Lodging

Appliances

Use ENERGY STAR^®-Certified Products
ENERGY STAR^®-certified dryers use 20 percent less energy than conventional models without sacrificing features or performance. If all clothes dryers sold in the U.S. were ENERGY STAR^®-certified, Americans could save $1.5 billion each year in utility costs and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to more than 2 million vehicles.

Install Low-Flow Shower Heads to Save on Water Heating Costs
With a new 2.5 gallon-per-minute (low-flow) shower head, a 10-minute shower will use about 25 gallons of water, saving you 5 gallons of water over a typical bath. A new shower head also will save energy — up to $145 each year on electricity — beating out both the bath and an old-fashioned shower head.

HVAC

Caulk and Seal
To prevent air leaks, use caulk to seal cracks around windows, doors and HVAC units (through-the-wall or window-type). Add weather-strip to doors and operable windows to further reduce air leaks.

Tune up Equipment
Just as a tune-up for a car can improve gas mileage, a yearly tune-up of your heating and cooling system can improve efficiency and comfort.

Close Unoccupied Areas
During periods of low occupancy, close floors or entire wings to reduce lighting and HVAC systems requirements.

Use Shading Devices
Reduce heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter by closing window draperies and shades when exiting guest rooms.

Link Your energy Management System to Other Systems
Link your energy management system (EMS), reservation system and automated check-out system together to keep an unsold room ventilated, but with minimal heating or cooling. A sold room can be heated or cooled to a comfortable temperature an hour before a guest’s scheduled arrival. Once the guests arrive in the room, they can then adjust the temperature as they like until they check out, when the HVAC system returns to the unsold mode. An EMS can enhance guest comfort while reducing energy costs by 35 percent to 45 percent, for a return on investment of 50 percent to 75 percent.

Lighting

Use Natural Daylight
Natural daylight has been shown to improve a hotel’s indoor environment while reducing energy use and peak demand. Whenever possible, any lighting renovation should start by using daylighting as much as possible and reducing electric lighting accordingly.

Use Natural Daylight When Staff Are Cleaning Rooms
Educate your housekeeping staff to use natural lighting when making up and cleaning guest rooms, limiting their use of artificial lights.

Use CFL and LED Bulbs
Update lighting with ENERGY STAR^®-certified CFL and LED bulbs. In back-room areas, such as kitchens and office space, incandescent and T12 fluorescent lamps can be replaced with CFLs or LEDs and high-performance T8 lamps and electronic ballasts, a combination that can reduce lighting energy consumption by 35 percent. In guest rooms, CFLs and LEDs are becoming the standard for table, floor and reading lamps as well as in bathrooms for recessed and vanity lighting.

Turn Off Lights and Appliances
Housekeepers can turn off guest room lights, televisions, heating or cooling units and radios when rooms are unoccupied.

Use Occupancy Sensors to Control Lighting
For hallways, use a combination of scheduled lighting and dimming plus occupancy-sensor controls after hours. Guests may not like a totally darkened hallway, but dimming lights in unoccupied hallways and stairwells and then turning them up to full brightness when someone enters is a sensible approach. Occupancy sensors are also appropriate for meeting rooms and back rooms.

Use Timers
Install timers on bathroom heat lamps. Also, connect bathroom exhaust fans to light switches to reduce excessive operation.

Lighting Retrofits Save on Energy Costs
Lighting represents almost a quarter of all electricity consumed in a typical hotel, not including its effect on cooling loads. Lighting retrofits can reduce lighting electricity use by 50 percent or more, depending on the starting point, and cut cooling energy requirements by 10 percent to 20 percent as well.

Source: energystar.gov.