Case Study:
Reduce energy consumption and raise awareness.
Hotel reduces night usage by 30%
Benefits:
A 4-star, 200 bed hotel contacted ResourceKraft to reduce energy consumption, costs, raise awareness amongst staff as well as promote itself as an energy friendly business.
ResourceKraft installed their Advisor software, hired an Energy Engineer to monitor the Hotel’s consumption, came up with future investment plans and ran campaign to raise energy awareness.
The Energy Consultant performed an audit of the hotel and suggested areas that could potentially reduce costs such as the chillers and the pool pump (Heat star).
The main aims of this project were to reduce energy consumption, costs and carbon footprint, endorse message to guests and staff that the hotel is an environmentally friendly business and focus on sustainable energy.
Challanges:
The main goal of the project was to consistently conserve energy spend and reduce energy costs in non-production hours within the PM3 Cleanroom 2. For example the Cleanroom plant became operational in Q4 of 2014. It is approximately 4,000ft² and was on average consuming 48kwh over the weekend with no occupancy.
The Cleanroom is a controlled environment and therefore pressure, temperature and humidity had to remain within specifications (there can be no effect on particulate levels within the room). All testing was carried out by an external vendor and were as follows: BMS controls were upgraded to regulate all changes within the Cleanroom. Also a heat pump was switched off for the summer months as it would consume 21kwh running at full load.
- Night staff received New Energy SOP’s
- Kitchen staff received New Morning SOP's, as kitchen was an area of high usage
- Employees implement Heatstar (Pool Pump) turn off for a few hours every night
- Chiller turn off a few hours every night
Benefits:
These simple changes have reduced The hotels energy consumption night usage by 30%:
Chiller Reduction: After analysing Advisor, it was found that the chillers were one of the highest consumers in the hotel. It was decided that the running hours of these would be reduced while maintaining guest satisfaction. This change has saved the hotel 224 euro weekly.
Chiller reduction has saved €1,800 monthly. See chart below for a comparison of chiller usage in June vs. August.
Heatstar timer has saved €140 monthly.
The hotel have reduced their night usage from 60% to 30%. Therefore this has reduced energy consumption by 57750 kwh, and saved €611 a month. Vending machine timers save €175 annually.
Report card:
- Gained competitive insights on how to reduce energy consumption
- Ability to monitor cost and consumption, as well as daily custom reports sent to management
- Raised awareness amongst staff
- Capital future investment analysation helps to decide which investment will benefit the hotel the most
- Reduced night usage by 30%
Future Project: Pool Cover
Studies have shown that pool covers can reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. It would require an extra member of staff on duty at open and close. This factor would have to be taken into consideration when deciding on this investment. The cost of an extra member of staff may outweigh the payback.
The pool in is also quite a complex shape so initial installation may pose a problem. An automatic cover would eliminate the need for an extra staff member. This will increase the initial investment, and will have a more complicated installation process. The payback time will also increase for an automatic cover.
Payback Time: 1 year (Manual), 1.5 years (Automatic)
