Energy Consumptions in Hotel Industry:

According to the EnergyStar, Most of the hotels in the United States spend $2,196 per available room on each year on energy. It represents 6% of their operating costs. This rate can change depending on the area, region and continent. Based on the statistical data of hospitality industry, a typical high-end guestroom consumes 50kW to 70kW of energy per day and luxury room consumes more than 80kW of energy per day. These consumption rates can change according to the size of hotel and location. Many vacation travellers and business travellers are travelling from one place to another place around the world. This results in the expansion of hotel services and increases the expectation of travellers regarding quality of service, comfort level and environmental friendliness of the hotel infrastructure. Energy consumption is an essential factor for environmental friendliness. The hotel operators are needed to notice their energy consumptions to reduce significant expense on energy and to achieve efficient energy usage.

Return in Investment Through Energy Savings

Guest comfort is the top most priority for the hotel operators which impact their profitability through the repeated visits of guests. The guests and staffs are indirectly accountable for a facilities overall utility bill. On the other hand, industry data shows that guests will be outside of their rooms about 60 to 65 percent of time during the day. In that period, guest comfort parameters are not adjusted which causes the wastage of considerable amount of energy. These energy wastages are minimized by implementing energy efficiency measures. A 10% reduction in energy consumption would have the same financial effect as increasing average daily room rate (ADR) by $0.62 in limited service hotels and by $1.32 in full service hotels. The implementation of energy efficiency measures in hotels with high energy consumptions will lead to the potential energy savings of 5-30 percent annually which is a great asset for hotel's return on investment.

Energy Efficiency Challenges in Hotel Industry

The electricity is the primary source of energy used in the hotel industry. The electricity bill is a huge part of expense in the operational costs of hotel buildings. The substantial energy is consumed in providing comfort and services to guests for enhancing customer experience and the energy efficiency of different end uses in hotel industry is frequently low due to the high energy consumption of various devices which contributes to the emissions of carbon footprint into the environment. As a result, the environmental impacts are greater than the similar sized buildings. This is caused by the excessive consumption of energy.

A typical hotel building architecture is classified into three zones:

• The Guestroom area – It is individual or private space area for guests. The guests mostly leave their rooms during the daytime to travel around some places either to tour or for business purposes. This produces some variations in the usage of energy loads which associated with guestroom utilization.
• The Public area – They are lobby, reception hall, meeting rooms, bars, restaurants and swimming pools which are utilized by many occupants in the hotel. This area consumes the most part of the electricity due the high internal loads.
• The Service area – This area includes offices, kitchens, store rooms, laundry area, machine rooms and other technical sections which is energy intensive areas requiring advanced air handling such as heating, ventilation and cooling.

MINION – An Energy Efficiency Solution

Minion is the World’s Smallest Energy Auditing Device which is smaller than average man’s palm size. The Actual size of the device is 39 x 49 Millimetres which can fit anywhere. Our underlying features are:

• PLUG & PLAY – On 3 steps, a layman can install the minion with our instruction manual & video. The Plug & Play solution doesn’t need any electrician or energy professionals for the installations.
• COMPATIBLE – Minion is compatible in all Electricity Standards across the globe hence it becomes a Global Product. Minion is also compatible with all kind of Communication networks such as Wi-Fi, 3G/4G, where users can select the communication network at their convenience.
• FLEXIBILITY – No Plugins or Software needed, just login with a browser & start tracking. Online Firmware Up gradation, Inbuilt last 30 days of memory are added flexibility which makes Minion stands out in the Market.

Energy Savings at Alleppey Palm Beach Resort

MinionLabs has been deployed Minion in Alleppey Palm Beach Resort which is a 3-star facility resort located in the seashores of Alappuzha in Kerala in order to find the electricity consumption patterns and their hidden electricity costs. After the deployment, Minion collects the electricity consumption data for over a range of months to identify the pattern of electricity consumptions in the resort and delivers insights about electricity usage of each and every appliance. Based on the historical data of electricity consumption of appliances, Minion identifies electronic chimney, stoves and heaters in kitchen area are consuming electricity in abnormal pattern which results in high electricity costs. This insight makes resort operator to take action on reducing the electricity consumptions and costs.

The insights from minion provide the classification of energy efficient areas and energy inefficient areas in the resort. In energy efficient areas, Minion helps to maintain the energy efficiency for a long period of time by delivering insights of individual appliance wise electricity consumption pattern and in the energy inefficient areas, minion provide recommendations to reduce the unwanted electricity usage. These insights from minion enable the Kalathil lake resort to reduce their electricity bills form 5% to 20% annually.