Energy Savings

Griswold, Geoff. Energy Savings: Why These Tips Work . Hospitality Upgrade Magazine, Fall 2007 Issue. (Non-Internet Source, got this from the actual magazine)

In recent months the White House has taken focus on several environmental issues, mainly energy conservation, claiming the first step in decreasing our dependency on foreign oil is becoming more energy efficient. This article illustrates some helpful tips that hotel managers should take into consideration when deciding on ways to cut down on the energy bills and conserving valuable resources for the hotel. The two main bills in a hotel are the heating and lighting, with air conditioning being rather significant beause of the enourmous energy required to circulate the air with fans. New advancements in light bulbs mean you can use fluorescent bulbs without taking away from the ambience of the room. Incandescent lights, although very pleasing to the eye, require more energy to light because they rely on heat to make the bulb glow warm and bright. Regular maitenance should be in the forefront when trying to make you HVAC system work as efficiently as possible, this inlcludes changing the air filters on monthly or even bi-monthly basis if needed, clogged filters cause restricted air flow and causes the system to overwork itself. The article suggests using digital thermostats that have a much more precise temperature setting and monitoring system far more accurate than analog thermostats, enabling the temperatures in the building to be kept more accurate and not go up and down wildly. Make sure that the coils around the compressor for the air conditioning unit is kept free of dust. Because of hte massive air intake the compressor requires to cool the air, dust can accumulate fast and cause the compressor to overheat, overwork, etc, and even maybe break down, causing much more additional bills for the hotel.

I think it's funny that articles like this even need to be printed in a supposedly leading authority in the Hospitality industry. It seems almost like a no-brainer that hotel managers should already know these very common and sensible tips for maintaining their HVAC and lighting systems in their hotel. YOu don't even need to have any technical or mechanical skills to know how to make sure that filters and coils are dust free. It is also pretty obvious that you need to make sure you are using enerygy efficient light bulbs, not too bright, and not incandescent bulbs that eat up energy costs. THe most sensible thing to consider when dealing with cutting down the costly heating/cooling and lighting bills is to make sure you have a good HVAC system installed. If it is old or outdated, the best thing to do is invest in something new and worthwhile. It doesn't make any sense to waste money reparing a broken machine, band-aiding it for nickels and dimes until it finally does break down. Have good equipment, have lights on timers, and have good thermostats, these are all common sense topics that any good manager should already know.