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In the current climate, energy companies continue to raise the costs of gas and electricity. This is having a huge effect on all businesses including the hospitality sector. The costs of running a hotel are already high and soaring energy prices are pushing them even higher.
In this guide, we’re going to take a close look at the number of energy hotels use. We’ll identify the areas that consume the most energy and give you some tips on how to reduce your energy bills.
We’ll also discuss how your business can compare business energy suppliers and save your money on your business energy bills.
The amount of energy usage in a hotel depends on the number of bedrooms and the on-site facilities. How much electricity and gas a hotel is using will also vary depending on the time of year. Generally, the majority of energy consumption in a hotel comes from heating and hot water.
A survey of 50 UK hotels conducted by the Department of Environment found that almost 70% of energy usage in a hotel is from heating and hot water. It also found that catering accounts for 12% of energy and lighting account for 8%.
So, the amount of gas a hotel uses is significantly higher than the amount of electricity it uses.
But how do you work out how much energy your hotel uses?
The best way to calculate how much electricity and gas your hotel uses is per bedroom. Once you’ve worked this figure out, you can then multiply it by the number of guest rooms your hotel has. This will allow you to make an estimate of your hotel’s total energy usage.
Small hotels have 25 guest rooms or fewer. The size of each guest room is approximately 60 metres squared. On average, about 300 kWh of gas and 100 kWh of electricity are used each year for each square meter of a room.
This means that an average room in a small hotel uses 18,000 kWh of gas and 6,000 kWh of electricity per year.
These figures can be used to work out how much electricity and gas your hotel uses each month. To do this, divide them by 12 and then multiply the results by the number of rooms in your hotel.
The average amount of gas used by a small hotel in a month is 37,500 kWh. The average amount of monthly electricity usage is 12,500 kWh. Hotel owners also need to take into account any extra facilities they have on-site. The above figures only account for the energy usage of bedrooms.
Large hotels have many more rooms than small hotels and these rooms tend to be slightly larger. This means that their gas and electricity prices will naturally be higher. The average energy usage for a large hotel is 120 kWh per meter squared for electricity and 400 kWh for gas.
If a hotel has 100 rooms, this means that its energy use could be around 80,000 kWh of electricity and 266,000 kWh of gas per month. With the current spike in energy costs, this could see many hotels struggling to pay their energy bills.
Whether you own a hotel chain or a boutique hotel, it’s likely that have a lift on the premises. Lifts make it far easier for guests to move between floors. This is especially true if they’re carrying heavy luggage. Although lifts are convenient they use energy and are an extra cost.
Fortunately, lifts don’t actually use very much energy. This means they won’t increase your electricity prices very much. It’s estimated that a lift uses around 2.5 kWh of electricity to move between floors. So, a lift would use 25 kWh of electricity to move 10 floors.
Compared to how much energy is used to heat a room this is not very much.
An on-site gym is a great facility for any hotel to offer to its guests. However, with the current state of the energy market, an on-site gym can have a big impact on your electricity prices.
The main sources of energy consumption in most gyms are electric bikes, running machines, and air conditioning. The amount of electricity that a gym uses depends on the type of equipment, its size, its opening hours, and several other factors.
It will also vary from day to day as it will be used more on certain days.
This makes it difficult to work out exactly how much energy you can expect a gym to use in a certain period. However, if you break down how much electricity individual machines use, you can work out a rough estimate.
One of the biggest energy consumers in a gym will most likely be the air conditioning unit. Usually, an AC unit in a gym will be sized at around 3 kW. This means that if the gym is open for 10 hours then the AC will use around 30 kWh of electricity.
On average, treadmills use 1.5 kWh of electricity every 60 minutes. If a treadmill is used for five hours a day then it will use 7.5 kWh of electricity each day.
Most hotel businesses use LED panels in their gyms to reduce costs. This is because LED panels use a relatively low amount of electricity. If an LED panel is left on for 10 hours it will use around 0.25 kWh of electricity. So, if your gym has 15 panels, this would only amount to 3.75 kWh per day.
However, if your gym has fluorescent light panels then your electricity prices will be much higher.
When you take all of these factors into account you can work out the average amount of energy your hotel will use. As an example, if your hotel’s gym has 10 machines it might use about 109 kWh of electricity each day.
The energy consumption of your gym could be much higher depending on its size, opening hours, and the number of machines it has.
One of the best ways to reduce your electricity prices is to install light sensors. They automatically turn lights off when people enter rooms and turn them off when people leave.
LED lights are the most efficient type of lighting. Any hotel can reduce its energy costs by replacing fluorescent lights with LED lights.
You can also maximise the benefits of natural light by ensuring that all windows, fittings, and entrances are kept clean.
Installing timed thermostats in the rooms of your hotel gives you greater control over your energy usage. It also helps to avoid heaters being left on in vacant rooms.
If you have old boilers in your hotel then it may be worth replacing them. Although the upfront costs may be high you could save up to 10% on your energy bills once they’re replaced.
A building management system (BMS) gives you ultimate control of the way your hotel uses heating. A BMS will monitor the rooms in your hotel and regulate the temperature automatically. This can reduce costs by up to 10%.
Ideally, the hot water temperature in your hotel should be 60ºc. If you keep your pipes properly insulated then they shouldn’t lose any heat and should maintain this temperature.
A spray tap works by turning water into fine particles. This leads to a reduction in the amount of water that’s used. This then means that less energy is needed to heat the water in your hotel.
Ensure that any leaks or burst pipes are attended to promptly. This will help to reduce energy wastage.
If the seals on your hotel’s fridges and freezers are faulty then you could be wasting a lot of electricity. This is also the case if they haven’t been defrosted for a while. Keeping on top of this is an easy way to save money.
Most hotels have various electrical appliances in their rooms such as radios, TVs, kettles, and hair dryers. By ensuring that these are energy-efficient models you should reduce the impact on your electricity bills.
When room doors are left open heat escapes and energy is wasted. To avoid this, install swing door operators so that doors close after people.
Almost 50% of your hotel’s energy usage can be accounted for by heating and cooling. So, you need to be as efficient as possible with this to keep your energy bills down. Keeping your customers comfortable is very important but there are still steps you can take to save money.
According to the Carbon Trust, you can save 20% on your energy bills by carefully managing the ambient temperature of your hotel.
You should utilise thermostats and train your staff so that unused rooms aren’t heated. Timed thermostats allow you to set and monitor your thermostats to keep ambient temperatures stable.
Different areas of your hotel have different recommended temperatures. On average, these are:
The best way to save money on your hotel energy bills is to compare quotes from different energy companies. You can then compare hotel electricity suppliers and hotel gas suppliers to make sure that you’re getting the best possible deal.
Clearly, hotels consume a lot of energy in their day-to-day running. Bedrooms account for most of this but facilities like gyms also use up their fair share. Even as gas and electricity prices continue to rise there are several ways that you can reduce your costs.
Something as simple as repairing the seals on freezers can help to keep your costs down. One of the best ways to reduce costs is to compare quotes from energy suppliers to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible.
If you follow the advice in this guide then you should be able to reduce your hotel’s energy costs and reduce its emissions.
One of the ways in which hotels can still reduce their energy bills is to switch your business energy supplier. By comparing quotes from different suppliers, you can make sure that you’re getting the best possible deal.
By using the Business Energy Comparison website, you can receive a quote in minutes and could save up to 45% on your bills.
On average, around 70% of all energy used in a hotel goes towards heating and hot water production. This is used to heat guest rooms and provide guests with hot water. This is why using smart thermostats is such a good way of reducing energy costs.
Many hotels use building management systems to help them reduce their energy costs. Generally, a BMS will perform 4 main tasks. A BMS will monitor and control electrical equipment.
It will also monitor and maintain building temperatures. It does this by automatically turning thermostats on and off. A BMS can also adjust the ventilation in a building automatically, and monitor security systems.
With the current state of the energy market, energy companies are charging far more for energy than they used to. This means that the main benefit of energy conservation is to reduce the cost of your bills. Still, there are also other benefits to this:
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