The technology has been rarely employed but another example of it surfaced this past week at the just-opened, 267-room Ritz-Carlton Toronto. What I am referring to is deep water cooling. The hotel’s ability to tap into this technology all had to do with location—its proximity to Lake Ontario and having access to a program offered to downtown Toronto buildings by the City of Toronto and Enwave Energy Corp.
More than 200 feet below the surface of Lake Ontario, intake pipes draw cold water to a pumping station where, via heat exchangers, there is a transfer of energy between the icy cold lake water and Enwave’s closed chilled water supply loop. It is the coldness of the water, not the water itself, that is used to cool the downtown buildings. The Ritz-Carlton Toronto taps into the water supply loop but also has its own on-site exchangers and chilled water loops. The process used by the City of Toronto and Enwave also produces steam, which is distributed through pipes and heat exchangers into the hotel to supplement the heat pumps.
According to Enwave, the technology has many environmental benefits: the process results in a reduction of CFCs and HCFCs, which are harmful ozone-depleting refrigerants; thousands of tons of carbon dioxide are removed from the air; electricity consumption needed for heating and cooling is reduced by up to 90 percent; and the method also reduces noise, pollution and humidity that is generated by traditional air-conditioning elements such as chillers, fans and cooling towers.
A Better Fit for New Buildings
The deep lake water cooling approach is cost-effective when designed into new buildings because one need only purchase an exchanger system instead of a more expensive air-conditioning system. For existing buildings, the transition to deep water cooling is much more complex.
The Ritz-Carlton Toronto joins the InterContinental Bora Bora & Thalasso Spa in employing deep water cooling technology. That property in the South Pacific has a Sea Water Air-Conditioning System (SWAC). It includes a 7,874-foot pipe (the deepest ocean pipe in the world) that extends to a depth of 3,000 feet off the reef of Bora Bora. The pipe pumps ice cold sea water through a titanium heat exchanger, transferring the cold into the fresh water circuit that then powers the air-conditioning throughout the hotel. Like the system used by the Ritz-Carlton Toronto, SWAC has almost no impact on the environment, is quiet, produces no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gasses, and saves 90 percent of the electricity consumed by a conventional cooling system of similar capacity. This translates to a reduction of CO2 emissions that is the equivalent of approximately 2.5 million liters of fuel oil imports per year to French Polynesia.
While of course not viable for most hotel construction projects, those developers considering resorts or hotels adjacent to bodies of water with deep water access should at least explore the idea of deep water cooling. If you are familiar with any other hotel projects using this type of technology, I would love to learn about them. I can be reached at (440) 243-2055 or by e-mail at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
Green Lodging News Adds USBedBugs.com as Directory Partner
Green Lodging News welcomes USBedBugs.com as a Green Product & Service Directory partner. The company offers a growing assortment of pesticide-free bed bug protection and prevention products. Solutions include the following: mattress encasements; monitors, traps and barriers; dissolvable laundry bags; the PackTite portable heating unit, used to heat treat non-washable items in an infested guestroom; mattress disposal bags; dry vapor steam cleaners; luggage encasements; bed bug spray; sofa/couch encasements; and bed bug books and information guides. For more information, e-mail info@usbedbugs.com, call (888) 587-2332, or go to www.usbedbugs.com.
See You in Portland, Oregon?
I will be attending and exhibiting at the Green Meeting Industry Council’s Sustainable Meetings Conference in Portland, Oregon from February 20 to 23. The event will take place at the Portland Doubletree Hotel. To register for the conference, go to www.sustainablemeetingsconference.com.
Advertising Opportunities
Green Lodging News is accepting reservations for advertising spots in 2011. Several new slots have opened up on the Green Lodging News website—two skyscraper ad spots on the right hand side of the site, the home page bottom banner ad spot, and the Featured Product ad spot in the weekly newsletter and in the lower center area of the home page. Be sure to contact me as soon as possible at (440) 243-2055, or by e-mail at editor@greenlodgingnews.com if you are interested in these ad spots. There are also many Green Supplier Spotlight dates available, and other spots on the website and in the weekly e-newsletter. The 2011 media kit is available by request or by clicking here. Thank you to all of those companies that consistently support Green Lodging News.
Green Lodging News Blog & Twitter
Be sure to bookmark the Green Lodging News Blog in your browser. More importantly, participate with your comments. Green Lodging News is also now on Twitter. To follow my postings, go to http://twitter.com/greenlodging. Be sure to add Green Lodging News to those tweets that you follow. Green Lodging News now has 688 Twitter followers.
As always, I can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
