Zero-energy hotel profits from earth, wind, and fire

The new Breeze Hotel will open in a few weeks in Amsterdam. The hotel is the first building to apply ‘Earth, wind, and fire natural air conditioning’, and uses natural processes to ventilate the near 200 rooms of the hotel. The concept was developed by Ben Bronsema, and presented within his PhD research in 2013. The performance of the concept will be monitored for a longer period to further enhance the system.

The Earth, wind, and fire concept (EWF) applies the use sunlight, wind, and falling water to ventilate and cool down the rooms, and to supply warm water. Natural processes are used to ventilate the rooms: air is moved through falling water drops and through sunlight, warming up air in a vertical column. Two ‘solar chimneys’, constructed out of glass and with a backside of black solar panels, harvest the necessary warmth to move the air upwards. A heat exchanger transfers the warmth into a water circuit. A central heat pump further heats the water, to heat the rooms individually and to supply hot water for the showers. Learn more about EWF in this article or read the full dissertation here. 

The Breeze Hotel in Amsterdam is initiated by Amstelius/Dutch Green Company in collaboration with Borghese Real Estate, and Bronconsult, the firm of Ben Bronsema. Read more about the hotel here.