Hotel Operator Lowers Electricity Costs

Challenge:

A hotel operator wants a cost effective way of shutting off air conditioners in vacant rooms to reduce energy costs.

Solution:

The hotel operator hired a cabling contractor to install Akida’s innGAUGE system with low voltage ECU’s. The contractor had determined that the hotel’s air conditioners could provide the 24V power for the low voltage ECU’s and the AC units also had a relay that could be controlled by a low voltage switch such as a remote thermostat to turn them on and off. Akida’s low voltage ECU utilizes this relay to control the AC unit. The ECU was installed inside the wiring cabinet under the AC unit so nothing was visible to the room occupant. No further cabling was necessary since they used wireless communication. The innGAUGE control server was installed near the computer network hardware so that it could be connected to the hub with an Ethernet cable. The hotel’s multi storey and multi building layout did not create a problem for the system communications since it utilizes a mesh network. Each room’s AC system was labeled in the system set up and configuration. The front-desk staff, were given system access privileges to turn electrical loads on and off and the hotel operator developed procedures instructing the staff on how to use the system to turn AC systems off when the room is vacant.

Results:

Since no cabling or electrical wiring was necessary the system installation was inexpensive. The hotel operator was able to deploy the system 15 rooms at a time to spread out his capital expenditure and realize energy cost savings to help offset the system investment costs. Once he discovered that data could be exported from the system in a universally accepted format, he started tracking detailed costs in the business cost accounting system and also developed spreadsheets for his own analysis. The system’s power factor data allowed the business to fine tune their maintenance operations to keep their equipment from incurring unnecessary energy costs.

Conclusion:

The innGAUGE system is perfect for smaller hotel operations, which cannot justify complex, expensive, automated systems. The system delivers a high ROI and gives hotel management the ability to turn AC systems in their rooms on or off based on their operating criteria.