ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS Improving the energy
efficiency of everyday items Former apprentice candidate Syed Ahmed has a new business venture to bring to the table
dries and in terms of energy costs – just one pence will pay for an average of 50 uses. Claiming to be the greenest,
Syed Ahmed, director of SAVortex
Syed Ahmed reached episode 10 in the second series of The Apprentice back in 2006 before Sir Alan Sugar pointed his famous finger and said those formidable words, but Syed’s flashes of genius were well documented on the show. And, since appearing on the popular television series, Syed has spent the last five years establishing SAVortex – a UK-based technology firm focused on designing, manufacturing and supplying more energy efficient versions of everyday items.
T
he humble hand-dryer is the first product to receive an eco re-design as part of
the SAVortex eco revolution. The Vortex 550 hand-dryer is no ordinary dryer. The result of four and a half years development, it has been tested to a million hand
The Vortex 550 has a drying time of just 10 – 15 seconds.
most effective and energy efficient hand dryer in the marketplace today, the Vortex 550 seems perfectly placed to answer the needs of the specifier in a world where there is an increasingly heavy burden to choose eco-friendly products, as the whole industry moves towards a sustainable agenda. The traditional hand-dryer is renowned for being frustratingly inefficient in its energy usage – however, the Vortex 550 uses patented technology to consign such frustrations to the past, as Syed explains. “SAVortex is all about
pioneering and innovating – we aim to touch, move and inspire,” Syed enthuses. “The technology traditionally used in hand-dryers is seriously outdated. Our concept involves completely reinventing and reengineering the system. The result is an unrivalled user experience, accompanied by a dramatic reduction in cost, energy consumption and an increased life span compared to conventional technologies. “To achieve all of this, our
expert fluid dynamics engineers have developed a truly revolutionary drying technique,” Syed says. “The patented
“In our busiest restaurant we serve over 70,000 customers per month and it’s fair to say that our toilets & hand dryers get a lot of use, so I jumped at the chance of putting in a hand dryer that is quick at drying hands whilst saving me a lot of money over the year. I would highly recommend the Vortex.” Ahmed Khan, Franchisee for McDonalds
technology uses a compression process to generate the warm air used for drying. The air is then spun into a vortex, which ensures some of it is sucked back into the dryer. In turn, this allows a significant portion of the heat energy to be recycled, which maximises energy efficiency.” Thanks to its patented
technology the Vortex achieves operating cost savings of up to 95 percent compared to paper towels, and 94 percent compared to a conventional 2400w hand dryer.
THE CONCEPT BEHIND THE VORTEX “We knew there had to be a more energy efficient solution to the conventional hand-drying system, so I gathered together our team of technological masterminds and put a traditional hand dryer in the middle of the table,” Syed recounts. “We knew the heating element was the cause of significant energy consumption so we put that part under the microscope and came up with a completely new way of generating the required heat that allowed us to remove the heating element entirely. “The initial cost of the
product is higher, because the parts are more expensive to manufacture, but this outlay is richly rewarded. The Vortex 550 has a drying time of just 10 – 15 seconds, will last up to five times longer, costs less to maintain and significantly less to run annually as it requires vastly less energy than its competitors.“
20 | Architects Choice |
ArchitectNews.co.uk
UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE VORTEX No heating elements SAvortex engineers have developed a truly revolutionary eco-friendly technology without compromising on performance. Unlike other commercially available dryers, Vortex dryers remove the need for uneconomical and environmentally damaging heating elements. Regenerative heat recovery Conserving energy by recovering and reusing heat whilst drying; saving money, reducing impact on the environment and producing lowest heat emissions. Payback Customers replacing existing hand dryers can enjoy a payback period of six months to two years and against paper towels the payback can be as little as one to two months, depending on usage. Low carbon building SAVortex dryers produce the industry’s lowest heat emissions. This reduces not only electricity bills, but also decreases strain on air-conditioning, increasing over- all carbon efficiency. CO2 savings can easily be millions of kilograms over the life of the dryers. Hygiene Highly recyclable and vandal resistant high-pressure die cast aluminum casing is coated with an anti bacterial layer for Hygiene.
Over the coming months SAVortex plans to launch more products that utilise this unique technology, so watch this space.
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