Hotels seeking to improve their energy profiles seem to fall into several broad categories:

• Low- to mid-rise facilities, often one-design hotels, with limited, if any, banquet and function space.

• Mid- to high-rise facilities with moderate- to full-service food and function space.

• High-rise facilities or facilities in older buildings with extensive food and function facilities.

Each presents unique challenges to energy conservation and requires slightly different skills when it comes to energy auditing. This article will convey some of the author's experiences in energy conservation and auditing in these various types of facilities.

TYPICAL SCENARIOS

Occasionally, “value engineering” or 11th-hour equipment substitution at these (or any) facilities brings with it unanticipated operational or energy consequences. These facilities also can be plagued by equipment “glitches” that originated during design. More often than one might expect, installation or punch-list issues remain unresolved from early in a facility's history, contributing to excessive energy use. One indicator is premature equipment failure. Although this often is considered an equipment-reliability or quality issue, it also can stem from inadequate commissioning, an ineffective punch list, or a design that requires equipment to work outside of its performance envelope.

The previously mentioned anomalies often go unnoticed because there is no abrupt increase in energy use to provide a signal to the energy manager. In these cases, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's and U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Energy Star program can benchmark a facility against other similar facilities to give an idea of how it “stacks up.” A computer building simulation also may offer guidance as to what the facility's expected energy use should be.

A lean, overworked staff, while seemingly good for the bottom line, often does not allow facility personnel sufficient time to perform equipment checks or routine inspections. They do not even have enough time in front of a building-management-system (BMS) screen to look for leaking valves or out-of-calibration sensors or actuators before they are off to solve the next crisis. Extended operations in this mode often lead to a feeling of burnout or helplessness among operators, which can lead to a just-keep-it-running mentality.

These facilities sometimes also are plagued by a dearth of adequate, up-to-date building plans. Complicating factors, such as mechanical or control systems that have been modified over the years in an effort to conserve energy, sometimes are found. Because these systems or modifications are not described adequately to building operating personnel, they are abandoned over time or function at a much reduced level of performance. Some of these facilities also feature equipment at or beyond the end of its economic life. Occasionally, the equipment is replaced with least-cost alternatives that prevent the building systems from functioning to their design intent. In a large facility, the major mechanical equipment may be so widely distributed that staff members do not pass each piece of equipment on a daily basis and, therefore, do not see the equipment unless they receive a temperature complaint or a component fails.

Older upscale hotels face all of the previously mentioned problems with the addition of complications caused by space redesign or ad-hoc renovations of function spaces and restaurants with little regard for how those zones operate within the context of the whole facility. Many of these types of facilities also are equipped with operable windows. Wall panels may have access holes cut in them or access doors that were not installed/secured correctly. These act in concert with elevator shafts and machine rooms to allow significant losses because of wind, piston, or stack effect.

Often, as a control system is upgraded to accommodate newer equipment and renovated areas, the graphic user interface is not upgraded or is neglected. This robs operating personnel of the ability to use the control system as a troubleshooting tool. Greater utilization of BMS control screens would allow facility maintenance personnel to more quickly diagnose temperature, noise, or equipment-operation complaints. Additionally, most of the previously mentioned facilities have a lack of communication that exists among engineering personnel, banquet staff, and housekeeping staff that prevents unity in efforts to reduce energy use.

FINDING A SOLUTION

Prerequisites

Prerequisite 1

The facility manager must be aware of the facility's energy use. It is not uncommon to work with clients who have not seen their energy bill or are not aware of their monthly demand (kilowatts) or use (kilowatt-hours). Often, the bills are paid in a central office located elsewhere in the country. The first step is for the facility manager to at least see the bills to understand usage patterns and the rate structure.

Prerequisite 2

The personnel in charge should be able to commit several hours per week to improving energy conservation for a typical building/facility.

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