the demand for hot water in the building is understandably high. Hot water usage in hotel buildings is often characterised by extremely high peaks followed by longer periods of low demand. For example, large numbers of guests taking a shower first thing in the morning will usually be followed by very little need for hot water throughout the day. A second peak will then occur in the evening – either due to guests taking baths, or to end of service in the hotel restaurant and the cleaning down period for the kitchens. Direct-fired condensing gas water heaters are an effective solution to meeting the sudden peaks as they can deliver large volumes of water in a short time to satisfy demand. A key benefit of this approach is that it reduces energy loss between peak periods as the system will only use energy when hot water is required. Two AndrewsWater Heaters SUPAflo EVO SF64 direct-fired condensing water heaters, were selected as the best solution to meet the project requirements. Designed specifically for high demand environments, these units can produce a continuous supply of hot water at a superior recovery rate of 4,900 litres an hour. Slough’s new dual-branded hotel development has been designed to score high on comfort and low on environmental impact. Neville Small , Key Accounts Director at Baxi Heating, looks at the clever combination of renewable and high-efficiency heating and hot water technologies that is contributing to its environmental success Slough’s double-decker hotel sets bar for best practice VERTICAL FOCUS Hotels & Universities