ENERGY SAVINGS WITH VDA TECHNOLOGY

Technology has rapidly increased its capacity to provide new opportunities for hotels to reach their guest and streamline their operations from back of the house to the front desk. Even more importantly, with the rising awareness of environmental changes and the ever-growing eco tourism market segment becoming a steadfast proclivity in consumer decision-making, the demand for hotel technology to approach a new direction in energy savings is becoming even more necessary and seen as an integral part of project development.

In 2001, hotels worldwide have used a total of 97.5 TWh of energy within the scope of all facilities in their properties. The average use of energy ranges from 305-330 kW/m2/yr. The bulk of energy used goes towards heating and cooling of rooms, lighting for the entire property and in the guest rooms, hot water usage and other guest related energy consumption in the rooms, food preparation in the hotel kitchens and other facilities such as the pool and the gym. In general the largest single end-user of energy in hotels is space-conditioning, heating-ventilation-air conditioning (HVAC) in a hotel.

There is a large opportunity for hotels to save energy with the transcending evolution of hospitality technology. VDA is a driving force in developing energy management technologies to address the opportunity for hotels to save energy in the area of HVAC. With Micromaster, hotel teams are able to micro-manage from a central control system. Room climate and environment settings are precisely controlled within hotel-defined energy consumption models, which can be easily modified on a global or individual room basis as required. This enables the ability to keep the room temperatures at optimal levels before the guest arrives and when they check in. The advantage to managing the energy usage in the guest room even if it has not been sold reinforces the investment of furniture and fixtures in the guest rooms from deterioration and in effect, prolonging the product life cycle by several years. This is especially advantageous when considering countries that have very hot environments.

Beyond the guest room resources, during the guest stay, hotel teams can know when the guest is in the room or not. Typically travellers like to keep their air conditioners at comfortable levels even when they are not in the rooms. It is a nice feeling to walk into a cool room after walking around the hot city for several hours’ sight seeing. Unfortunately it is quite a waste of energy from an environmental point of view and has a negative impact on the hotel energy bill. With Micromaster technology, your guest can still have a nice cool room whille optimizing temprature controls centrally.

Nigel Robson, Group Chief Executive of The Royal Yacht, Jersey 
stated that, “One of the things we particularly liked about Micromaster is that it is very easy to use. Everything is centrally managed via one computer and our front-of-house staff have had no problems operating it thanks to the simple touch-screen function. But we also really liked the VDA team. Not only did they offer us great design flexibility but they gave us confidence that they could deliver what they were promising. Since deploying Micromaster we have seen a huge reduction in our energy use and therefore in savings on our energy bills.”

With Micromaster, hotels will be able to cap the maximum and minimum amount of temperature in the guest room. When the guest is not in the guest rooms, the hotel team can set the temperature at a more economical setting which can be a few degrees above or below the guest setting to shave energy waste in the guest room. When the guest returns to the hotel room, front desk staffs can remote into the conditioning settings to return it to the guest preference.

With VDA Micromaster technology and integration with VITRUM lighting switches and controllers, hotels will have direct management and control of the energy being used in their properties. For more information of VDA Energy Management solutions and how this cutting edge technology can save hotels cost, please visit the following website: http://vdagroup.com/

If you would like to speak to a VDA representative, feel free to email: info@ap.vdagroup.com