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, and rapid payback based on projected energy savings. The installations are being managed by Pacific Energy Services, an energy management and hotel renovation company with headquarters in San Diego, Calif., and authorized dealer of Telkonet products. Completion is scheduled for April 2009.
Pacific Energy Services installed a number of model rooms at three properties during the fall of 2008, for the NTSE’s competitive evaluation, giving the group’s hotel owners the opportunity to see what the different energy management systems looked like, how they worked and the type of control data they could deliver. Neither hotel was equipped with energy management systems, making it a key priority to select the best solution available. By eliminating any wasted heating and cooling of unoccupied rooms, the potential for achieving significant energy savings is enormous at two such large properties. The Sheraton Denver is the largest hotel in Colorado, with 130,000 square feet of meeting space, and recently hosted the Democratic National Convention.
The evaluation process highlighted the ease with which NTSE can be monitored and centrally managed, enabling property management to change any energy management parameter remotely and in real time. Telkonet’s solution gives the hotels centralized, demand-based control. Telkonet also provided quality savings and analysis reports, which provided comprehensive detail about projected energy savings. NTSE fits with the hotels’ strategic energy-saving goals and green property development objectives.
Aggressive Installation Timetable
“The next stage is to complete the aggressive installation timetable,” says Troy Hartmann, president of Pacific Energy Services, an authorized Telkonet dealer which sold the energy management contract to the hotels. “Pacific Energy is very pleased to have been selected in this extremely competitive process, thereby being part of the Chartres Lodging Group’s green strategy.”
NTSE is designed as a straightforward system to install, capable of handling a wide variety of different systems. The Sheraton Dallas has a fan-coil based system, whereas the Sheraton Denver has a hybrid fan-coil unit with a water-source heat pump. The project will kick off this month with the installation of more than 150 in-room thermostats.
A resilient, flexible and low-cost energy management platform, NTSE gives property owners and managers the tools to identify and implement energy savings. It provides total visibility and detailed data about a property’s HVAC system and energy consumption, together with real-time remote management capabilities. The platform utilizes wireless ZigBee IEE802.15.4 mesh technology to create a highly robust and reliable network, linking Telkonet’s Energy Management Occupancy Sensors and Thermostats into a seamless, site-wide solution that harnesses existing Internet/intranet infrastructures for rapid, retrofit installation, without the need for expensive back-haul wiring. It delivers a robust, instantly scalable, and self-healing networked energy management system, which delivers optimum energy savings without compromising occupant comfort.
Central to the operation of NTSE is the technology’s ability to control a room’s heating and cooling according to room occupancy, without compromising comfort when guests return to their rooms. This is achieved with Telkonet’s unique Recovery Time technology, which takes a number of environmental factors into account to calculate how far the temperature can drift from a guest’s preferred setting when they leave their room, while ensuring that temperature setting can be restored within minutes upon their return. Additionally, the system reduces the run time for heating, ventilation and cooling equipment, decreasing maintenance overhead and extending the equipment’s working life.
Go to Telkonet.
