ORLANDO, FLA.—The Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, a 1,400+ room property in Orlando, Fla., announced its energy reduction program that is creating a 5.8 percent utility savings a year. With warm Florida temperatures year round, The Gaylord Palms established sustainability goals to conserve energy and keep guests comfortable. Honeywell’s INNCOM network and energy management solutions were incorporated in the goals to fully monitor and optimize the property.
Gaylord Palms Director of Engineering Bill Goeller said, “Our company has an overall energy conservation strategy that includes environmental systems like guestroom temperature optimization. Honeywell is big part of this. In the past eight months, Honeywell’s INNCOM solutions helped us realized an overall property utility reduction of 10.4 percent. This includes a 5.8 percent guestroom energy savings that equates to over $400,000 a year.”
In mid-2015 the property implemented Honeywell’s fully-integrated wireless INNCOM Deep Mesh network and e528/PIR Smart Digital Thermostats. The units have motion detectors and light sensors to efficiently monitor and optimize each guestroom’s environment and energy use. The thermostats are linked with its centrally-controlled INNcontrol 3 system. INNcontrol 3 is a powerful, client-server application that communicates with the Gaylord Palms’ INNCOM intelligent room devices in real-time to monitor and control each room’s environment. The system also collects guestroom temperature and occupancy data, providing valuable reports and notifications that enable property management to oversee and optimize guest comfort and reduce Gaylord Palms’ utility expenses.
System Uses Redundant Edge Routers
Honeywell’s INNCOM Deep Mesh network uses redundant edge routers throughout the nine-story resort for maximum reliability. The wireless network is robust enough to interface with and support other hotel server-based systems such as property management system (PMS), building automation and electronic lock systems.
“The property selected Honeywell because we wanted the INNCOM integrated, single-platform wireless network to support our INNCOM guestroom environmental controls and our Kaba electronic lock system,” Goeller said. “The value and savings from employing a single network are clear. The system collects guestroom data in its central INNControl 3 console and reports on a wide variety of important environmental factors that enable us to optimize and reduce overall energy use and improve how we maintain the equipment. The Deep Mesh system also communicates with guestroom locks to notify us if guest doors are left open. The result is a more secure property.”
The Honeywell INNCOM e528/PIR Smart Digital Thermostats’ sensors monitor rooms to inform the system when a room is occupied. “Data shows that rooms are only occupied three to four hours a day,” Goeller said. “We reduce energy consumption by controlling temperatures when a room is vacant. We configure a ‘set-back’ temperature that conserves energy when the room is not in use. This guarantees rooms will stay at the most economical setting until a guest occupies the room. The thermostats have a light sensor that informs us if lights are left on in a vacant room. Simply turning off unnecessary lights further contributes to our energy savings.”
The central INNcontrol 3 console displays rooms as red or green so the property’s team can quickly identify when rooms are outside of optimum temperature and investigate. “Guest comfort is very important to us,” Goeller said. “We monitor energy use and occupancy using Honeywell’s INNCOM tools to create the most comfortable guestroom environment while also reducing energy by more than 10 percent. The property has further benefit savings because it supports only one wireless network for multiple systems. This reduces maintenance costs and maximizes staff productivity and system efficiency.”
Go to Gaylord Hotels and INNCOM.
