JS Air Curtains Stands Proud at Novotel
In response to an unusual air curtain requirement from Accor UK & Ireland, JS Air Curtains has custom-designed an independently supported Rotowind air curtain to stand above the glass revolving entrance door at the Novotel London Paddington Hotel near Paddington Station.
Accor, who own and operate Novotel, just one of its market leading hotel brands, needed to install air curtains to balance the heating requirement within the main foyer at Novotel London Paddington, which sits in an exposed position with strong winds around tall buildings in the vicinity. As Accor specifically required a horizontal air curtain, but feared the glass façade would not to be strong enough to support the weight of a standard product, technical services manager Didier Louis approached JS Air Curtains for advice. After reviewing the options, JS recommended a bespoke solution based on its 1.5m Rotowind air curtain for revolving doors, specially modified as a free standing unit supported by ‘goalpost’ legs.
Having previewed JS bespoke air curtains at various premises, Accor was confident that the company’s design would blend in with the Novotel London Paddington’s unique façade. Didier Louis commented: “Our challenge was to find a product that could provide a high level of heat requirement but not be intrusive to the hotel modern interior design. It needed to match the building structure with a fixing solution above a glass top revolving door. JS Air Curtains came back with the answer that ticked all the boxes.”
JS Air Curtain’s Rotowind range was designed to meet the specific conditions of a revolving door, which can act as a low-speed fan, forcing a mass of cold air into a room with each rotation. By combining a Rotowind with a revolving door system, this cold air is prevented from entering.
The Rotowind’s curved air outlets can be tailored to any size of revolving door to provide a tight seal across an entrance. There are three standard mounting options. The air curtain fan unit can be placed above the revolving door with its air outlets blowing down inside the circular door chamber, it can be mounted above with its outlets blowing around the room-side of the door or it can be mounted in a suspended ceiling with its air outlets blowing around the room-side of the door.
As the standard options weren’t suitable for the glass façade at Novotel London Paddington, JS Air Curtains worked with the client to produce a bespoke mounting solution. Legs fixed to the floor at the side of the entrance supported the air curtain independently of the glass revolving door. As well as bespoke mounting systems JS Air Curtains can also integrate services such as CCTV, motion detectors, smoke alarms and emergency lighting into an air curtain.
The Rotowind is made of aluminium profiles and zinc plated steel panels and nozzle, finished in structural epoxy-polyester white RAL 9016 as standard with other colours available on request. The low noise centrifugal double inlet fans are driven by an external rotor motor with built-in thermal protection and provide five speed selection.
