Archive for category Energy
isrighthere launches energy visualisation service
isrighthere, an innovative provider of bespoke IP based triple play services, today launched a new addition to its Cloud TV service, IS Media, that allows building residents and hotel guests to see exactly how much energy they’re using and how this compares with the building’s average.
IS Energy Vision forms a part of the UK’s most cost effective and comprehensive Over The Top TV (OTTTV) media system that was launched last month and can measure all utilities including fresh and grey water, gas and electricity. Using the system can result in initial savings of up to 15% in energy usage per resident or guest.
“One of the biggest green challenges for both apartment owners and hotel guests is visualising the energy that they’re using and being able to see this in an easily understandable way,” said Teresa Robbins, Director at isrighthere. “By displaying this type of information clearly on the TV screen, guests and residents will be able to make a concrete effort to reduce the amount of energy they use.”
For apartment owners, saving energy has its obvious advantages, but for hotel guests and residents, the ability to compare energy usage across the building average will help encourage individuals to be more conscientious and switch off lights and plugs when they’re not needed. Hotel management will reap the benefits as they will be able to monitor and manage their traditionally large energy bills.
In a recently completed green-build project using IS Energy Vision, savings of 57% in carbon emitted (CO2) have been shown compared to an equivalent standard new build home.
IS Energy Vision displays the energy usage information through the TV screen along with other services through the centralised cloud based architecture of isrighthere’s IS Media solution. This removes the need for hotel and estate owners to purchase and install expensive and energy hungry TV head end equipment on site, making it vastly cheaper and more flexible than alternative solutions. This visibility, together with reduced energy consumption, makes it a viable option for many hotel and managed estate owners.
IS Energy Vision is available now and is already being used by a number of the UK’s leading hotels and property developers.
Helping residents and hotel guests to reduce their CO2 footprint
HOTEL ACHIEVES MASSIVE CUT IN AIR CONDITIONING ENERGY COSTS
Mitsubishi Electric has released details of a six-month trial which demonstrates that its specialist Melcotel™ controller has delivered a 40 per cent energy reduction for the air conditioning at Premier Inn’s new city centre site in Leicester.
The hotel has been monitored since April, with its 135 bedrooms using an average consumption of 17.20kWh a day throughout the 19 storey building. Now, with the Melcotel controller in place, the system is consuming just 7-8kWh of energy per day, – an average 40% reduction in energy consumption for the whole system.
“We believe we can also increase this further and will continue to monitor the hotel over the coming winter,” explained Mitsubishi Electric’s controls expert, Sebastien Desmottes,
The Melcotel controller works with both key card and non-key card systems to ensure that air conditioning is not working needlessly when rooms are empty or if guests decide to open a window without switching off the heating or cooling.
Specifically designed for the mass-market hotel sector, the controller is an evolution in Mitsubishi Electric’s PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and can be retrofitted as well as being ideal for new builds.
At the start of the trial, the air conditioning was set to turn off automatically at 1am, but this still allowed guests to override the system.
Mitsubishi Electric then introduced a G50 controller which meant that the air conditioning could be programmed to automatically shut off five times a day at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 4pm, and 8pm, when there was a distinct possibility of the rooms being empty and the potential for energy to be wasted.
This lead to some reduction in energy use, but now with Melcotel, the system automatically responds to the requirements of each individual room, resetting the air conditioning to a predetermined setting and constantly monitoring the temperatures of any unoccupied rooms.
The air conditioning in these empty rooms will only come on to keep the temperature within a set range, which has the double advantage of conserving energy whilst ensuring that the room reaches the desired temperature quicker when a guest enters the room.
“We developed Melcotel after working with hotel owners who wanted a more cost effective method of maintaining low energy consumption whilst still allowing hotel guests to control the temperature in their own room,” explained Desmottes.
Temperatures are recorded by a sensor within the controller and windows can also be connected to the system so that when they are opened, the air conditioning switches off to conserve energy.
Melcotel works with Mitsubishi Electric’s advanced City Multi systems and one unit is able to control up to 250 indoor units. Wireless technology allows the Melcotel to be accessed remotely when used in conjunction with a Mini M2M offering further control and monitoring facilities to hoteliers.
For further information call 01707 282880, or email: air.conditioning@meuk.mee.com.