Philips LED Lights made a major impact at the InterContinental Hotels Group properties Dubai Festival City.
Can sustainable engineering techniques be effectively applied in the hospitality sector while maintaining a high level of service? Hotelier investigates the methods being used by the region’s hotels and their potential benefits
Providing the comfort, cleanliness and quality expected of the region’s top hotels is the primary role of the sector’s facilities management and engineering teams. Finding ways to do this more effectively and efficiently to meet growing cost and legislative pressures has become their biggest challenge.
Many are now looking towards sustainable engineering products and practices to ensure that comfortable temperatures, lighting and sufficient clean water are supplied, while the hotel design and service policies are maintained and waste is reduced. As awareness of sustainability grows and technology improves, so too has the number of products and services which are available locally. As a result, an increasingly diverse range of solutions are being used in Middle East hotels, from water saving devices to efficient lighting and recycling techniques.
“Almost every hotel, old and new, is now implementing sustainable management in their day-to-day operation,” says Park Inn Muscat chief engineer Sushant Pawar.
The costs and complexity of the solutions chosen as part of this process vary greatly as do the resulting effects on operating costs.
The areas that have been most regularly targeted by facilities managers (FMs) to date are of water and electricity use. The reason for this is because they are among the simplest to apply and provide large savings almost immediately. “Lighting and low flow water devices are the low hanging fruit in this area, with less complexity for installing and solutions are readily available on the market,” explains Tom Lord, hotel manager, InterContinental Residence Suites Dubai Festival City.
“Water faucet devices have been here for a long time and we see a lot of them being implemented, giving controlled water savings,” adds Ashroff Shakoor, director of engineering at Dubai-based Park Hyatt and Hyatt Regency Hotels. Such devices include water flow restrictors, water aerators, motion sensors and taps with timed flow to prevent them being left on when not in use.
Building management systems (BMS); variable speed drive (VSD) systems for pumps to enable them to run on partial loads according to demand; grey water recycling systems; and the installation of energy saving modules (ESM) for chillers are other commonly applied technologies, reports Rezidor Hotel Group director of engineering Nadir Celiloglu. “Why? Because they contribute substantially to energy and water savings,” Celiloglu stresses.
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Lighting the way
Lighting has become a key focus for FMs, with any savings made giving a two-fold reduction in electricity use: from the lamp use itself and the lower air conditioning load that is needed by using lower wattage, hence cooler, bulbs. “Low energy light bulbs are being used in most areas of the hotels, as are motion sensors,” says Celiloglu.
Light emitting diode (LED) lamps are one of the latest technologies to be introduced to the market and one of the most efficient in terms of energy use and long-term operational costs. “LED technology is the most innovative lighting solution in the market; it allows huge savings on energy as well as maintenance costs due to its long lifetime, giving LEDs a very low total cost of ownership,” stresses Lord.
Crucially, the technology also enables compliance with individual hotel design intentions. “[LED technology] also comes with the possibilities to create different ambiences and scenes,” Lord explains.
The relatively high capital cost of LEDs restricted their uptake initially, however the lifetime benefits that they offer, including significantly reduced maintenance costs, are now being recognised and their application is increasing.
“It’s only recently that LED lamps were introduced to the market and they are expensive at around AED 75-80 (US $20-22) compared to AED 7-8 ($2) for a standard lamp,” reports Shakoor. “The ROI is 10 months and they are being offered with a three-year warranty, so it’s beneficial, plus the price is dropping, they were AED 110 ($30) [until recently],” Shakoor adds.
In addition to the above measures, some hotels are now taking the move to sustainability a step further, applying more complex systems and ensuring it is an integral part of the hotel design. “Deployment of solar energy is being increasingly recommended,” observes Celiloglu, “and green technology and products have gradually become an increasing consideration in building design,” he adds.
The Rezidor Hotel Group has implemented a number of initiatives across its properties. These include the deployment of solar-driven carts instead of electrically-driven ones; the installation of aerators — water flow restrictors —- on all faucets and showerheads in the guest bathrooms; the introduction of motion sensors for lighting control; the replacement of incandescent lights with low energy light bulbs; the use of variable air volume (VAV) air conditioning systems; and the provision of building management systems (BMS) to centrally control the operation of technical systems for the hotel. Other steps taken are contributing to an overall sustainability policy.
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