The Florian Hotel

Water management that fits into the sustainability story

The Florian Hotel is the only independent hotel around Schiphol, and this is not the only way in which the hotel distinguishes itself. Owner Tony Chu has a clear vision for the hotel, with sustainability playing an important role. Holland Water contributes to this with the UV-C system (HW Uvidis®) that disinfects all incoming water with UV-C light. As a result, the water temperature can be lowered over time.

During the construction of the new hotel, a new water installation was installed for all 150 rooms, the restaurant, and the bar. “Of course, we have to prevent legionella, and that was not easy during the pandemic. Due to the low occupancy in the hotel, we spent a huge amount of time flushing all the taps in the empty hotel rooms. At an event, I came into contact with Holland Water, which presented its water management solutions there. This was a solution to our problem and fit nicely into the sustainability story, because the temperature of the boiler can be lowered after approval from the municipality and the flushing frequency for unused taps can be reduced,” says Chu.

More about HW Uvidis®

HW Uvidis as gatekeeper

The first discussions with Holland Water took place at the end of 2022, and the water installation was inventoried. In July 2023, the UV-C system (HW Uvidis®) was installed, which disinfects the incoming water with UV-C light. If the hotel remains free of legionella for a year, it may switch to a lower flushing frequency and the temperature of the boilers can be reduced. This means savings in energy, water consumption, and fewer labor hours for flushing.

Quick action with a cleaning 

Chu: “The installation went as desired, but afterwards we encountered a number of problems. For example, we were put on a new water main by the water company, and work in the street caused a power outage, which meant the gatekeeper system could no longer do its job. At one point, unfortunately, a legionella exceedance was detected, but Holland Water was able to respond quickly by cleaning the pipes. So it will take a little longer before we can take the sustainability step, but in the end, this will really save on labor and costs.”

More about cleaning and disinfection

From 60 to 50 degrees: a difference of dozens of tons of CO2

Lowering the hot water temperature has a significant impact on energy consumption, and therefore also on CO2 emissions. For example, for a hotel, the annual savings can quickly add up to several dozen megawatt hours of energy and dozens of tons of CO2. To give an idea: on average, every Dutch person is responsible for 16 tons and 10 tons of CO2 per year, respectively.