NATIONAL REPORT—Believe it or not, guestroom energy management systems have been around for almost 30 years now. According to Lodging Technology, it originated infrared occupancy sensor-based hotel energy conservation in 1980. It is only in the past few years, however, that wireless versions of the many hard-wired systems on the market have become available. Some vendors are just rolling out their wireless offerings. No two wireless systems are exactly the same but they all rely on thermostats, motion and/or passive infrared (PIR) occupancy sensors, along with door switches and transceivers/controllers to power down heating and cooling when guests have...

With all the “green” talk going around about reducing electrical consumption, one major energy user is rarely discussed—hotel PTAC/VTAC units. A dirty PTAC must often work twice as hard and consume twice the electricity to reach the desired room temperatures of demanding guests. Simply cleaning the filter on a regular basis is not enough. PTACs should be removed and thoroughly cleaned a minimum of once per year. Removing the dirt will increase efficiency significantly, and improve air quality immediately. Hoteliers that put an HVAC deep-cleaning plan into action for the first time can realize huge savings on their electric...

BOSTON—EnOcean announced a fundamental commitment to protect the environment by becoming an Energy Star partner. EnOcean, through its voluntary partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Program, is helping to sustain green initiatives by fitting energy-inefficient buildings with self-powered wireless controls. EnOcean’s energy harvesting and wireless technologies simplify the installation of the energy-stingy wireless controls (sensors, switches, gateways and actuators) by replacing wires and batteries with self-powered wireless links. “The Energy Star partnership clearly communicates to architects, contractors and building owners that EnOcean is committed to protecting the environment and strengthening the economy,” said Jim O’Callaghan, president of...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Green Lodging News has added a Heat Transfer Products case study to its Vendor Case Studies section. The case study focuses on the Riviera Beach Resort on Cape Cod in Bass River, Mass. It explains how the resort replaced two old boilers with a highly efficient Phoenix Gas Fired Water Heater with 119 gallons of built-in storage, and a separate 119-gallon storage tank. The sealed combustion, direct-vent Phoenix delivers domestic hot water—and even space heating when connected to an air handler—at a combustion efficiency of 96 percent. Overnight, the resort went from two boilers and a million BTUs, to...

ROANOKE, VA.—The Hampton Inn-Old Town/King Street in Alexandria, Va., has installed Lodging Technology’s GEM System Energy Management and Guest-In-Room Detector in all 80 guestrooms, including five one-bedroom suites. GEM System, an infrared sensor-based guestroom energy management system, reduces room energy costs 35 percent to 45 percent by maintaining “management-preferred” temperatures in rooms while guests are out. GEM System works with any HVAC system, of any voltage, with any type of thermostat or control. Guest-In-Room Detector, a feature of GEM System, allows authorized staff members to determine physically occupied rooms from the hallway without knocking and disturbing guests. GEM System is...

NATIONAL REPORT—Historically, owners of lodging establishments throughout the United States and Canada have ignored the sun as a source of potential energy to heat water. Whether because of concerns about cost or misperceptions about how solar thermal technology works, solar hot water heating systems are rare. That is all beginning to change, however, thanks to improving technologies, tax incentives and rebates, creative financing, better education about solar thermal heating, an increase in the number of developers interested in building to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, and an increase in the number of qualified vendors that sell...

BERKELEY, CA—Research conducted at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that operating buildings more energy efficiently could have benefits for the health of occupants and, surprisingly, also for their comfort. The researchers, Mark Mendell and Anna Mirer of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, analyzed data collected from 95 air-conditioned office buildings across the United States. The data had been gathered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a study called BASE (Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation). The study produced data about indoor environmental conditions and the health of occupants in a representative set of U.S....

GERMANTOWN, MD.—Telkonet, Inc., a clean technology company that develops and manufactures proprietary energy management and SmartGrid networking technology, announced a major hospitality contract win for its advanced Networked Telkonet SmartEnergy (NTSE) solution, equipping more than 3,500 guestrooms with networked, occupancy-based energy management. The contract forms a central part of Chartres Lodging Group’s program to remodel and upgrade energy technologies in the recently acquired high-end convention center complexes, the Sheraton Dallas and the Sheraton Denver (formerly the Adam’s Mark Dallas and Adam’s Mark Denver). NTSE was selected after a review of three competitive systems, winning for its comprehensive central control capabilities,...

ATLANTA—Onity announces the launch of Wireless innPULSE, an innovative new radio-frequency (RF) network that wirelessly connects SensorStat guestroom thermostats to Onity’s innPULSE energy management software. This enables hotel properties to network Onity’s proprietary in-room SensorStat products together to form a comprehensive energy management system (EMS) without the need for hardwiring from each guestroom thermostat. Since their introduction in 2003, Onity’s Wireless SensorStat EMS products have been successfully installed in thousands of guestrooms at properties around the world. Onity, one of the world’s leading providers of electronic locking solutions, is part of UTC Fire & Security, a unit of United...

ORMOND BEACH, FLA.—Built in 1956, The Maverick Resort is demonstrating its ongoing commitment to developing a high-performance sustainable building with the installation of a commercial hot water solar system on its roof. The system is currently under construction by Zon Solar Inc. “It’s becoming a trend to do green buildings,” said Keith Rasnake, general manager of The Maverick Resort. “We’re finally realizing that these structures have an enormous impact on our environment.” The green ethic—energy-efficient, water-sparing buildings full of features that stress the natural over the chemical, the recycled over the new and the renewable over the finite—is quickly becoming mainstream....