Energy, like the mind, is a terrible thing to waste. 

After labor, energy  is the second-largest operating expense hoteliers incur, said William C. Fizer,  president and c.e.o. of Roanoke, Va.-based Lodging Technology Corp.  Fizer and Alan Gross, president of Blackwood, N.J.-based Energy I.Q. Systems,  said guestroom energy consumption typically accounts for 40 percent to 80  percent of a property’s total  energy costs, depending on several factors,  including: 
 

Several energy-management technology suppliers said their products help  hoteliers shave 35 percent or more off their heating and air conditioning bills,  with a two-year payoff and a 50 percent return on investment. Gross said the  savings can be as low as 15 percent for a limited-service hotel and as high as  70 percent for a full-service property. 

“In some cases, we’re able to create revenue for a hotel other than energy  savings,” Gross said. “We focus on guest comfort. If we can move a hotel’s  occupancy up just one [percentage] point, that also will yield a significant  amount of money.” 

Shopping for savings 

Saving money and improving the bottom line has long been a strategy embraced by  the business world, but Fizer said he remembers just when hotel operators began  to look at energy consumption in a new light. 

The time was the mid-70s, when the oil trade embargo had pushed energy costs to  new heights and capped consumption in many areas. But what many saw as a crisis,  Fizer saw as an opportunity. 

With hotel franchisee American Motor Inns at the time, Fizer had the job of  slashing energy costs. Fizer quickly found two tremendous energy-savings  opportunities: Most rented rooms were empty 60 percent of the time; and all of  the rooms unsold each night were empty 100 percent of the time— excluding  housekeeping visits. 

In 1979, Fizer helped develop what he said was the first infrared occupancy-  based sensor, which allowed hotel operators to initiate an automatic temperature  setback if the room is unoccupied. Called the PIR (Passive Infrared) 2000, the  system saved American Motor Inns’ millions of dollars. 

When Prime Hospitality Corp. bought American Motor Inns in the 1980s, some of  American Motor Inn’s patents and intellectual property rights were released to  Fizer, who then founded Lodging Technology. 

That was then; this is now. Today, Lodging Technology provides direct sales,  installation and servicing to hotels in the United States, Canada and the  Caribbean. The firm’s product line includes: 

• GEM System, which Fizer said reduces HVAC consumption 35 percent to 45  percent, while improving guest service and staff efficiency; 
• Guest In-Room Detector, which allows staff to know if a room is unoccupied, to  improve efficiencies and avoid embarrassing intrusions while guests are  sleeping, dressing or in the shower; 
• GuestFind Remote Occupancy Indicator, which extends the Guest In-Room Detector  feature to a map-like panel at the front desk, housekeeping, security, and/or  fire-control station(s) to provide real-time information on which rooms are  occupied. 
• GEM Stat digital thermostat; and 
• GEM Light, which automatically turns off lights in meeting rooms, offices,  maid closets, public restrooms, equipment rooms, hallways and other areas when  unoccupied. 

“At Lodging Technology, we believe that ‘Saving energy saves everything’—  including profits, while promoting a lodging property as an environmentally  responsible business,” Fizer said. 

Plethora of players 

The energy-management industry is taking off, with new products and players  hitting the market, offering hoteliers a wide array of alternatives and control.  Energy I.Q. offers its I.Q. Genius stand-alone energy-management system, a  patented infrared sensor; the I.Q. GeniusSTAT digital thermostat, and the I.Q.  Genius Designer Series, which Gross said “combines the beauty of the thermostat  with the brains of the sensor.” 

Miami-based Amerisafe has introduced its low-cost WattSaver energy-management  system, which company literature says provides a $13 average monthly savings per  guestroom and provides a return on investment just a few months after  installation. The system takes about 30 minutes to install, resulting in no  downtime. 

INNCOM International, based in Old Lyme, Conn., has been serving the guestroom  control  industry since 1986. The firm has systems installed or under contract  for 87,000 rooms worldwide.  INNCOM offers a wide range of products that are coupled to address energy 
management, central electronic lock controls, and guest interface controls. The  company’s systems can effectively control virtually every electronic or  electrical appliance found in a hotel room, including lights, HVAC, radio,  television, telephone and others. INNCOM’s family of energy-management wares  includes the E2000 PTAC Energy Saver and the IR6060 Touchscreen Console. 

Smart Systems International of Las Vegas has introduced a wireless energy-  management system that Vice President Thomas W. Kearin touts as “a product that  will revolutionize the industry.” 

Kearin said the Smart Systems Series 5000 thermostat is the only wireless,  occupancy-based unit that  automatically relaxes the HVAC when a guest leaves  and returns to a comfortable temperature in a fixed amount of time upon guest  arrival. The Smart Systems product offers a 40-percent reduction in HVAC  runtime, a guaranteed recovery time—meaning reduced guest complaints—and a  payback in 12 to 18 months with an average ROI of 75 percent forever, he said. 

Being wireless allows the Smart Systems unit to be easily installed above the  foot of the bed for a bird’s eye view of the room—continuing to sense and  monitor even when guests are sleeping and mostly covered up and still. The  systems also offer variable temperature setback in which microprocessors gauge  how hard the HVAC system is working, prohibiting the setback temperature to  drift above or below a point in which recovery would take more than five  minutes—unless the hotel operator wants to allow this. Recovery time can be  increased to say 10 or 15 minutes for economy hotels, Kearin said. 

Typically, requested room-temperature setbacks are 76 degrees Fahrenheit for the  summer and 65 degrees Fahrenheit for the winter, said Larry Gomez, president of  Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Senercomm, a division of Sulcus Hospitality  Technologies Corp., Greensburg, Pa. 

Sulcus’ Senercomm has several energy-management systems on the market, including  the: 

• SensorStat stand-alone energy-management system; 
• SensorStat DDC direct digital control thermostat; 
• new SensorStat DDC II, which combines all the functionality of its predecessor  with a sleek, high-tech design concealing the infrared sensor; 
• SensorStat 4000 Digital Comfort Control thermostat, which merges digital  control with passive infrared, occupancy-based HVAC setback technology; 
• innPULSE, which serves as an interactive, on-line communications network  linking electronic locks, safes, minibars, smoke detectors and energy-management  systems with  hotel managers through existing cable TV wiring; 
• Data Logger, which works with a stand-alone SensorStat to audit, record and  download real-time guestroom HVAC operational and efficiency information; and 
• PageLogic Wireless Controllers, which respond to commands sent from personal  computers or telephones via local or national paging services, providing on/off  control of connected devices. 

“These [energy-management] products are still very new to hotels,” Gomez said.  “Today, maybe just 20 percent of hotels worldwide have these  systems  installed,” he said. “I think significant potential exists. I think 50 [percent]  to 75 percent of the hotels of the future will be looking at high-end digital  in-room energy controls.”