Pluggable electrical installations offer considerable added value in Holiday Inn Eindhoven Airport hotel

The Flight Forum Business Park in Eindhoven now has a new hotel. The Holiday Inn Eindhoven Airport hotel opened its doors at the end of September 2019. The four-star hotel has 180 hotel rooms, a large foyer, a restaurant with bar and extensive meeting facilities. It was constructed in less than a year. To ensure a high construction pace, to limit the number of hands on the construction site and to reduce failure costs to a minimum, the electrical installations in the hotel rooms were designed to be 100% plug and play using Wieland pluggable electrical installations. From the 230V facilities to the wall sockets, (card) switches and lighting. 

The Holiday Inn Eindhoven Airport hotel was developed by Onis Vastgoed, designed by MIII Architects and built by BAN Bouw. Linthorst Techniek was responsible for the mechanical and electrical installations, which were all-electric. “In this project, BAN Bouw chose progressive concepts”, says Arjan Seine, Lead Engineer at Linthorst Techniek. “For example, the entire concrete structure was prefabricated and erected in just four months. To keep up with the fast pace of construction, and because the hotel rooms involved a lot of repetitive work, we opted for 100% pluggable technology. Instead of being integrated into the structural walls, all the technology is neatly and quickly concealed behind the bed, desk and other hotel room furniture.”

The Holiday Inn Eindhoven Airport hotel was Linthorst Techniek’s first acquaintance with Isolectra’s pluggable technology. “I was very curious about the products”, says Seine. “And especially the Wieland cords, which are very easy to process. Moreover, I am on great terms with account manager Frans van Loon, with whom I worked very closely in this project. From engineering to delivery and fitting.”

In addition to the pluggable products, the switchgear for the hotel rooms was also prefabricated and fitted with Wieland pluggable connections. This gave the electrical installers enormous advantages in terms of planning. For the pluggable switchgear, supplied by Technische Unie, Linthorst Techniek worked closely with Hateha. Isolectra also had regular contact with Hateha to ensure that uniform connectors were used in the pre-assembly process. 

Great cooperation 

“Based on Linthorst Techniek’s wishes and requirements and the functionalities per room, our consultant Quiryn van Vliet selected the right pluggable products for this project and made the corresponding design drawings”, says Frans van Loon. “We were not competing parties in this process; instead we were jointly seeking the most efficient solutions. In total, we developed and manufactured four pluggable boxes per room, in which all pluggable facilities are integrated.” Among other things, the main box contains the group circuit breaker and a number of magnetic and relay switches, he explains. For the card switches, for example. “There are three switch boxes in the rooms. Wieland cables are fitted between the main box and switch boxes and to all wall sockets, switches and lighting points. In such a way that the entire room could be based on pluggable electrical installation and switching.”

Trial setup

Before on-site fitting, all pluggable boxes for one hotel room were assembled and tested – including the cables – in a trial setup. “This way we ensured that the functionalities promised at the front end were actually present”, says Van Loon. “Additionally, this kept failure costs to a minimum.” In the design phase, all boxes and Wieland cords were given a unique code. “After the trial phase, we assembled the pluggable products into kits. The correct codes were then applied to the correct products, after which all products were delivered to wholesaler Technische Unie. The wholesaler combined our products with the pluggable products of third parties and packaged them per room, so that the electrical installers could easily and quickly connect the correct products to the right place on the job. All products are delivered just-in-time and in two stages: in a prebox for the shell phase and in a fitting box for the final connections.” 

During implementation, Isolectra was in regular contact with Linthorst Techniek’s engineering department and head of implementation to ensure a great start to pluggable fitting, to check the progress and to answer any possible questions. Seine: “We spent a little longer on the first rooms because our electrical installers had to explore the pluggable technology. But after that, it was just a matter of click-and-go. In this project, Isolectra has proven to be a reliable partner, who walks the talk and thinks in terms of solutions. I will certainly be recommending this supplier in subsequent projects.”

Read more about the project Holiday Inn Einhoven airport hotel.