Looking for a present? The gift that's also a good deed!
The energy concept at the Valsana Hotel in Arosa is highly efficient, holistic and autonomous. The entire output of the hotel's heating system is generated from its own waste heat together with geothermal probes. Dissipated heat from wastewater, commercial refrigeration and the server room is fed into a large latent storage tank with about 830 cubic meters of water: this system is also known as «ice storage».
«The building work we've undertaken achieves the maximum possible reduction of our CO2 emissions, and we guarantee that the whole process from check-in to check-out is carbon-neutral.»
400 meters of pipework is installed in this ice store. A mixture of water and glycol, connected to the heat pump circuit, flows through these pipes. In case of high energy demand from the heat pump, the water around the pipes can freeze to form a block of ice. To thaw the ice again, waste heat from all the heat recovery systems is fed to the water reservoir. If the available waste heat exceeds the energy withdrawn, the ice melts and the water can heat up to 15°C. The water can then be cooled again and the heat can be utilised.
Using waste water for heating
A large part of the thermal energy is used to heat water – in the wellness area and elsewhere. Thanks to the hotel's energy concept, the ice store can use over 50% of the dissipated heat from the wastewater (approx. 23°C). A heat exchanger removes energy from the wastewater before it is fed into the drainage pipe network. This benefits not only the hotel but also the supermarket next door, which uses about 150,000 kWh of waste heat from this system each year.
All guests stay carbon-neutral
Because of its autonomous energy concept, the property generates no emissions and only very little CO2. However, the hotel's sustainability concept goes even further than this. "At the Valsana, everything we do and every action we take is geared to sustainability," Hotel Director Claudio Laager points out. "That applies not only to our foresighted energy concept, but also to daily purchasing of our products and even guests' arrivals and stays in our hotel. The efforts we make every day, and the building work we've undertaken, achieve the maximum possible reduction of our CO2 emissions, and we guarantee that the whole process from check-in to check-out is carbon-neutral." Compensation for unavoidable CO2 emissions is used to finance climate protection projects in Switzerland and Rwanda". So from check-in all the way through to check-out, the Valsana Hotel offers its guests a unique holiday experience that they can enjoy with a clear conscience.