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Smart Hotel Energy Saving Devices: Expectations VS Reality

Smart Hotel Energy Saving Devices: Expectations VS Reality

There's no secret that energy usage is one of the highest operational costs within modern hotels; falling shortly behind labour costs. 

 

If you're a hotel owner or play a major role in hotel operations, you may be interested to know that an average 90% of hotel energy waste comes from unattended guest rooms.

 

With energy cost expected to rise 30% in 2022, are you aware of what solutions are available? And are you actually receiving what you've been promised when it comes to energy saving devices for your smart hotel? 

 

Table Of Contents:

Energy Control Box

Motion Detectors

Integrations With Hotel Door Locks 

Smart Hotel & Guest Room

Conclusion

 

Energy Control Box 

Are energy control boxes old but gold, or just generally outdated? For budget hotels this may be your cost affective solution, as something is better than nothing right? However, there's no guarantee your guests will treat this as an energy saving device within your smart hotel.

 

Here's two scenarios that explains why:

  1. Your hotel may issue 2 RFID key cards to a single guest room. When your guests leave the room, they may only take one card out. The other key card is left behind in the energy control box, powering an unattended guest room.

  2. Your hotel may issue 1 RFID key card to a single guest room. However, your guest wants to leave the room but doesn't want to switch off the HVAC appliances. They decide to leave any standard loyalty card in the energy control box, once again powering an unattended guest room.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, for all the good that energy control boxes can do for your smart hotel, they are also very easily outsmarted.

 

Hotel Guest Room Control

Motion Detectors  

Pretty much a self explanatory energy saving device for your smart hotel right? What else needs to be said? No motion detected, energy consumption adjusted. However, some organisations claim unrealistic figures on stand alone energy saving devices, with no way to measure an offline system.

 

"If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."

- Peter Drucker -

 

So be careful what you read. I found one organisation to claim that 1 output from their standalone motion sensor can save 25% energy whilst having 2 outputs saves 50%. Now the maths sounds great, but common sense will tell you that the equation isn't correct.  

 

So how can organisations make these energy saving claims? Well, as we've learnt, a standalone offline system cant be measured, so who's to say otherwise?

 

What I can tell you is, you wont get the full benefits of energy saving devices from your smart hotel on an standalone offline motion sensor by itself. This is because you wont be able to:

  • Monitor room status time frames. 

  • Adjust temperatures and lighting from your property management system.

Lighting and Tempreture Control

 

Integration's with hotel door locks

This is when energy saving devices for your smart hotel meets guest luxury to create a hybrid solution. By introducing a sensor that's incorporated with guest room door locks, trigger events can be enabled for hotel energy saving devices to prep guest room climates upon arrival.  

 

But why would you want to invest in integration if motion detectors seem to perform the same energy saving task? Well n theory, its an upgrade of the motion detector to determine more accurately the room status and adjust the room climate accordingly.

 

Granted, the door lock wont be able to determine on its own whether the room has been entered or excited. But with the integration of door locks, motion detectors and guest room management systems (GRM), your smart hotel has the making of a energy saving monopoly; and here's why:    

  • Guest enters or leaves the room, activating door lock sensor and timer.

  • The timer ends and activates motion detection.

  • Motion detected, and GRM activates room climate.

  • Or no detection, and appliances turn off or remain inactive.  

Simply, an offline motion detector hasn't got the ability of a timer to turn appliances on and off every time the room has been entered or excited.

 

Think of it this way, a guest enters the room only to drop off their luggage, a standalone motion detectors now activates the appliances, and they remain active for the set time; wasting energy in an unoccupied room.

 

The integrated hybrid system will determine that the room has been entered. However, as there is no movement detected post timer, the appliances are not activated and energy is no longer wasted.  

 Magic Eye Door Lock Integrated With Guest Room Management

 

Caution! When considering energy saving integrations for your smart hotel, integration faults may occur, even if hotel door lock sellers approve of guest room management suppliers. There's no fault guarantee simply because the hardware and software are made by two different companies.   

 

So how can you avoid integration faults for a seamless integration?

 

The best way is to find a manufacturer of both door lock and guest room management systems. However, this is so rare that only one organisation manufactures and supplies both solutions under the same company, step up to the plate Messersmitt Systems GmbH.

 

Smart Hotel & Guest Room 

With the modern day smart hotel, expectations are becoming a reality. Innovation is taking hotel energy saving devices to the next level. here's some examples that are currently used in the most luxurious hotels across Dubai and Europe: 

 

lets start with an additional feature of the motion detector. If I said motion detection can also detect minimal movement, what would this suggest your guest might be doing?

 

If you said sleeping, you would be correct. So how can your hotel save energy when the room is occupied and your guest is sleeping?

 

Well, the motion detector triggers your guest room management system to adjust the room climate to a comfortable sleep setting. This not only saves energy, but also re-energises your guest with a undisturbed sleep, no one wants to wake up in the middle of the night because the rooms too stuffy. 

 

So what about natural energy? Could guest room management be used to store natural heat? After all, it is free energy! All you need to do is capture it using curtain control. Allow me to walk you through the process:

  • Sun begins to heat guest rooms. 

  • Energy saving device tracks the time of day. 

  • Guest room reaches its natural heat potential. 

  • Guest room management closes curtains in unoccupied rooms.

  • Natural heat is captured Ready for guest check in. 

 

Curtain Control In Hotel Guest Room

 

Now, lets really put the smart in smart hotel, with an app based hotel energy saving device. 

 

With mobile check in becoming ever more popular, the potential of what can be done with hotel energy saving devices grows. Guest can alert your hotel of their estimated time of arrival, which prepares the guest room climate in advance. 

 

This can remain a theme throughout your guest visits to your hotel. Smart hotel technology has found a way to track when your guest mobile device is approaching the perimeter your hotel; through Wi-Fi as an example. Once again triggering your hotel energy saving devices to set the climate of your guests room; allowing for your guests stay to be comfortable, luxury and profitable. 

 

Conclusion

So with smart hotel technology advances, hotel energy saving devices for your smart hotel are becoming ever more modern and imaginative. Expectations are slowly becoming reality with shift in the energy market.

 

My advice to all modern hotels out there is to put something in place, but do your research and consult with industry professionals first! Technology will help you gain a high return on investment and profit per room when it comes to hotel energy saving devices, but you also want you expectations to be managed. 

 

So if your hotel isn't at that top technology level yet, then old school hotel energy saving devices are still great and affective, but be careful what you're promised and don't believe everything your read.  

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