COMFORT INN WENTWORTH PLAZA

Perth hotel achieves energy savings from better maintenance.

The Comfort Inn Wentworth Plaza is more than just a well-patronised, heritage-listed hotel. With two bars, two restaurants and nearly 100 accommodation rooms, it's a vibrant social meeting place as well as a great example of the cost savings that can be achieved from taking a proactive approach to building maintenance.

In 2005, Perth-based Hotel fm Pty Ltd, an operational and energy management consultancy, began working with the hotel's owners to improve maintenance levels and reduce energy consumption.

"This year a proactive approach has been adopted to address long term maintenance issues by increasing and formalising a planned maintenance program," said Damien Moran, Hotel fm's development manager.

"All plant and equipment was inspected and a site condition report was conducted so that a snapshot of the site could be established. From this, we then generated a priority list of what needed to be done."

"We started with the high energy consumers, such as mechanical services, refrigeration and gas hot water systems, to ensure that any initial investment would pay for itself in the short term. Equipment which was failing regularly was cleaned up, flushed, repaired or replaced if proven to be inefficient."

With a database consisting of 20 years worth of benchmark data gathered from hundreds of properties across Australia and New Zealand, Hotel fm's research proves that if you adopt a planned maintenance program with a proactive approach to repairing unreliable and inefficient plant and equipment, the outcome is substantial. The result is huge reductions in repairs and breakdowns as well as reductions in energy and water costs.

WHAT WAS DONE

Hot Water

The gas hot water storage systems served both the kitchens and guest rooms as some were in poor condition and required replacement. The kitchen was removed from the main hot water circuit and configured independently to incorporate an instantaneous hot water system which heats water as required instead of heating the water constantly all day and night.

As hot water is required only at certain times of the day in a kitchen, the change has led to a dramatic reduction in gas consumption and hotter water where needed.

Cold Beer

In October 2005 the refrigeration equipment serving all the important beer chilling equipment (known as super-chillers) was replaced as this had previously been extremely high maintenance. There had been regular breakdowns resulting in costly emergency repairs, stress and loss of revenue due to downtime as well as high energy consumption as the equipment operated constantly resulting in compressor efficiency problems. There was also excessive water consumption.

General Maintenance

Air-conditioning and refrigeration coils were cleaned, condenser water and chilled water circuits were flushed out, filters were replaced and a regular cleaning / replacement program implemented.

Basic operational checks were conducted to identify and eliminate potential faults thus saving on breakdown and repair costs; for example, gas leaks and electrical failures. Safety controls were also tested and calibrated.

To date the benefits are evident through substantial reductions in energy and water usage.

ENERGY AND WATER SAVINGS

The proof of the maintenance project's success can be easily seen in the hotel's gas, electricity and water consumption. From April 2005 to October 2005, the building has used significantly less gas, electricity and water by comparison with the same reporting period in the previous year (2004).

Gas

There has been a reduction in use by approximately 21.6% or $28.00 per day

Electricity

There has been a reduction in consumption by 1% or approximately $3.00 per day.

Water

The water meter was faulty from July 04 to early October 04 when it was replaced. Therefore, we can only compare cost data not consumption data. However, multiple areas of excessive water consumption were identified and have been rectified as a result of ongoing tracking.

As such, there has been a reduction in costs of approximately $50 per day.

The total savings across gas, electricity and water equates to $81.00 per day or $15,300 over a six month period - an impressive saving by anyone's standards.

BENCHMARKING, TRACKING & MONITORING

By tracking annual utility consumption and operational costs, then benchmarking the data with similar facilities in similar regions, an energy consultant will be able to quickly identify areas of excessive expenditure. The consultant will then track the utility consumption and report to the hotel on a monthly basis to ensure usage is in keeping with expected seasonal trends.

Another benefit of tracking the data monthly is for troubleshooting purposes as maintenance, energy or water waste issues will be easily seen before the costs blow out.

Examples of the potential problems that can be avoided include:
- Water leaks
- Reticulation systems not being switched off during seasonal wet periods
- Air Cooled Chillers running constantly as a result of control problems
- Power failures resulting in timers returning to default settings
- Heating and cooling systems operating at the same time thus working against each other
- Dirty or blocked coils and filters resulting in excessive power costs.

Summary

Mr Moran says that the results to date are very encouraging and indicate that the program is gaining control over operational expenditure.

"With continued diligence and attention to the basic maintenance practices, we look forward to seeing even greater savings at Comfort Inn Wentworth Plaza over the summer months when energy and water consumption is consumed at a higher rate than any other time of the year.

"Nobody likes maintenance; it's one of those nagging tasks that we wish we didn't have to deal with. But, there's no denying it, maintenance really matters!"