TECHNOLOGY : ENERGY MANAGEMENT
strategic considerations particularly within the European Union . In Ireland , the Kildare Hotel , Spa & Country Club ( The K Club ) is one example of how a comprehensive approach can pay in the end . Set on 550 acres ( 223 hectares ), the 69-unit resort began to scrutinize operations for energy savings due to the recession . Under the watch of Mojtaba Akbari , head of IT , the K Club found it could enjoy electricity and maintenance savings by switching to a remote , cloud-based server model , which reduced the hotel ’ s on-site hardware from 22 servers to just two .
“ We started off with technology because that was the easiest portion , in terms of making changes . The difficult part was to persuade the managers and shareholders to invest in the servers , but about four years later , it feels that we did the right thing ,” Akbari says . “ The savings were about 90 % over five years in terms of maintenance and power alone , which is great .”
The K Club uses a hybrid cloud , composed of both private and public clouds , for its systems and network connectivity . Hybrid cloud architecture requires both on-premises and off-site resources , but doing away with a room full of hot , power-draining servers has made a huge difference .
Beyond the cloud , the hotel ’ s conservation efforts are ongoing , according to Akbari . The hotel is monitoring water usage and considering a switch to low-flow showerheads . The property may also soon harness water as an energy source , tapping the Liffey River to generate electricity .
“ Instead of focusing on cutting costs , we ’ re targeting being more environmentally friendly ,” Akbari adds . “ That in itself will provide us with many opportunities to save money .”
Automation advantage Over the course of his nearly two decades at the 1,663-room Atlanta Marriott Marquis , Head of Engineering Bob Rawlings has been directly involved with the hotel ’ s seemingly perpetual energy upgrades . To date the hotel has recycled 37 million gallons of
“ WE STARTED OFF WITH TECHNOLOGY because that was the easiest portion , in terms of making changes . The difficult part was to persuade the managers and shareholders to invest in the servers , but about four years later , it feels that we did the right thing ,”
– Mojtaba Akbari , the K Club , Ireland ,
on switching to a cloud-based server model
laundry water , reduced lighting usage by 28 % to 10 million kWh annually and cut natural gas and electricity consumption by 27 % and 30 %, respectively — and a whole new round of energy-smart improvements were just installed .
“ The biggest thing in a place this big is behavioral stuff ,” Rawlings says . “ The only way around it is to automate .”
The hotel recently installed door switches and motion-sensing thermostats in all guestrooms , which tie wirelessly into the hotel ’ s central energy management system ( EMS ). Motion detectors and dimming ballasts were also installed in stairwells , and 926 motion detectors were installed in backof-the-house areas . More specialized vacancy sensors were also installed in the Marquis ’ 48 meeting rooms .
“ We have an interface that allows the [ EMS ] to talk to the lighting dimmer system ,” Rawlings explains . “ When the schedule ’ s complete and the meeting is over , then it will turn the lights off if there ’ s no movement .”
The hotel also made recent improvements to its back-of-house infrastructure , including heat and smoke sensors installed in six kitchen hood systems , which control the speed of the exhaust fans and air handler for the hotel bake shop , room-service prep , cafeteria and main kitchen exhaust . The property also replaced 187 steam traps , which return condensate to the boiler ; the new traps have no moving parts — using a venture nozzle to separate condensate from steam — for an 11 % consumption savings .
“ We ’ re looking at , for the meeting room occupancy sensors , probably an annual savings of US $ 60,000 to US $ 70,000 ; for the hood system , probably US $ 30,000 ; back-of-the-house and stairwell occupancy sensors , probably about US $ 100,000 . There ’ s nothing to sneeze at here ,” Rawlings says . “ The guestroom occupancy sensors are about a US $ 700,000 project , and it ’ s going to pay back in a little over two years .”
This all comes on top of past efforts , which have included replacing the hotel ’ s former 400-horsepower cooling tower with an 80-horsepower tower with variable-speed drives ; installing a laundry-wastewater reclamation system , which Rawlings says recycles about 85 % of the wastewater ; and using compact fluorescent lighting in the guestrooms . Rawlings is currently eyeing LED lighting for certain areas , and sees further improvements down the road .
“ Basically what I ’ m going to have is the ability to look at every guestroom fan cooling unit and see when it is beginning to not operate as well . Therefore I can catch it before a guest does , which will be huge ,” Rawlings adds . “ As we find other things we will roll them into our systems , too , so we can see them in real time .”
Spreading the message While handling a single property ’ s
56 HOTELS June 2012 www . hotelsmag . com