For the hotel sector one of the biggest headaches in terms of operating expenses will always be the conditioning of indoor air, so we wanted to bring the opinion of experts in the field to present some recommendations.By: Santiago Jaramillo H.
In the latest edition of the magazine ACR Latin America (www.acrlatinoamerica.com), a publication specialized in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector in the region, Alfredo Sotolongo, president of Protec, Inc., states that hotel chains have been concerned in recent months with designing new hotels and / or remodeling existing buildings, but the most interesting and hopeful thing about the matter is that they are taking energy consumption very seriously, which is largely represented in the use of air conditioning systems.
"Almost 80% of the energy consumed by a hotel is distributed between indoor air conditioning, hot water, lighting and ventilation. The percentage that corresponds to each of these factors depends largely on the climatic conditions of the place where the hotel is located. All these consumptions are controllable to a certain extent with the exception of refrigeration, because it is vital for the preservation of food and many hotel owners prefer not to include it, "says Sotolongo.
Definitely, a well-designed and executed air conditioning system must be prone to energy savings, have efficient equipment, use alternative energy sources and have a correct operation, through temperatures, fluid distribution speed, utilization times and optimal control systems. On the other hand, the application of adequate thermal insulation and the improvement in the airtightness of buildings is essential, since this implies smaller equipment with lower energy consumption throughout the useful life.
The projects must be carried out according to the characteristic of the installation and structured in a coherent way, making an energy balance in which an economic analysis is included to define the most convenient solution. The capacity of the equipment must be divided in order to adapt the production of air conditioning to the heat demand of the system in the magnitude and moment that occurs, in order to achieve the power regime closest to the maximum performance.
Meanwhile, another initiative applauded by the president of Protec, Inc. is that "many hotel owners and their consulting engineers have decided to use variable volume in the central air conditioning plant that includes the coolers, primary cold water pumps, condensation pumps and fans of the cooling towers. In this way, they operate the entire plant based on the consumption of Kw.-hour per ton of cooling and maintain the minimum desired consumption by modulating all the components of said plant through frequency inverters using the algorithm of the Hartman Loop system of the Armstrong company. This has shown that when all the components of the plant are modulated in unison, consumption of up to 0.30 Kw.-hour per ton can be achieved at partial loads," he emphasizes.
In addition, the columnist stresses that by adding the intelligent building control system (BMS), energy recovery from the exhaust air and preventive maintenance recommended by manufacturers, the additional investment is recovered in approximately two years. Once the additional investment is recouped, the annual savings are much greater than the interest banks would pay today on that additional investment.
Trends and designs
Miguel Ángel Hernández, from the company Johnson Controls, for his part, explains that there are very clear trends that the consumer is looking for in air conditioning products and they are focused on essential points, energy efficiency and integration.
*Energy Efficiency: It is by far the biggest consumer concern globally, given the growing conditions in energy costs.
*Integration: The consumer now seeks to have a network that allows the manipulation of the different systems of the building, security, air conditioning, ambient music, link between the different appliances. This to achieve the implementation of control strategies and more effective energy saving.
Regarding the development of new products, the representative of this company assures that "the mission of the company revolves around providing safer, more comfortable and sustainable spaces to users. Hence, we prioritize the introduction to the market of increasingly efficient products that consume less valuable resources of our planet, not only during their manufacturing process but also during their useful life. Also the integration and communication with other systems of the building that really improve the user experience in the use of the products, in these aspects there is always an emphasis on the safety of the product towards the consumer and our employees and intermediaries during the manufacture and handling of it. "
Meanwhile, there are numerous technologies and means of application to reduce energy consumption, so the particular characteristics of each case must be analyzed, in order to apply design concepts in the selection of systems, which allow to obtain lower expenses in the operation and maintenance phase, always attending to the following basic parameters:
* Decreased energy needs
* Use of free energy
* Increased energy efficiency
* Correct system regulation
A wake-up call
On the other hand, Alfredo Sotolongo points out that "unfortunately some hotel chains have not paid much attention to the control of guest rooms. A very high percentage of energy waste due to air conditioning and lighting are the guest rooms, as some leave the room and leave all the lights on and the thermostat at temperatures outside the comfort range making the air conditioning system work longer than necessary. "
The main argument that Sotolongo makes for this is that hotel chains do not want to affect the comfort of the guest. However, there are systems, which without affecting the comfort of the guest, help to avoid wasting energy in the rooms.
Another argument presented by the president of Protec, Inc., is that at the time of remodeling, the issue of the wiring of the components to read temperature and detect movement in the rooms can lead to losses, because during the installation, the use of the room is not possible affecting the profitability of the hotel. For this, according to Sotolongo, there are some companies that have developed wireless communication systems specially designed for application in remodeling with excellent results minimizing the time in which the room is not available and with returns on investment of two to three years maximum.
It also asserts that with the rampant and constant increase in the cost of energy and the new systems that are being developed, very soon the time of return on additional investment to implement such systems will be greatly reduced.
For this reason, Sotolonga recommends that engineers who design air conditioning systems for hotels do not stop analyzing the possibility of using controls to avoid wasting energy in the rooms, because in this way they can justify the additional investment to the owner.
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