Energy Efficiency Opportunities in Mexican Hotels

If you want to sell energy efficiency improvements to the hotel industry, you’d better make it look, smell and taste like lobby carpet.
--Dusty Rhode, Energy Manager for Westin Hotels in Seattle

Hotel guests won’t be denied the comforts and convenience they expect in their lodging. They want control over room temperatures, the ability to take limitless hot showers 24 hours a day, and to leave their rooms without worrying whether the lights are still on. They want round-the-clock room service and access to restaurants, business offices, conference rooms, stores, and spas. The primary focus of hotel owners and managers is to deliver those amenities.

Reducing energy costs while continuing to meet the diverse requirements of hotel customers can be challenging. But it is a challenge worth taking. Hotels consume enormous amounts of energy to provide a variety of customer services. In fact, the lodging industry the fourth most intensive user of energy in the U.S. commercial sector. In the United States and Mexico, energy costs in the lodging industry average nearly US$2 per square foot. The hotel industry spends about US$500 per room per year for fuel and electricity.

While these costs are not the biggest costs faced by hotel management, they are substantial. Reducing energy costs by just 10 percent in a typical 75-room hotel would add $3,750 (36,000 New Pesos) each year to the hotel’s bottom line. An easy start would be to use the old "20-80 rule," that is, focus on the 20% of equipment that uses 80% of the energy. In Mexican hotels, the largest energy consuming systems are cooling at 42 % and lighting at 36% while refrigeration, motors, elevators and laundry each consume between 5–7% of energy consumption.

Many energy-saving opportunities require little or no up-front investment. Proper maintenance and operation of existing equipment, and encouraging employees to turn off lights and other equipment when they are not needed, can save significant amounts of energy in itself. Leaky ducts, for example, are a serious but easily corrected problem -- proper sealing and insulation of air conditioning ducts could easily reduce losses by 20 percent. Other simple measures, like planting trees or installing awnings on the South side of buildings, can further reduce air conditioning requirements.

Additional savings can be made through investments in more efficient equipment and sensors and control systems to help hotel managers optimize their operations. The greatest energy savings opportunities are not always the most obvious. For example, in a typical chiller system, improved efficiency of the compressor offers less than one-fourth of the available savings. Nearly half of the available savings are likely to come from efficiency improvements in the air handling systems (e.g., more efficient fans and controls to permit variations in air volume).

With respect to lighting, special attention should be given to areas where lights are on 24 hours a day -- lobbies, hallways, common bathrooms, kitchens and laundry areas, and service areas. Of secondary importance are the actual guestrooms. As a general rule of thumb, magnetically-ballasted linear fluorescent fixtures should be converted to electronically-ballasted T-8’s, incandescent fixtures should be replaced with compact fluorescent lamps, exit signs should be converted to LED, and mercury lights (used outdoors) should be converted to metal halide or high pressure sodium. These measures will easily pay for themselves in one to two years.

Many other energy saving opportunities exist in refrigeration, the generation and distribution of steam and hot water, and electric motors. Replacing a faulty steam trap, for example, can pay for itself in just a few months. Refrigeration control systems frequently pay back in under a year, saving thousands of dollars through reduced utility demand charges. When replacing an old motor, hotel operators should consider purchasing a high-efficiency motor. It may not even cost more money up-front, since often a smaller high-efficiency motor can be used to do the same work as the larger lower efficiency motor.

Many people are not aware that the costs to energize equipment often far exceed the initial cost of the equipment. A standard efficiency 100-horse power motor, for example, will easily consume $10,000 more in energy over its life time than a high-efficiency motor – far greater than the difference in the initial cost. A typical incandescent light bulb, which costing only $0.50 or so to buy, will cost $6-10 to power over its life.

In sum, energy efficiency improvements can save hotels money without sacrificing customer comfort and convenience. To assist hotel operators in their efforts, the Alliance was invited by the AMHM to coordinate a series of articles on energy efficiency in the HM Magazine. Look for upcoming articles discussing energy-saving opportunities with: lighting, cooling and ventilation controls, controls and sensor, motors and drives, hot water and steam systems, and performance contracting.

For more information about the Alliance To Save Energy and the Energy Efficiency Industry Partnership (EEIP) please call Stephanie Campbell, Senior Program Manager at 202/530-2224 or fax 202/331-9588.

The Alliance to Save Energy is a nonprofit organization in Washington DC that has been leading educational seminars to identify energy-saving opportunities in Mexican industry, buildings, hospitals and hotels for three years. The Alliance collaborated with the Villahermosa and Cancun Hotel Association last March introducing 70 hotel energy managers to energy efficiency products, services, and practices from 15 energy efficiency companies.