GERMANTOWN, MD.—Telkonet, Inc., a leading provider of innovative, centrally managed solutions for integrated energy management, networking, building automation and proactive support services, announced that it has won an energy management contract with Cornerstone Hotel Management as part of Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy incentive program. Cornerstone Hotel Management will initially install the in-room, occupancy-driven Telkonet SmartEnergy (TSE) energy management system at three of its properties to lower utility bills by eliminating unnecessary heating and cooling of unoccupied guest rooms.
Launched in March 2008, Telkonet and Focus on Energy provide eligible hospitality customers in Wisconsin with discounted energy management products and installation on a low cost, lease-to-own basis, as part of a drive to save millions of kilowatt-hours per year across the state. The program is one of the country’s strongest energy efficiency incentives to help manage rising HVAC costs and implement energy-related best practices in the hospitality sector. Hotel owners benefit from special promotional pricing of $2.57/room per month over a three-year term to cover the cost of the TSE system, and typically achieve a rapid return on investment within just 18 months.
“We are truly excited about Telkonet SmartEnergy and believe that our HVAC cost savings will be substantial,” says Brian Brandstetter, president of Cornerstone Hotel Management. “Telkonet’s system takes the guesswork out of managing our PTAC equipment, automatically adjusting a room’s temperature when it is unoccupied—compared to previously, when we were relying on housekeeping’s ability to remember to set the heating and cooling at a specified temperature when rooms were vacant.
Potential for Savings in Other Areas
“We also envisage realizing energy savings in our public areas, such as in our bars, where the thermostat was never turned down when closed,” Brandstetter adds. “TSE’s applications are numerous, such as eliminating problems with frozen pipes that break once thawed and avoiding air conditioner freeze-ups from running continuously in the summer. The networked version of TSE will also be invaluable in the future, with its ability to adjust temperatures online.”
Cornerstone Hotel Management, which operates seven hotels in Wisconsin, is initially installing TSE at three properties: the Comfort Inn and Suites in DeForest, the Holiday Inn Express in DeForest and the Best Western in Sparta. TSE will control a variety of manufacturers’ PTAC units, with energy management occupancy sensors and PTAC controllers installed to manage each room’s heating and cooling.
TSE incorporates a technology that enables optimum energy savings to be achieved without any compromise to guest comfort, using Telkonet’s patented Recovery Time technology (RT). RT works quite differently from a typical fixed-setback system, in which the temperature is set to one fixed amount in all rooms. With TSE, each room’s temperature is adjusted based on many factors, calculating how far it can drift from the occupant’s preferred temperature setting, while ensuring the temperature will return to the occupant’s setting within minutes upon their return.
Go to Telkonet and Focus on Energy.
