The Savoy Hotel, London
As part of the ambitious £100 million restoration project, new water softening equipment from Kinetico has been installed at the recently re-opened Savoy in London, one of the world’s great, iconic hotels. The Kinetico system will eliminate problems with hard water, helping to maintain the efficiency and performance of building services plant whilst making sure that surfaces and sanitary ware in this exclusive hotel retain their luxurious sparkle for as long as possible.
The Savoy, a Fairmont Managed Hotel, closed in December 2007 for an extensive refurbishment program which encompassed the entire building from its impressive entrance and the American Bar to the world-renowned Savoy Grill and the 268 guest rooms and suites. In the project, a total of thirty eight new River Suites and guestrooms have been added, alongside nine Personality suites and a stately 325-square meter, 2-bedroom Royal Suite which is truly fit for a King. The resulting expansion in water services, coupled with the Savoy’s location in a hard water area, demanded an increase in the water softening system at the hotel. Kinetico’s patented non-electric, automatic system proved the perfect choice.
Paul Daciuk, Construction Manager at the project’s mechanical and electrical services contractor, SPIE Matthew Hall, tells the story. “Softened water prevents the scale build up you normally get on sanitary and brassware in hard water areas and stops soap scum appearing on the laundry. By inhibiting the build up of scale in pipe work and on heat exchangers and elements within the hotel’s hot water plant, it also keeps the services running as efficiently as possible”. Installed in the basement of the Savoy, the two new Kinetico CP 213 OD water softeners add to the eight existing units at the hotel which have been operating
successfully there for a number of years.
The Kinetico water softeners work by removing the calcium and magnesium ions in the hard water through an ion exchange process. The twin tank design ensures that softened water can be provided continuously to meet the needs of the hotel; while one tank is activated the other is being cleaned with a salt solution to remove the calcium and magnesium ions. A fully automatic control valve measures the soft water used and only regenerates on demand, allowing water usage to vary each day without causing
unnecessary waste. At the Savoy, there is now sufficient softening capacity to continue water flows even if two of the ten units are out of service for maintenance at any time.
The restoration has introduced environmental technologies and efficiencies wherever possible. For example, a combined heat and power (CHP) plant will reduce the hotel’s reliance on the national grid by approximately 50 per cent and an innovative system reclaims the heat from all kitchen appliances to preheat domestic hot water. Cooking oil from the hotel restaurants will be recycled and turned into biodiesel, while waste management systems will recycle up to 90 percent of waste from the hotel. The Kinetico equipment fits with this innovative, low carbon approach since the technology uses the kinetic energy of water to operate, eliminating the electricity costs needed to run alternative softening technologies. This also brings installation benefits since no power cabling is required.
“The Savoy is one of the most prestigious hotels in the world and we are delighted to be part of this huge renovation project” comments John Bisset, Operations and Technical Service Director, Kinetico. “Kinetico prides itself on the performance and reliability of its product. Our ongoing relationship with the Savoy demonstrates that we are continuing to deliver on these high standards in the grandest of locations.”