HOTELS GREEN POLICY - Lighting Efficiency

By Annoymous on 9-2-2009 01:49 last edited

InterContinental Toronto Centre
The InterContinental Toronto Centre is a proud Green Leaf Eco-Rated member of the Audubon Green
Leaf Eco-Rating program for Hotels. InterContinental Toronto Centre has made excellent progress in
adopting industry best practices for energy efficiency, resource conservation and pollution prevention in
all areas of its operations and management by scoring three Leaves in the Green Leaf program. The hotel
continues to practice the following initiatives to achieve the three Leaves of the Green Leaf program.
Each guestroom is equipped with signage offering the re-use of all guestroom sheets and towels or the
option to have them changed on a daily basis. The hotel is currently in the process of replacing its
lighting with more energy efficient lighting such as compact fluorescent lighting. Recycling takes place in
each guestroom, meeting facility and public areas. This is handled by the hotel's Housekeeping
Department. Each guestroom is not equipped with a recycling box, yet the Room Attendants sort and
recycle all bins as part of their daily routines.
The hotel also has an Environmental Committee spearheaded by our Director Engineering and this
committee meets once a month to discuss current environmental topics in regards to the Hospitality
Industry and to ensure the hotel is practicing all that we can do to be as green as possible.
Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Toronto
• Linen reuse program
• Marriott’s smoke-free policy – improves indoor air quality – reduces energy use for air treatment
systems
• Installation of new shower heads which reduces hot water usage by 10% each year
• Recycling program in all administration areas of the property
• Conversion of old towels to cleaning rags
• Discarded linens are donated to local churches/charities
• Mandatory training of all room attendants on the proper application of chemicals and MSDS
items
• Over 80% of reports are delivered electronically as opposed to hard copy
• Laundry chemicals/cleaners purchased in large containers as opposed to smaller ones and
recycled
• Re-use of guest key cards
• Recycle and Diversion program (close to 50% is being recycled/diverted) bottles, cans, paper
cardboard, etc.
• With Marriott a new senior-level ‘Green Council’ has been formed ensuring Marriott maintains the
highest standards of environmental stewardship
• Elimination of air fresheners in guest rooms
• Donation of fresh frozen foods each week to Second Harvest
• Unclaimed lost and found clothing, toys, etc. is donated to local charities
• Building Automation System
• Lighting conversion throughout the property reducing hydro consumption
• The property received an Audu Bon International Green Leaf rating of (3) Leaf Eco – rating
program for hotels
• With Marriott International - a supporter of clean up the World, a global initiative mobilizing 35
million volunteers to clean up local communities
• Participant in the Green Key Program
Novotel Toronto Centre
01. Raise the hotel’s staff awareness of the environment
02. Integrate the preservation of the environment in all jobs
03. Make our guests aware of environmental issues
04. Promote public transportation
05. Set objectives for limiting consumption
06. Monitor and analyze consumption every month
07. Develop a list of potential technical improvements
08. Organize preventive maintenance
09. Ensure optimal use of plant and machinery
10. Install efficient façade lighting
11. Use low energy fluorescent lamps for permanent lighting
12. Use low energy lamps in bedrooms
13. Use LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) for external illuminated signs
14. Use LEDs for the emergency exit signs
15. Use energy-efficient refrigerators in bedrooms
16. Insulate pipes carrying hot/chilled fluids
17. Use energy-efficient boilers
18. Recover energy from the main ventilation system
19. Use energy-efficient air-conditioning systems
20. Recover energy from air-conditioning systems
21. Install solar panels for production of domestic hot water
22. Install solar panels for heating swimming pools
23. Promote use of renewable energies
24. Set objectives for limiting consumption
25. Monitor and analyze consumption every month
26. Install water flow regulators on basin faucets/taps
27. Install low flow shower heads
28. Install water-efficient toilets
29. Use efficient laundry equipment
30. Propose to guests to reuse towels
31. Propose to guests to reuse sheets
32. Eliminate water-cooled refrigeration systems
33. Recover rainwater
34. Collect and recycle used cooking oil
35. Separate and collect grease from food stuffs
36. Treat waste water or have it treated
37. Recycle grey water
38. Recycle paper/cardboard packaging
39. Recycle papers, newspapers and magazines
40. Limit the use of disposable packaging for hotel supplies
41. Recycle glass packaging
42. Recycle plastic packaging
43. Recycle metal cans
44. Organize sorting of waste in bedrooms
45. Limit individual packaging of hygiene products in bedrooms
46. Recycle restaurant organic waste
47. Recycle garden green waste
48. Dispose safely of hotel batteries
49. Dispose safely of guests’ batteries
50. Recycle electrical and electronic equipment
51. Recycle ink cartridges
52. Dispose safely of fluorescent bulbs/tubes
53. Eliminate appliances containing CFCs
54. Check that appliances containing CFCs, HCFCs or HFCs are leak-proof
55. Reduce use of insecticides
56. Reduce use of weed killers
57. Reduce use of fungicides
58. Use organic fertilizers
59. Minimize water used for irrigation
60. Use plants locally adapted to the weather
61. Plant at least one tree every year
62. Participate in a local action for the environment
63. Use ecological paper
64. Favor Ecolabel products 65. Favor organic products
The Chesnut Residence, University of Toronto
The 89 Chestnut Residence supports the Local Flavour Plus Program. The LFP program brings together
farmers and producers that are producing food in environmentally and socially responsible ways and
linking them with institutions and food service companies to foster locally sustainable food systems that
benefit both consumers and producers.
Supports of the program “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.” Details are provided on the Waste Management
link at http://www.fs.utoronto.ca

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Anonymous

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Anonymous Posted: 9-2-2009 03:13

Lighting Energy Savings Opportunities in Hotel Guestrooms

By Annoymous on 9-2-2009 03:32 last edited

Project Objective
The objective of this research project was to gather information on how lighting is used
in typical hotel guestrooms, and determine the subsequent energy implications this
information suggests. Specific questions that were addressed included:

How much energy is used in lighting a guestroom?
Where is the lighting being used the most?
What potential savings do CFLS offer?
What potential savings do occupancy sensors offer?
Are there trends in room occupancy that affect the energy use patterns?
By answering these questions we can identifi the most appropriate energy efficient
lighting technologies and approaches in order to assist the lighting and hospitality
industries in developing and implementing these solutions.
Research Plan
Ten similar guestrooms on the same wing and floor of the hotel were used for the study.
Data loggers were placed on all fixtures in each room in order to record the guests
lighting usage patterns. The data loggers were installed for three months in order to
gather nearly 1000 “user-days” from these ten rooms. The rooms were both single and
double occupancy and had the following lighting fixtures: an entryway downlight, a
bathroom light, one or two bed-end table lamps (depending on room type), a table lamp
on the desk, and a floor lamp. (See Figures 1 and 2.)

Figure 1 : Layout of typical guestroom with f~ture types and locations

Figure 2: A typical “single” guestroom with a table lamp on either side of the bed.

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Anonymous

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Anonymous Posted: 9-2-2009 03:18

By Annoymous on 9-2-2009 03:32 last edited

Three of the ten rooms were used as a “baseline” and included all incandescent light
sources. The seven remaining rooms were retrofitted with a wide variety of energy
efficient lighting technologies including novel prototype CFL fixtures and lighting
controls developed by LBNL and our industry partners. Many of the table lamps were
“dedicated fwtures” which were optimized specifically for CFLS based on photometric
research at LBNL. With the exception of several rooms in which CFL torchieres were
used in place of the floor lamps, all f~ture styles remained consistent, regardless of the
source technology used inside them.
Specially designed and prototyped lighting controls were installed on several of the
bathrooms. These controls were wall-pack occupancy sensors that included an additional
“night light”, feature (see Figure 3). The occupancy sensor was set on an extra-long one hour
timeout so that it would not turn the light off if a guest was in the shower or bath for
an extended period and was not detected by the occupancy sensor. The special “night
light” feature enabled the bathroom light to be operated at 10% of normal light output.
This was designed as an energy efficient option for people who may want a low-level
night light in their bathroom during the night. The light would stay in the “night light”
mode for ten hours or until the on/off switch was pressed again.

Figure 3: Bathroom controls were co-designed by LBNL
and Watt stopper that utilized an occupancy sensor and a
low-level “night light” feature.
For three months in the summer and fall of 1998, lighting use profile data from the ten
guestrooms was collected. All lighting fixtures in the guestrooms were monitored with
Hobo Light State loggers made by Onset Computer or Intellitimers manufactured by
Wattstopper. The Hobos are small loggers that were placed near the light source, which
record the time at which the light is turned on or off (see Figure 4). In addition to the
information gathered by the Hobos, the Intellitimers also record when they detect
occupancy in the room with their built-in motion sensors. Occupants were unaware that
their usage patterns were being monitored, unless they discovered one of the matchbox-sized
loggers. As shown in Figure 4, a brief note indicated these devices were lighting
loggers and provided a hotel contact number for the guests who might have questions.

Figure 4: Lighting loggers were connected to all lighting
fixtures in the experimental guestroom, including this
table lamp.
Results
After the experimental test period, the data loggers were retrieved and brought back to
LBNL for data reduction. Unfortunately nearly 20% of the lighting loggers were lost,
stolen, or tampered with during the study which left some gaps in the data set.
Figure 5 shows the average use data (or “on-time”) for each type of guestroom fixture.
This data is based on the average of the ten guestrooms during every occupied day during
the study (except for the data fi-om bathroom lights that used the occupancy controllers).
This data indicates quite clearly that bathroom lights experience particularly heavy usage
at nearly 8 hours of operation a day. Since some hotel bathrooms use incandescent vanity
fixtures, this can lead to significant energy loads. At this level of daily usage, a bathroom
vanity fixture with four 60W bulbs (the fixtures currently used by the Redondo Beach
Crown Plaza) consumes over 600 kilowatt-hours a year, or almost $60 per year in each
guestroom for bathroom lighting alone. The next most used fixtures were the table lamps
on the bed end tables that were on for and an average of almost five hours per day. With
100W bulbs, this represents nearly 180 kilowatt-hours per year, or over $12 per table
lamp per year to operate.

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Anonymous

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Anonymous Posted: 9-2-2009 03:21

By Annoymous on 9-2-2009 03:32 last edited

Average Hours per Day On Time

Figure 5: Average hours of operation per day for various future types.

Figure 6 plots the probability of operation for the five different fixture types as a function
of time of day. In general, during the early morning hours (midnight to 5 AM) only a
small fraction (less that 15°/0)of the lights are turned on. Alternatively, all fixture types
experience peak usages in the morning (6 AM – 10 AM) and in the evenings (after 5
PM). It is interesting to note that some of these fixtures, most notably the high use
bathroom and bed fixtures, do not experience a significant “dip” during typically
unoccupied daytime periods between 11 AM and 5 PM. These lights are on 20°/0 to 25°/0
of the time during this period. Significant energy savings could potentially be achieved if
hotel policy encouraged housekeepers to turn all room lights off when they leave.
Usage Patterns for Guestroom lamps as a Function of the Time of Day

Hour of Day
Figure 6: The percentage of lamps on at any given hour for each lamp
type. For example, at 10 AM, 38% of all bathroom lights are on.

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Anonymous

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Anonymous Posted: 9-2-2009 03:24

By Annoymous on 9-2-2009 03:32 last edited

The bathroom fixtures present a significant opportunity for the use of an occupancy
sensor because the room is separated from the general guest room area and thus will not
be falsely triggered by movement there. Additionally, the long burning hours of the
bathroom luminaire make this area particularly suitable for these energy saving sensors.
Figures 7 and 8 present a look at the use patterns in this area and can help identify the
energy savings potential that occupancy sensors offer in these bathrooms. Figure 7
shows how long these lights are generally left on during each use. This chart shows “twin
peaks”, one around 1-2 minutes and another around 16-32 minutes, implying that
occupants are generally using the bathroom either relatively briefly or for longer time
periods, such as for bathing. Rarely is the light turned on and then off in less than 30
seconds or left on longer than two hours at a time.

on time

Figure 7: Guests bathroom lights were rarely left on for more
than 2 hours per use

Figure 8 presents the same data in a different manner, plotting a normalized cumulative
energy usage as a function of time. This plot is significantly shifted to the right, or
towards the longer duration on cycles, indicating that most of the energy is consumed
during long periods of operation. In fact the bathroom lights are left on for periods
longer than two hours only 10’%of the time, but these longer burning periods account for
over 75’XOof this fixtures energy consumption. This statistic leads to a very strong case
for an occupancy sensor. If the two-hour and greater cycles were eliminated by an
occupancy sensor, significant energy savings could be achieved.

Figure 8: Most of the bathroom fixture ’s energy was consumed

Energy Usage

when the light was left on for 2 hours or longer

Conclusion
A significant finding in this study is the relative usage and energy impact of the bathroom
lighting. While many bathroom fixtures are already fluorescent, significant energy
savings could be achieved through the integration of occupancy sensors in bathrooms due
to the substantial burn hours of these fixtures. Because of their high wattage,
incandescent bathroom fixtures offer extraordinary energy savings for occupancy sensors
at nearly $40 per fixture per year. But even fluorescent bathroom fixtures could save
nearly $10 a year with the addition on an occupancy sensor. Integration of a bathroom
lighting controller/occupancy sensor can present energy savings that rival those achieved
by retrofitting all table and floor lamps with CFLS, but a much lower initial investment.
Assuming that 90’%0of the 15 million U.S. hotel rooms already have fluorescent bathroom
fixtures, an additional three billion kilowatt-hours annually can be saved with occupancy
sensors that simply cut off the “on periods” greater than two hours.
In most cases a simple payback of less than two years can be achieved by replacing
incandescent lamps with CFLS in table and floor lamps. Many hotels have recognized
the energy saving potential of CFLS and mandated their use in all their facilities. But as
many as half of the 15 million hotel rooms in the U.S. still use incandescent lamps in the
table and floor lamps. If these remaining potable fixtures were relamped with CFLS, the
annual energy savings would be three to five billion kilowatt-hours.
Additional research should be conducted on a larger scale and in hotel environments
different from Redondo Beach in order to verify these findings. Also, it is critical to
obtain user survey information in order to determine the acceptance of these energy
savings technologies by the hotel guests. Hotel managers are understandably very
reluctant to accept new technologies that they perceive will sacrifice the quality of the
guestroom environment-even if the new technology promises to save them money.
While more information needs to be gathered, it appears that there are significant energy
savings opportunities in hotel guestroom lighting.

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