Hotel Engineer 16-2

THE

HOTEL ENGINEER The Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Hotel Engineering

PP 319986/101

Volume 16 No. 2 2011

THE

HOTEL ENGINEER The Hotel Engineer The Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Hotel Engineering

Adbourne PUBLISHING

Adbourne Publishing 18/69 Acacia Rd, Ferntree Gully, VIC, 3156 PO Box 735, Belgrave, VIC 3160 Melbourne: Neil Muir Ph: (03) 9758 1433 Fax: (03) 9758 1432 Email: neil@adbourne.com Adelaide: Robert Spowart Ph: 0488 390 039 Email: robert@adbourne.com Production: Sonya Murphy Tel: (03) 9758 1436 Email: production@adbourne.com Administration: Robyn Fantin Tel: (03) 9758 1431 Email: admin@adbourne.com Marketing: Tania Lamanna Tel: (03) 9500 0285 Email: tlamanna@bigpond.net.au Editorial Consultant Max Agnew Editorial Contributor Thomas Johnson

contents 3

Publishers’ Message

5

AIHE State News

9

Crowne Plaza Alice Springs – Continued Commitment To Sustainable Business

13

Hotel Water Efficiency

16

Regulation Update

19

Hotel TVs

24

Are Architects Failing Building Services Personnel?

27

Chiller Project Success Plan

33

Laundry Design

36

DDA Implications for Existing Hotel Upgrades and Alterations

38

HSIA Made Easy

43

Why Emotional Intelligence Is Needed

by Hotel Engineers

51

Cooling Tower Water Treatment – Who’s Responsible or Don't Shoot The Messenger

59

Ants in Your Kitchen Plants?

62

Is Solar Worth It?

65

Managing With New Energy Pricing Part 2

71

Hotel Management Urged To Assess Fire Risks

75

Are You Paying Too Much For Electricity?

79

Back of House

81

New Technologies to the Aid of the Hotel Engineer – Part 2

84

Swimming Pool Heating Options

87

"Look Before You Leap" – Perfecting Pool Design

90

Product News

THE

HOTEL ENGINEER The Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Hotel Engineering

DISCLAIMER Adbourne Publishing cannot ensure that the advertisers appearing in The Hotel Engineer comply absolutely with the Trades Practices Act and other consumer legislation. The responsibility is therefore on the person, company or advertising agency submitting the advertisement(s) for publication.

Front Cover: PP 319986/101

Volume 16 No. 2 2011

The Sebel Playford Adelaide

Adbourne Publishing reserves the right to refuse any advertisement without stating the reason. No responsibility is accepted for incorrect information contained in advertisements or editorial. The editor reserves the right to edit, abridge or otherwise alter articles for publication.

All original material produced in this magazine remains the property of the publisher and cannot be reproduced without authority. The views of the contributors and all submitted editorial are the author’s views and are not necessarily those of the publisher.

THE

HOTEL ENGINEER

Publisher’s Message

W

e have had a long history with the AIHE, Australian Institute of Hotel Engineering. The Hotel Engineer has been published for 16 years and produced in association with the AIHE for almost 15 of them.

It is with great pleasure to announce that from now on Hotel Engineer will be the ‘official’ publication of the AIHE. For the benefit of more recent members and readers, the AIHE was founded in 1989 in Queensland. Shortly after chapters were formed in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and Fiji, and now after a recent meeting in Adelaide last month, there is the possibility of a South Australian Chapter being formed.

In the next issue of Hotel Engineer we will provide details about AIHE membership, along with the many benefits to be gained for those engaged in hotel engineering when they join their State AIHE Chapter.

In this latest issue the wide range of topics dealt with include Peter Swanston looking at Hospitality Television – Derek Hendry writing about his latest regulation updates, and Alan Lewis bringing you the next instalment on new and exciting products now available for pools in hotels.

efficiency program. Daniel Philips, Area Engineer for IHG, in this edition paints a detailed picture on the latest initiatives there and the cost savings being achieved by the hotel.

I also thank all authors of features in this issue for their time and effort on each project. One article you might find a little different is that by Rachel Green on the subject of Emotional Intelligence. Thanks Rachel for this thought-provoking topic.

Regards, Neil Muir Publisher, The Hotel Engineer

View HOTEL ENGINEER online now!

THE

Visit ourne.com db w.a ww and click on ‘The Hotel Engineer’

Back 18 months ago we featured Crowne Plaza Alice Springs switching on the largest building-mounted solar photovoltaic system in the Southern Hemisphere when it began its energy

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 3

AIHE State News VICTORIA It hard to believe that we are already midway into 2011, how time flies. To date, the Victorian chapter meetings have included the following presenters. Geoff Vick of Essential Property Services, John Clampett, Crowns Fire & Compliance Manager & Mat Holmes of HFM Asset Management. These diverse and informative sessions have been a great introduction to this years meetings and we thank these gentlemen for their support. Our May meeting included a site tour of the recently opened Pixel building, built by one of Melbourne’s innovative construction companies Grocon. The meeting secured good numbers with 24 attending; we thank Adam Vince for arranging this tour.

June saw us gather at the Sofitel Hotel as we hosted a round table discussion for all our members. This type of meeting gives us all the opportunity to openly discuss any issues, new ideas and changes that may be affecting our industry in our great city. It is also a platform to discuss engineering related challenges that effect us daily at each of our hotels.

2011 has welcomed the addition of several new corporates and hotel engineers to our chapter. It has been encouraging to see a few new faces and the consistent support at our meetings. I also thank Woodlands Commercial and Middy’s for their on going support in the supply of door prizes.

On the national front, the four chapter presidents continue to meet on a quarterly basis. These meetings have assisted in forging closer relations between the chapters and collectively has enabled us to discuss the future direction of AIHE. Amongst our discussions, is the focus on two important initiatives, one being the update of our website and the other being the AIHE conference which will now be held in 2012 on the Gold coast.

We will keep our members updated as we progress.

Another important milestone that has been collectively negotiated is our partnership with Adbourne Publishing.

We look forward to working closely with Neil and his team as they continue to produce quality publications of the magazine that represents our industry. We encourage our corporates and suppliers to support Adbourne and AIHE with ongoing case studies, articles and advertising.

For any inquiries about our Chapter or joining our meetings, feel free to contact me on david.zammit@hyatt.com.

David Zammit AIHE Victorian Chapter President.

QUEENSLAND During March, Qld Chapter had their annual AGM held at the Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove. Attending members were provided an early breakfast and then followed by the meeting.

Please join me in congratulating the newly elected committee:

Signs. The presentation was made by Matthew Wade and Amy Turner from Clevertronics. Their innovative system “LifeLight” demonstrated how it could save in a number of ways.

President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Meeting Coordinator General General General General General

1. Provides 60% greater coverage than existing Premium products resulting in, on average, 30% less fittings required.

Ian Crookston Stephen Coombs Geoff Baldwin Natasha White Bev Allen Lindsay Slade Paul Anderson Mark Mason Wayne Street Frank Beeson

2. Maintenance Savings – fewer fittings, LED lamp source reducing time replacing lamps, Batteries only a third the size and half the replacement cost.

3. 50% Less Energy use – consumes half of the standby power of existing halogen QI fittings.

4. Lamp Warranty – LED lamp comes with lifetime warranty and a 3 year warranty on the fitting.

April’s meeting was hosted by Taubmans and held at the Gold Coast Marriott. Phil Rogers made the informative presentation, discussing the needs and pitfalls when choosing an external performance paint coating. How to insure that all requirements from both the applicator and the paint product performance itself are covered to meet all guarantee requirements.

Thanks again to all the presenters for their time and excellent presentations.

May's presentation was held at Sea World Nara and the subject for the evening being Emergency Lighting and Emergency Exit

Ian Crookston AIHE Qld Chapter President

Further savings were detailed in their range of Emergency Exit signs from both an energy and maintenance perspective.

The night concluded with drinks and finger food.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 5

A I H E S TAT E N E W S

NEW SOUTH WALES We are happy to have “The Hotel Engineer” back again as our official magazine and we look forward to prosperous and successful cooperation with Adbourne Publishing!

Let me start with an update on AIHE NSW Chapter events for the past few months.

AIHE (NSW) AGM was held at The Menzies Hotel last September where the election of new office bearers for the year took place.

President – Anura Yapa Vice-President – Carl Van Den Heever Treasurer – Paul Dimmock Secretary – Benjamin Gray Events Organiser – Jason Manley Committee Members: Scott O’Brien, Trevor McCarren, Martin Ryan and Sunny Pan General Manager of the Menzies Michael Smith has shown his support during the AGM by addressing the members with an inspiring speech. The meeting was fully sponsored by the Menzies Hotel.

In October we had the first Committee meeting and discussed the future plans with the new committee members.

December is always well known for its Christmas parties – everyone had a great time at a cocktail party at Casa di Nico Italian Restaurant, King Street Wharf in magnificent Darling Harbour. Special thanks for Jason Manley for organizing the event.

The first meeting for the year 2011 was at Holiday Inn Potts Point where the informative presentations on Pump Curves, Correct Maintenance Procedures and Cost Efficiency by KSB PUMPS were held.

The February meeting finally revealed the draft design of the greatly anticipated new AIHE website which is currently on its final stage of implementation. At this meeting Andy Goonesekera – Director of Engineering of InterContinental Sydney talked about the preparations for the Earth Hour 2011.

discussed. The sub-committee of four members including Carl Van Den Heever, Brendon Granger and Jason Manley were very dedicated in putting together the draft constitution and has done an excellent job.

In May the meeting was held at the Grace Hotel and we had an informative and very important presentation on ‘Fire Safety Audits & Building Compliance’ by Superintendent Warwick Isemonger of NSW Fire Brigades. On my invitation, a number of hotel staff other than from the Engineering field attended the meeting and there were a lot of positive comments of the presentation including from the General Manager of the Grace Hotel who was present at the meeting.

The changes to the proposed Constitution identified at the April meeting and the further changes made during the recent President's meeting were addressed and approved unanimously.

The quarterly state President’s meeting was held at Burswood Entertainment complex, Perth on the 13th May. Another successful meeting thanks for Tony Feriso.

CONGRAGULATIONS to Andy Goonasekara, the Director of Engineering Intercontinental Sydney and one of our active members of the chapter, who was recognized with ‘Engineer of the Year Award’ at the Australian Hotels Association (NSW) awards night on the 16th May. This category was the first time offered award by the AHA (NSW), honoring the achievement of excellence for a Hotel Engineer.

I am proud to see that the chapter is growing rapidly, there have been increasing memberships and we have had a lot of positive comments from industry leaders.

Furthermore, I strongly believe that the quarterly meetings of the Chapter Presidents were a great success. We were able to work closely to find solutions for our common issues. In doing so we are able to enhance inter-chapter cooperation and develop AIHE as a professional body at a national level.

In March we had our meeting at the Sydney InterContinental Hotel and the presentation was on the York Chiller Features by Johnson Controls Australia. The meeting was fully sponsored by the InterContinental Sydney, and again many thanks to Andy.

In closing I would like to thank all the Engineers and our corporate members for their support over the past quarter and look forward to working with all of them in the future. I would also like to specially thank the the committee for their contribution and efforts which have been making the chapter a success.

April meeting was dedicated to the new proposed AIHE NSW Constitution. The necessary and important changes have been

Anura Yapa JP President, AIHE (NSW)

The Australian Institute of Hotel Engineering are soon to launch their new website

www.aihe.com.au Details coming soon

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A I H E S TAT E N E W S

WESTERN AUSTRALIA Greetings from the West, it is great news that the AIHE has reconnected with Adbourne Publishing and we look forward to a long lasting relationship.

Daniel Heath from the Office of Energy gave an overview on the NABERS ratings and how this would relate to hotels.

The second quarter of 2011 has been an extremely busy time for Hotels and Engineers with solid occupancies.

In April we held a progressive dinner which included a visit to a brewery, winery and finished with desert at an old landmark hotel in Guildford. The bus trip was well attended and everyone had a great time, well done to the social committee.

A shortage in the skilled workforce however presents challenges for the industry as a result of the mining sector's increased recruitment drive. This has resulted in vacancies at all levels.

We have however had a number of new Engineers join our chapter: Calvin Purdy – Chief Engineer, Esplanade Hotel; Peter Stokes – Maintenance Manager, Ridges Hotel Perth; John Rodden – Maintenance Manager Wentworth Plaza Hotel; Kris Snelling – Maintenance Manager, the Esplanade Scarborough; Terry McCarron – Chief Engineer, the Esplanade Scarborough; Bill Boseley – Chief Engineer Mercure Hotel Perth. I would also like to acknowledge Higgins Coatings and SITA that have joined recently as corporate members.

The Western Australian annual general meeting was held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in March 2011 with the following positions voted in: Tony Fioraso – President Ian Amen – Treasurer Lee Binsted – Secretary Doug Stemp – Social Director Barry Haydinger – Social coordinator Bob Watson – Social coordinator The committee would like to thank Bob Bovenizer and Martin Doyle for their commitment and hard work to the institute over the past years.

Western Australia continues to grow its membership and I urge any Engineers reading this great magazine to join the chapter and General Managers to encourage their Engineers to join.

The networking opportunities for them are limitless and the experience in the group is invaluable to assist in any Engineering issues they encounter.

We also encourage corporate companies to join the Institute as all our current members value the institute as a great way to meet and present their skills and services to the Hotel Engineers.

Our calendar of events has been sent out to all members with some exciting site visits and guest presenters scheduled.

On another note we say goodbye to Greg Langley, Chief Engineer Pan Pacific Hotel this month as Greg has taken a role as Chief Engineer Sheraton Mirage, Gold Coast.

We wish Greg and his partner all the best as he has been a loyal member for 13 years in Western Australia.

To conclude, I look forward to the new website which is currently in development and the Bi Annual conference next year, that all presidents are contributing to, to ensure its success.

Tony Fioraso President, AIHE WA

SOUTH AUSTRALIA On the evening of Wednesday 22nd June at the Sebel Playford Adelaide, an introductory meeting was organised for SA Hotel Engineers on the benefits of commencing an SA Chapter of the AIHE. Organised by Paul Yardley, Managing Director of Yardley Hospitality, and James Costello, National Manager, Strategic Applications/Integrated Systems of Clipsal by Schneider Electric.

The event went well with many thanks to Sebel Playford Chief Engineer Richard Voros and General Manager Daniel Sparr for their assistance. Starting at 6pm, James and Paul welcomed the guests and then provided an overview of the AIHE. James then gave a presentation on “Clipsal Integrated Energy Efficient Solutions” and Paul gave a presentation on “Hotelspecific TVs”. There were two prizes offered; one from each host. Basil Hanger from Adelaide Convention Centre was the fortunate winner of a Samsung 26” LCD donated by Yardley

Hospitality, and Rolando Nuesca from Stamford Grand Adelaide was the winner of a Clipsal “Cent-a-Meter”.

All who attended saw how forming an SA Chapter of the AIHE would be of great benefit both as a social event, a networking opportunity and a great way to discuss daily challenges. At this stage, another meeting is being planned for September. Should you be interested in attending, please drop us an email at admin@adbourne.com and we will pass on your interest to the organiser.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 7

Crowne Plaza Alice Springs – Continued Commitment To Sustainable Business

By Daniel Phillips Area Chief Engineer, Northern Territory IHG

The Crowne Plaza Alice Springs has again proven its commitment to sustainable business practices with the installation of 32 air to water Heat-pumps and by improving HVAC efficiency as part of the Solar Cities funding agreement.

Background In 2008 the owner of the IHG managed hotel Investnorth Pty Ltd and in a joint venture with the Australian government Solar Cities Programme invested 3 million dollars in solar energy. The investment comprised of the installation of over 1,300 roof mounted solar modules. This solar array can generate over 530 MWh of electricity per annum & reduce CO2-e by approximately 400 Tonnes.

Further investment and projects were also completed as part of the Solar Cities programme including, • The installation of Jemflo water control devices • Guestroom HVAC energy management system (EMS) • Energy efficient lighting upgrade & controls • Roof mounted solar swimming pool water heater For further detail regarding these above mentioned projects please refer to the Hotel Engineer Vol 14. No3.

At the time the first article was published there were two further projects pending completion, these projects included the installation of a solar primary hot water plant and the installation of six variable speed drives to HVAC electric motors.

VSD Installation A total of six VSD’s were installed on existing HVAC electric fan motors. Three drives were fitted to the 18.5 kW secondary chilled water pumps with further units fitted to the three 15 kW cooling tower fan motors. CT fan speeds were controlled via condenser water sensors & the secondary chilled water pumps were controlled via differential pressure sensors all of which were connected to the existing Innotech BMS. AMS Service & Maintenance Pty Ltd were awarded the contract. It was estimated that an energy saving of 193,500 kWh p/a and C02-e reduction of 132 Tonnes could be attributed to this project.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 9

Solar Hot Water System The final element of the Solar Cities efficiency programme was the installation of a large scale solar hot water heat pump system. This system was designed to offset the consumption of natural gas required for domestic hot water generation and

would replace the existing HEV 330/1000 forced down draft gas fired hot water burners as the primary hot water plant.

The existing HEV system would remain connected as an automatic booster if supply water temperature from the solar system dropped below the minimum set point.

AIRCONDITIONING – REFRIGERATION – ELECTRICAL Proud to be associated with the Crowne Plaza Energy Efficiency Upgrade through the Heat Pump Electrical Installation

0417 895 879 grizair@hotmail.com

The solar hot water supply tender was drawn up by CAT projects and was awarded to Quantum Energy Technologies Pty Ltd in September 2009.

The Quantum Energy proposal included the supply and installation of 32 x 340 – 17ACW – 134 air to water heat pumps

The installation was project managed for Quantum Energy by Gordon Ryan of Sunpak Pty Ltd and overseen by CAT Projects.

Included in the works was the installation of water & gas supply pulse meters as well as an individual KWh meter for each of the 32 Quantum units. The KWh meters were connected to the existing Schneider Electric Ion Enterprise server so that system

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 11

performance and “lazy units” could be monitored. The project was commissioned in November 2009.

In 2010 the 32 Quantum units provided 3,000 Kl of hot water to the Hotel. The hotels natural gas consumption dropped from 5,217 Giga Joules in 2009 to 3,819 Giga Joules in 2010 a reduction of 1,398 Giga Joules and 142 tonnes of C02-e

Performance 12 months after the completion of the works CAT Projects on behalf of Investnorth & Crowne Plaza Alice Springs were pleased to provide an annual report to Solar Cities advising that the original stretch targets had largely been met, with reductions of over 35% for electricity, over 45% for gas & nearly 25% for water

Future Projects On top of the commitment already shown in regard to sustainable initiatives and business practices, further projects have been identified that have a combined energy reduction potential of 1’533 MWh & 1,042 Tonnes of C02-e. These projects are primarily HVAC related and include, • The installation of a low load chiller • The replacement of electric resistive space heating elements with air to air heat-pumps

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Hotel Engineer

• Energy recovery ventilators and air cleaners • Variable Speed Drives These projects are planned to commence late 2011 and be completed end of 2013.

List of Involved Parties & Suppliers: 1. Tender Documents and Specification – Lyndon Frearson of CAT Projects, General Manager, CAT Projects, PO Box 8044 (32 Priest Street) Alice Springs, Northern Territory 0871 E-mail: lyndon.frearson@catprojects.com.au Phone: (08) 8951 4341 FAX: (08) 8951 4333 Mobile Phone: 0438 839920 2. Supplied By Quantum Energy Technologies Pty Ltd 3. Installation project manager - Gordon Ryan of SunPak Pty Ltd. M: 04100 21 200, P: 07 5452 7066, F: 07 5452 7311 gordon@quantumplumbingqld.com.au 4. Gas & Water meters supplied by ELSTER Metering 5. Electrical Installation – Graham Lang of GrizAir, Graham Lang 0417 89 58 79, grizair@hotmail.com 6. AMS Pty Ltd, HVAC – VSD Install, Russell Flynn 0408 906 549, rflynn@amsga.com.au

Hotel Water Efficiency

By WENDY HIRD

A study recently presented by Sydney Water at the Australian Water Association 4th National Water Efficiency conference in March 2011 has shown that hotels are still playing their part in water conservation, and saving money along the way.

A

udits were undertaken on 24 business hotels in 2010, and the water use was compared with a similar series of audits from 2005. The results are in table 1. It showed that the hotels had reduced water consumption L/guest/night by an average of 241 L/ guest/night or over 40%.

A significant saving: on a large hotel with 400 guests that would equate to saving over $120,000 a year on the water bill alone.

Average for 24 business hotels

KPI L/guest/night

2005

569

Actual 2010

328

Target 2010

267

Table 1, shows average figures for 2005 to 2010, including the new recommended targets for hotels.

Across all hotels that averaged a further 20% water reduction.

Table 2 shows the actual and recommended target average L/guest/ night when broken up by major water using facilities.

So what has changed since 2005?

There were two significant areas of improvement between the audits.

Guest room fittings Shower-

Flow/flush volume

Better maintenance In the 2005 study the overnight base flow (leaks) averaged 30 percent, in the 2010 study the average was eight percent: a significant reduction. Anecdotally hotel engineers attributed that to better use of main meter monitoring equipment, installing and reading sub-meters and having staff report leaks.

2005

2010

>=9L/min

20%

40%

9-12L/min

20%

30%

2010 Target

12-15L/min

20%

30%

L/guest/night

=<15L/min

40%

−

A mixed combination of 6, 9, 12 and 15 L/min

40% <=6 L/min 55% 8 to 12L/min 4% 12 to 20L/min flow

4.5/3L dual flush

−

50%

6/3L dual flush

50%

46%

11/5.5L

−

4%

11L single flush or larger

50%

−2

2010 Actual Hotel facility

As part of the audit, the hotels were recommended further water saving ideas.

The target figures were based on completing all projects with a less than three-year payback.

No water cooled cooling tower, no laundry1

213

177

Basin

Cooling tower no laundry

300

229

Toilet

Cooling tower, with laundry

416

344

Table 2 shows actual and target L/guest/night broken up by whether the hotel had water based cooling towers and/or in house laundry.

Table 3: hotel fittings comparison from 2005 to 2010 hotel audits.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 13

Guest room retrofits There has been an increase in the use of more water efficient fittings. Table 3 shows the change to water efficient device over the last five years. Technological improvements mean that hotels who installed water efficiency devices 5 years ago, could install even more water efficient fixtures now.

What were the additional water savings?

Recommended water savings across all 24 hotels in the 2010 audits totaled 604kL/day. The majority were leaks and maintenance issues.

Better maintenance 49 percent of all saving recommendations were related to maintenance issues, from leaking toilet cisterns to cooling tower set points set too low.

Six hotels had zero leaks; another five had leaks of less than five percent of their overall flow.

The highest individual leak captured on the audit was 17kL/day, due to a solenoid valve failure on a urinal cistern tank which caused it to overflow and flush continuously.

Guest room retrofit 42 percent of all savings were related to retrofitting guest room amenities. The proposed savings were based on retrofitting: • showers of 9L/min ( 26 percent of projected savings) • hand basin taps 6L/min (5 percent of projected savings) • toilets of 4.5/3L dual flush (11 percent of projected savings)

Savings sensitivity • Several hotels have already stated that the 9L/min showerheads available do not fit their hotel ‘brand’ and they would be unlikely to go lower than the 12L/min.

• 6L/min basin flow was recommended as a maximum flow for basins. There is the potential for even higher savings as restrictor taps as low as 2 L/min are becoming more common.

• Toilet retrofits, which made up 11 percent of all water savings in the audits, exceeded the three-year payback. So, although they were recommended in the audits, the water savings were not included in the target KPI calculation. Hotel engineers had already stated that most water efficiency toilet installations are not due to efficiency directly, but undertaken as part of a room renovation, where the style is for smaller cisterns.

Would it improve the NABERS rating?

A NABERS hotel water rating was included as part of the audit.

The average NABERS water rating across all hotels in the 2010 study was three stars.

If the hotels completed the projects recommended (all with less than three-year payback), projected NABERs rating showed the average rating should increase to 3.5 stars.

The best single improvement was from 2.5 stars to 4 stars.

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So what does it mean to my hotel?

You can make some very real and cost effective savings by improving maintenance and fitting low flow showers and basins fittings. If you haven’t lowered your water use, tracked best as L/guest/night, in the last 5 years, you are missing out on some very easy savings.

The study “Water efficiency in business hotels’ is copyright of AWA, and results are also at the Sydney Water website http:// www.sydneywater.com.au/Water4Life/InYourBusiness/ EDCPublications/CustomisedWaterMgmtTool.cfm Below are examples of costs and paybacks for some of the recommendations in the 2010 hotel audit study.

Showers Guest rooms are between 39% and 61% of a hotels water use (average 56%). Showers were estimated to be 65% of the water use in a room.

One hotel, with 15L/min shower heads, would save 30kL/day by installing 9L/min showers heads • 400+ rooms • cost of $56,000 • savings $59, 400 ( water, sewerage, heating costs) • payback 0.9 years

Basin taps One hotel with 12L/min flow rate basin taps, would save 4.1 kL/day by installing 6L/min taps • 170+rooms • cost of $5,100 (200 basin tap regulators) • savings $8,500 ( water, sewerage, heating costs) • payback 0.6 years

Maintenance One hotel had leaks in cold water to guest room overnight at a rate of 39kL/day. Rewashering the toilet cistern rubbers • 300+ rooms • cost of $19,000, savings $23,000 ( water, sewerage) • payback 0.8 years One hotel had a cooling tower set point set to 1000ppm, but the conductivity probe was dirty and bleeding off at 680ppm.

• Savings $2, 300 in water and sewerage (not including chemicals)

Footnotes 1 Air cooled and seawater cooled cooling systems, small sample size 2 Some 11L single flush toilets were still evident in staff amenities and some public amenities.

Wendy Hird can be contacted at wen3deg@gmail.com

Regulation Update

By DEREK HENDRY

Systems Interface Testing AUST – Hotel Engineers should be aware that System Interface Testing, better known as Full Function Fire Systems Testing, is now mandatory where the requirements of AS1851-2005 are applicable.

To better facilitate operational reliability of fire protection systems, amendments were made to AS1851 - Maintenance of Fire Protection Equipment and Systems (AS1851-2005) to include a requirement for building owners, managers and hotel engineers to complete a System Interface Test annually. This means where fire systems are interfaced with other building systems these interfaces must be tested annually i.e. a Full Function Fire Systems Test.

The testing may be disruptive to building or hotel operations during a System Interface Test. It is recommended that the hospital engineer coordinate testing of the interfaced fire protection systems to minimise this disruption by engaging an independent and suitably experienced consultant to minimise the time taken to complete the testing. Depending on the size and type of occupancy the System Interface Test may require the services of a mechanical and hydraulic engineer, technicians specialising in fire alarms, sprinklers, HVAC, electrical power and control and building management systems etc. Accurate fire protection system interface documentation is critical to facilitating a successful System Interface Test and must be provided or obtained/created prior to the System Interface Test commencing.

Types of Documentation Required • Drawings – Mechanical Services, Electrical, Fire Services and Building Transportation.

• Equipment Schedules – Mechanical Services, Electrical and Fire Services, Building Transportation.

• Current Fire Matrix • Current System Cause and Effect Charts • Specifications for zone and floor pressurisation Basic Test Procedure (typical) Automatic sprinkler and fire alarm systems when activated in specific ways automatically cause operation of interfaced systems such as: • Stair pressurisation systems • Release fire doors

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• • • •

Operate roof vents to permit smoke to escape Shutdown non-fire essential plant Operate elevator override controls Automatically cause fire pump sets to operate

The criteria for the methods of initiating the testing is specified in AS1851-2005 under the respective sections for each type of fire safety installation. All of the System Interfaces must be verified as operational.

System Interface Test is an opportune time, whilst all of the services contractors are onsite, to check your systems capacity i.e. do annual flow, hydrostatic, sandwich and stairwell pressurisation testing to ensure your services meet their design criteria.

Locks on an Exit Door and Doors in Path Of Travel – BFRS QLD – Building owners, managers and hotel engineers are reminded that recent changes to Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 (BFSR) prohibits locking of doors on evacuation routes without reasonable cause and adopts the Building Code of Australia (BCA) as the benchmark for exit door hardware.

There is now prohibition on locking of doors on path of travel to an exit, with special exemptions for child care centre and places of lawful custody in Queensland. The new provisions apply to doors on path of travel to an exit i.e. doors on the path of travel from a common area of a building through a final exit door to a place of safety outside a building.

The BFSR now specifically deems a door compliant if it complies with the provisions of the Building Code of Australia (BCA) Volume 1 Part D. Doors that have locking mechanisms that do not pass this test must be replaced or modified, and otherwise are deemed illegal. This new regulation now recognises that the BCA sets the building standard. Hotel Engineers have one month to modify or replace door hardware after being advised it is non complaint by an inspector when the mandatory 6 monthly inspections are undertaken.

The typical requirement of the BCA is that an exit door or a door in the path of travel to an exit, operate in the following manner; • must be able to be opened from the internal side using 1 device that can be operated by 1 downward or pushing action using 1 hand; • automatically allows the door to be opened if the door fails to open electronically

Examples of devices— • a handle, lever or panic bar • a device consisting of a button or switch that can be operated to allow a door to open electronically and • exit door hardware is a prescribed fire safety installation under the Building Act 1975 and BFSR.

(c) as far as can be ascertained, the fire-resistant doorset has been installed in accordance with this standard.

Fire Door Installation – Verification Evidence: AS1905.1 AUST - Building owners, hotel engineers, property managers and occupiers of buildings only need to rely on fire doors for life safety during an emergency e.g. a fire. Determining whether a fire door was suitable for its use is meaningless where the fire door failed and loss of life has occurred. Part of a building occupier’s protection is a requirement in AS1905.1-2005 Components for the protection of openings in fire-resistant walls, Fire-resistant-doorsets.

Fire door identification number, Fire door location, Fire door type, Frame type, Nominal dimensions of the door – width, height and thickness, Fire resistance level (FRL), Facing and edging material type, Lockset and closer type, Miscellaneous items (for example, vision panels), Test opinion reference, Date of inspection and Manufacturer or certifier.

Section 6.3 Evidence – Fire Door. Clause 6.3.1 Installation states: 6.3. EVIDENCE 6.3.1 Installation When the installation of a fire-resistant doorset in a building has been completed, the manufacturer or the certifier shall provide to the building owner (or his or her representative) written evidence in the form of a numbered certificate indicating that – (a) an inspection of the installation has been carried out; (b) each fire-resistant doorset is identical with the tested specimen, or, where there are variations form the tested specimen, variations are in accordance with this Standard; and

Intra Design Group

I

ntra Design Group has been specializing in Hotel Design for 21 years with past projects across Australia, New Zealand & Pacific Islands, Guam, Vietnam, Italy and United States of America.

Our projects cover all areas of hotels from guestrooms, public spaces and function areas to BOH staff facilities, housekeeping and executive offices. The level of engagement changes with each hotel from small, such as specifying and purchasing new reception furniture up to refurbishing four hundred or more guestrooms and corridors.

A design solution is delivered in a staged system which helps the client make clear decisions and approvals. There are four stages ranging form the First being deciding Scope of Work, Budgets, Approval Processes through to Stage Two of Preliminary Design approval on to Stage Three being Documentation and Pricing and awarding Contracts to Stage four being Site Attendance, Sign Off and Handover of finished job.

The presentation of Design has changed over the years with technology enabling perspective drawings that look like finished photographs and laptops that can project images onto meeting room walls is all part of the current emphasis on getting quick and positive approvals rather than trying to talk our way through plans and technical drawings which not everybody understands.

As Interior Designers we are differentiated from Interior Decorators and guided by the Design Institute Of Australia’s rules as well as a knowledge of Fire Regulations, Building Code of Australia, Health and Safety, Standards Australia and now the Environmental Management of specifying certain items and finishes into commercial buildings.

Director Paul Waters have many years of experience, previously working in Major Construction, Hotel Management and Large Architecture & Design Companies.

AS1905.1 Clause 6.3.2 also requires a fire door schedule of evidence with the numbered certificate and the following information to be provided in a record system and made available if required:

Permanent maintenance records for fire doors may need to be kept in accordance with AS1851.7. Maintenance of fire protection equipment - Fire-resistant doorsets, are usually provided in a logbook format. Maintenance records under various State essential safety measure regulations will dictate whether this provision is a statutory function under the regulation. Some States may nominate AS 1905.1 as the ongoing Standard for compliance. We strongly suggest you keep fire door records under AS 1851, to protect all parties’ interests. Most States will nominate fire doors as an essential safety measure / essential fire safety measure, where all fire door verification of inspection and maintenance will form part of the Annual Essential Safety Measures Report / Annual Fire Safety Statement. ■

Hotel TVs

By PETER SWANSON NSW / ACT Business Manager, AMX Australia | www.amxaustralia.com.au

I

sit writing this article from Sydney airport, bleary-eyed on a Sunday morning, in the knowledge that many hours from now I will eventually stumble into a room in a hotel I’ve never visited before. I hope when I get there that there will be a TV (very likely, it’s the US), that it will be working (still pretty likely) and that the remote control will be functioning and functional (far from guaranteed).

This article is about the factors for consideration when choosing a TV to fit out the rooms in your hotel upon your next upgrade. But, before I jump into the technical moshpit of signal distribution, connection types, in-built features, warranties and so on, I thought I’d touch on the human factors that the guest experiences as a result of all your hard work.

If I could put my finger on one guest annoyance above all others, it would be the remote control (pun happened naturally).

Every TV and every remote control have their operational foibles, but most of us are granted the clemency of weeks, months or years to eventually figure the damnable things out. The poor hotel guest may well only have a few hours and will likely be jetlagged, busy or otherwise.

People will put up with a lower channel selection, or slightly less than perfect image, but give them a remote control that doesn’t seem to work reliably or in a comprehensible fashion and an apoplexy of rage can’t be far away (see later comments on remote control robustness!).

I suggest starting from the principle that every button on the remote control should

I have yet to see a Hotel TV remote control where every single button works

do something relevant when installed in your hotel. I know that probably sounds spectacularly facetious, but the fact is that the vast majority of Hotel TV systems have buttons on their remote that don’t function in particular scenarios – or worse still can catapult your guest to an unnerving screen saying “No Signal” or similar. One such example is the Guide button, which may or may not be supported by your distribution system.

I have yet to see a Hotel TV remote control where every single button works in a way relevant to the installed system, so don’t search for the impossible. Do however aim to minimise the total number of buttons, have as many of them providing relevant functions as possible and try to avoid selecting TVs which have

controls that can send you to “nonfunctioning” screens like the “No Signal Guide” example above.

Assuming the remote has sensible, clear, easy to access functions, I strongly suggest also testing out how well the remote control works in one of your standard suites. And don’t be kind and sit doe-eyed in the direct line of the TV, pointing the remote with high precision into the eye of the remote signal receiver on the TV. Take that remote for a stroll, try pointing it out the bathroom door at the TV – or even better point it at the image of the TV in the bathroom mirror – and see if you’re still getting reliable channel changes, volume control and so on.

There are two main types of remote control in the world – Infra-Red and Radio Frequency (usually Bluetooth). Infra-Red will often start to fail when you apply some of the tests above as it is a directional technology and signal strength in a remote is often less than great.

If your remote works almost anywhere in a standard suite, including in the bathroom with the door shut, it’s likely that it’s a Bluetooth or similar RF technology. These remotes are great from a user perspective as you don’t have to think about where to

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C O M PA N Y P R O F I L E

The Complete Package to Suit Your Needs

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ardley Hospitality has served the hospitality industry for over 25 years. Through every trend and development, our specialty within the industry has always been our deep understanding of your every need, and unique ability to fulfill those needs. This has garnered our long, successful history of providing a wide range of products from many leading brands. Quality; pricing; energy efficiency; we supply only the highest standard of products, tailoring a complete package of electrical appliances to suit your needs.

We care about your business. Our governing aim is always to supply good quality, reliable products to our customers.

Quality brands have far superior back-up services and replacement policies, whereas budget brands tend to involve poor, time consuming replacement policies and offer less options for service agents. Not to mention, that using products with low failure rates, as with top quality brands, means staff need not dedicate unnecessary time organising the replacement of faulty products.

We offer quality brands at competitive prices. When it comes to our customers, we can afford to care. Our insight into which products have a good track-record in the industry and which products are suiting demand for advances in technology, is just one of the benefits you will experience using a centralised provider in supplying electrical appliances and specialised hospitality items.

We specialise in hotel televisions; with options that are ideal for either standalone use or the Interactive Movie System of your choice. We can help you choose the television your hotel needs, from our impressive selection of top brands including Samsung, Philips and LG. We initiate helpful discussions about the importance of energy efficiency with hotels, as the rising cost of electricity makes this a rising issue in the hospitality industry. While it may be an integral component in running a hotel, lighting has not yet had the focus it should. Short-term, cheap solutions are to buy conventional light globes, rather than the latest energy efficient bulbs. For the hotel industry, replacing halogen globes with LED globes is the simplest solution to save energy and reduce costs. With the focus now on phasing out inefficient incandescent light bulbs and reducing greenhouse gases, accommodation owners should note that a 10 Watt LED bulb can produce the same amount of light as a 50-watt halogen; meaning a saving in energy of up to 80%, as well as a lifecycle that jumps from an average 2000 hours for a halogen to around 25,000 hours (or equivalent to 2.5 years if lit continuously for 24hrs a day) ensuring minimum maintenance cost in hotels for an LED. Yardley Hospitality: finding the complete package to suit your needs.

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point the thing. However, they do generally use batteries a little faster than IR and it’s possible for Bluetooth signals to interfere with one other – especially if you have 10 or more in close proximity via adjacent rooms and those on the floors above and below. If you are looking at a Bluetooth or RF technology, it’s a very good idea to do a more extensive test with multiple rooms prior to a full rollout to make sure the solution you’re using can handle the high number of adjacent signals.

Of course, if possible the remote control should also have a reduced set of buttons so that the many and various configuration options for TV settings are removed (but bear in mind it’s good for a guest to have the option of changing things like brightness and contrast to suit their viewing preference).

So, having given due attention to the user experience via the remote control, let’s talk some more about Hotel TVs in general. “Hospitality TV” is an oft-used term and like so many others it covers a broad church of offerings. Some screens have very much been designed for the hospitality industry, while others have had a marketing department re-badge one of their domestic models with little or no change to the technical feature set.

From an engineering point of view, what are the hot topics when you are looking at this sector? I would say: • Resilience • Warranted for hospitality use • Energy consumption • Management settings and lockout options • Ease of Use / Guest Experience • Integration capacity • Future-proofing To the first point, Resilience. While a hotel TV probably gets significantly less use on average than a domestic unit, it’s likely that it will at times suffer being left on a single image (like your welcome screen) for many hours and it’s going to be cleaned far more than the average home unit so its finish needs to be able to stand up to many wipings down and so on.

want to be energy efficient, or want to be seen to be energy efficient, check out the power rating on the display including sleep/idle mode options and any “Eco” settings that may be available to reduce the power. And, if you also want to promote your greenness to your guests, look for TVs that have been through rating-scheme compliance systems like Energy Star.

The remote control needs to either be highly replaceable (cheap!) or sufficiently robust to survive being dropped, stepped on, thrown and so on The remote control needs to either be highly replaceable (cheap!) or sufficiently robust to survive being dropped, stepped on, thrown and so on (and for the last one, a partially rubberised finish will help in avoiding damage to other items).

Likewise, a strategy for battery management and retention is good to consider as regular replacements due to wear or theft become a costly overhead!

If you have general security concerns, a TV with a locking point, such as the ubiquitous Kensington Lock is a good idea provided you have something solid to attach the other end of the leash to.

Warranty is a major consideration when you are deploying a large number of TVs. Sure, in your home you can play the odds on how long your TV is likely to last, but when you have potentially 100s of them the statistics will come and get you!

Whatever your refresh cycle is (3-5 years?), having a warranty that covers most or all of this period will likely be a significant benefit – though as with all warranties the rule applies in terms of what’s covered and how much cost it adds.

Energy Consumption is a big deal both in terms of your bottom line and your guests’ preferences. So, whether you just

In addition to these points, consider whether the TV can be easily integrated for central control so that you can turn it off when the room is not in use, for example. More about this in the Integration section.

Management Settings and Lockout Functions are all about making your life easier – both in the initial setup and the resetting if you have a particularly dramatic power outage or otherwise.

Common items to be locked out / set up include Maximum Volume level (so guests can’t annoy their neighbours), Tuning settings (so they can’t lose the channels you’ve programmed), labelling inputs and putting your Logo on the welcome page.

There are of course other features as well and to get the most out of your new Hotel TV range it’s well worth reading the manual in detail and reviewing all the options before you select and deploy your chosen screens.

Once you are at the point of setup, it is increasingly common that the TVs can be configured via a USB stick – or over the network if they have IP capability. This reduces the hassle for you and your staff and particularly in the case of IP connectivity dramatically increases the speed with which you can configure a large number of TVs. If this is an important feature to you, make sure you double check it when choosing a screen.

Ease of Use / Guest Features Getting back to the guest experience, people increasingly use large amounts to technology in their homes and as a result expect more flexibility and options when they are staying away from home. Some examples of these features include: Plug in point for laptop / iPad – including multiple connector types such as HDMI, VGA, Component and Composite, each with Audio

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• Sleep function / Alarm function • USB port for movie playback from a USB stick • Digital TV capability (this also has implications on your building cabling) • Headphone outlet • Bathroom speaker output Thinking about these factors will help to better match the screens you select to the desires of your clientele. Depending on the time available, it may even be worth attempting a guest survey to establish which, if any, of these features your guests would value.

The TV is of course not a standalone device. There are various Integration Capabilities that you should consider, starting first and foremost with how you are distributing TV channels across the building to each screen.

At minimum, in 2011, you need to have a cabling infrastructure that supports Digital TV transmission. Depending on the age of your current infrastructure, it may well presently only handle analogue distribution. There are various options for arranging a Digital TV capability, but all of them have fairly considerable costs attached – especially when you plan to incorporate Pay TV channels as part of the mix.

If you have a newer system (last 3-5 years), you may well already have Digital TV distribution or even IPTV infrastructure.

Most such systems will either be able to connect directly to the TV through an antenna / network input or will come with set top boxes that enable connection via HDMI or a similar plug type.

If you are looking at direct connection, it is extremely important to make sure that the TV you select is actually compatible with the main distribution system. For example, just because your TV has a network port on it does not by any means guarantee that it will be compatible with an IPTV system. There are various aspects to consider here in terms of encoding format, encryption, TV guide functionality and billing options. Things are sufficiently non-standard at present that the best advice I can give you is to check carefully before you select a TV – and again if at

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all possible test the TV with your current (or planned) system before procurement and deployment.

It is increasingly common to have a “triple play” system in hotel rooms, whereby TV, telephony and internet access are all provided over the same network. If this is the case with your hotel, it is highly likely that you will need a set top box to provide connection to the TV. Remember to consider the size of the box, where it might sit relative to the TV and any extension functions you need to provide for the remote control. A number of Hotel TVs offer the ability to directly integrate IR control via a port on the back of the TV. Make sure that your TV is using the same IR control standard as the set top box in this case and that the set top box’s remote control is compatible with the TV in terms of feature set – or that the TV remote provides the various functions you need to access the set top box’s billing and other functions.

Internet TV is also becoming common – whereby the TV enables not just access to “broadcast” channels, but also those streamed via the internet. This is by no means a common feature on TVs so if you feel it is something you want to offer make sure you check in detail what each screen model offers – many use rather oblique descriptions that may sound like Internet TV but are actually USB ports for guests to plug in their own media.

As a last point on integration options, you may also want to consider building other

control functions into your remote controls, such as Lighting, Air Conditioning and so on to afford your guest one easy point of control in the room. However, this is often a nonstandard option and may have significant implications in your system complexity and cost – as well as being dependent on the requisite sophistication in your lighting and A/C systems.

And last, but not least, think about the Future. Crystal balls have not become much more reliable in the past few years, but certainly some things you may want to consider are 3D compatibility, videoconference / videochat capabilities and internet access via the TV so that your guests can both watch TV and surf the internet via the one screen.

Of course, some of the points in the Integration section may well count as the future depending on your hotel’s present level of technology adoption.

I would suggest that the most important key to success in selecting your next range of TVs is planning out what you require in advance. Remember to be flexible as it may not be possible to get all the features you want into your budget. Of course, a great way to do this is the tried and tested 3-part list of “Essential”, “Desirable” and “Wish List” which then allows you to grade each offering against your priorities.

I hope that you’ll be able to find something that meets as many of your needs as possible and gives the greatest possible enjoyment to your guests. ■

Are architects failing building services personnel?

By GREG BLAIN

This article is about the design of HVAC building facilities from an architect’s point of view.

Each of these three basic features can be broken down further into sub-features including: • Vehicle access and parking:

A primary duty of an architect is to design buildings suited to user needs. This is a challenge as there is a wide range of building users, from the owner to occupants to irregular visitors to people who only use the spaces outside the building. Building users also include HVAC maintenance personnel.

• direct and easy access • adequate parking without double parking • loading/unloading without restricting other vehicle or personnel movement

HVAC systems and their efficient operation are an important part of a building. Owners financially benefit from installing state of the art, efficient HVAC systems as any higher install costs can be recouped by energy and maintenance savings. Shorter on-site time maintenance contributes significantly to lower operation costs. This on-site time depends on many things, including building planning.

• safe vehicle and equipment movement

Building design needs to incorporate good building planning for user operational efficiency. To do this the architect needs to analyse all who will use the building and their activities, then design the building to suit.

• safe and facilitated equipment movement.

Building planning is not the only part of building design. Other considerations include aesthetics, building costs, climatic and environmental controls, structural design, services design, landscaping, build-ability, material and finishes selections, authority regulations and approvals, contractual requirements and others. These, as well as building planning, need to be resolved largely by the architect, on a project by project basis.

This article only investigates building planning relating to HVAC maintenance.

Building planning affects all building users and ranges from fundamental things such as building entry location and movement within the building, to minute detail such as which way a door swings or which way a control panel faces.

HVAC maintenance contractors know that every site visit has its particular challenges, regardless of building quality. Building planning relating to HVAC maintenance involves design of three basic facility features: vehicle access and parking, work area access and the work areas.

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Work area access: • close to and as direct as possible to vehicles • close to and as direct as possible to other related work areas • minimal ladder and harness use

Work areas: • adequate space for plant • adequate space for work conduct • adequate space for plant component access and installation or removal • facilitation of communication with other maintenance personnel • avoidance of unnecessary movement to other work areas • provision of in-built facilities including gantries, work benches, anchor points, first aid and fire-fighting facilities.

These basic sub-features can also be broken down further into sub-sub-features including the provision of adequate shelter, ventilation, lighting, noise control, security and safety.

For the architect, building planning for HVAC maintenance needs to be done together with planning for all the other building users. Building planning as a whole needs to be done together with all the other architectural considerations not addressed in this article (e.g. aesthetics, building costs, etc.) This is the challenge of architecture.

Designing a building with building planning and other architectural considerations is not done by the architect alone. The architect coordinates a range of other professionals including the architect’s own staff and consultants. Consultants are usually separate business entities engaged on a job to job basis.

Consultants often include a quantity surveyor, land surveyor, landscape architect and a variety of engineers. Different engineers are dedicated to structural, civil and earthworks, acoustics, electrical and communications services, hydraulic services, fire protection and security services and mechanical services. The mechanical services engineer is the consultant the architect relies on for HVAC expertise.

The mechanical engineer designs a specific HVAC system based on architect requirements and it is an integral part of building design. Basic HVAC design considerations include cost, operational efficiency and maintenance.

The architect requires basic HVAC understanding but will make decisions and do related building planning in consultation with the mechanical engineer. HVAC facility features, sub-features and sub-sub-features (mentioned previously) need resolution.

Resolution quality is determined by building owner commitment to quality, but also to the professional standards of the architect and mechanical engineer.

These professional standards are influenced by ability and experience, but also by determination to pursue quality. This determination works at two levels, firstly to be the best in a chosen field of endeavour and, secondly, by the architect convincing the building owner to invest in efficient building services. Professional standards and determination vary between individuals.

The range of professional standards and determination reflects a corresponding range of building design outcomes. An architect may aim for maximum fees to produce plain buildings which just comply with legal codes. An architect may aim for expensive aesthetic sculptures which perform poorly as buildings but win awards and magazine exposure.

A building designer may not be an architect. Many architects, however, work with integrity and strive to diligently provide for building users in an environmentally clean way, as best they can under commercial pressure.

Complaints of poor HVAC building planning may be valid.

Architects can mistakenly concentrate on ‘front of house’ issues while neglecting everyday ‘back of house’, including HVAC maintenance facilities. Architects, like all professionals, need constant reminding of the importance of these everyday issues.

Reminders can occur in many ways. One way is for CCN readers to use the lobbying power of their relevant professional associations to engage architectural associations in meaningful dialogue. Professional associations exist to support members.

Why not put them to the test?

Greg Blain started his Architectural studies part-time in 1978 in Brisbane while working with a variety of Architects and Builders gaining Registration as an Architect in 1989 and his building license in 2000. Greg has worked on many different size and type projects during his career, often in the role of Project Architect. Currently Greg operates a Technical Consultancy and Specification Writing Service to other Architectural Practices and is working to develop a Subscriber based design, technical and educational resource for the Building Industry, hopefully to be operational in a year of two. Greg has authored the design and construction e-book www.letsbuild.com.au guide for house Owners and will soon publish a similar e-book for commercial building Owners.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 25

Chiller Project Success Plan 12 essential items for Chiller Project Success The Chiller Project Success Plan is a series of questions that allows Customers to begin to manage all areas of the chiller installation including high risk areas. This is part of the Summit Matsu Chillers standardised process for successful chiller projects which covers scoping, documentation, testing, commissioning, service and extended warranty.

C

hiller Project Success Plan should also be read with The Chiller Evaluation Checklist which is a 15 point plan for evaluating the chiller supplier and chiller machinery.

Summit Matsu Chillers is an Australian manufacturing company with a staff of specialist chiller engineers. We are not an importer of finished products, we are not a “box mover”. We are interested in total project success for our Customers because we know that buying a chiller is just one part of the project. In fact our entire Quality Assurance process is built around one major factor: Project Success.

Our experience has shown us this approach reduces risk, increases chance of total chiller project success, and leads to a lower total long term cost of ownership.

1. Know your figures Spend time to ask the right questions about all areas of the chiller installation.

Ask your chiller supplier for a standardised process for collecting this information.

Determining the heat load is the most important thing. In all cases the information required to specify a cooling system is water temperature required FROM the chiller, water return TO the

chiller, water flow required at the heat source, pressure drop through the heat source and through the pipework. For machinery cooling the suppliers of the machinery should be able to advise cooling requirements otherwise your chiller supplier should be able to advise.

Other factors to consider are water quality, interaction between mixed metals in the system and the possibility of corrosion, extreme high or low ambient or process temperatures and power stability.

The biggest issue here is chiller water temperature. Why? Running your chiller with a warmer water outlet temperature WILL SAVE POWER – you could save as much as 40% on running costs.

2. Determine if a chiller is the right equipment There are many ways to cool processes and machinery. A chiller may not be the most effective method.

3. Know your climate You need to be aware of maximum summer temperatures and minimum winter temperatures. It is important that chillers are designed to operate at these conditions. Also look at the average

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temperatures because this will determine the chiller performance and expected electrical power consumption over the year.

Also look at the install location. Adequate air flow is critical. Look at heat sources such as waste heat from generators or air compressors or radiant heat from building walls as these will all raise the operating air temperature where the chiller is located and will impact chiller performance. Ideally chiller air intakes should be away from heat sources. Check the install location with your supplier.

For best results a shade cloth or enclosure can be used to shield the chiller from excessive solar heat, however this must be installed in such a way as to not reduce air flow.

4. Decide if AIR COOLED or WATER COOLED chillers are more suitable Both air cooled and water cooled chillers use a refrigeration system and have a cold side heat exchanger (evaporator) where the refrigerant gas collects heat from the water stream and a hot side heat exchanger (condenser) where the refrigerant gas discharges heat from the system. The difference between two is the type of condenser.

Air cooled condensers are a typically made of copper tubes and aluminium fins similar to a large radiator. The refrigerant gas is inside the copper tubes and as ambient temperature air is sucked across the fins by the condenser fans the heat energy is transferred from the refrigerant gas into the air flow – where it is exhausted as waste hot air.

Water cooled condensers are typically a shell and tube heat exchanger where refrigerant gas is in the copper tubes, and cooling tower water is circulated around the tubes in the shell. The heat energy is transferred from the refrigerant gas to the water, which then flows to the cooling tower where it is removed by way of evaporation.

In terms of capital cost air cooled chillers can have a lower up front capital cost when compared to the full scope of equipment required for a new water cooled system.

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Air cooled chillers have the benefit of less infrastructure requirement and ease of installation.

Water cooled chillers require a cooling tower to operate and require infrastructure such as water piping and pumps to the condenser. Additional pumps or pump upgrades may be required as part of a new chiller installation. The cooling tower capacity should be checked to make sure there is adequate capacity for the new chiller heat load. Cooling towers also can breed legionella bacteria so require regular chemical dosing and licensing with a local Government authority and are also subject to regular Council inspections.

Cooling towers work better in drier, rather than humid conditions. Cooling towers use large quantities of water.

5. Ensure adequate air flow For air-cooled chillers there needs to be adequate air flow both ONTO the chiller condensers and OUT OF the chiller fans. If ducting is required the chiller condenser fan motors will need to be larger because of the higher static air pressure that the fans need to work against. Ducting diameter should be larger than the chiller air discharge spigots and the cross sectional area should be in proportion to the air volume and duct length.

6. Check your power Site power should be checked to ensure there is adequate power to run chillers and water pumps. The price to install new transformers, sub mains, sub boards and any other electrical contracting to the chiller should be taken into account in

your project budget before deciding to proceed with the project.

7. Know your control requirement – don’t pay for what you don’t need Chillers can be configured to operate in many ways. Following are some options ranging from lowest to highest cost: •

Local operation (switch the chiller on or off at the machine)

•

Remote start stop / remote general fault (start and stop from a switch room)

•

High Level Interface (control the chiller through Plant PLC or Building Management System)

•

Remote service monitoring (control the chiller remotely via the Internet or via GSM sim card)

8. Check your water The available water supply should be checked for suitability as a process water fluid. Allowance should be made for dosing water with corrosion inhibitors. Water piping should be sized adequately for chilled water flows and for future expansion.

9. Allow for expansion Can you put in chiller infrastructure now that takes into account future growth? A small amount spent today can have big savings in the future.

Water piping for additional processes or chillers can often be installed at the same time as installing the chiller â&#x20AC;&#x201C; even if full piping is not installed, tees with shut off valves installed at the time of the initial chiller project can allow for future piping connections to proceed without the need to stop production.

Can electrical supply be allocated for expansion? Make cable trays wider for additional cable. Make isolation cabinets

big enough for additional chillers or equipment.

recommended in the system to stabilise the water temperatures and to reduce hunting on controls.

10. Plan for redundancy Is there a need for multiple refrigeration circuits within the chiller that would allow for continued chiller operation even if there was a failure in one of the chiller compressors? This would be advised where there is a SINGLE chiller on site.

Where MULTIPLE chillers can be used is there total redundancy across all aspects of the system: pumps, chillers, controllers?

11.Know your load variation Process heat load variation can cause chiller controls to hunt and for chiller systems to run at partial capacities.

Because chillers are subject to the weather they will already do this, however many chillers are not designed to run at partial loads for extended periods of time. This should be communicated with your chiller manufacturer. For all process chilled water systems a buffer water tank is

12.Make sure you have a good freight company Make sure you have a freight company that can move chillers. Make sure you have transport insurance in place. â&#x2013;

Summit Matsu Chillers manufactures and distributes water chillers Australia wide for industrial processes, food processing, petrochemical applications, scientific uses, process cooling and air conditioning for all types of applications.

Summit Matsu Chillers also commission and service from 2kW to 1200kW water chillers Australia wide and throughout the Middle East.

Further details can be found at: www.matsu.com.au Tel: 1300 CHILLERS (1300 244 553) Tel: +61 2 9698 4666 Fax: +61 2 9698 4688

Laundry Design

By JOHN WOLLINGTON Principal LDC Laundry Design & Consultancy

The use by Hotels of their own In-House laundry as against outsourcing often takes into account many varied reasons.

Many an article has been written on the pros and cons of a hotel operating its own “in-house” laundry whether it be a 5 star property in the CBD or a smaller hotel/motel.

The cost benefit analysis when undertaken often does not take into account the hidden costs of the laundry.

Poorly or under designed services supply and return to and from the laundry, the location of services in relationship to the laundry, sizing of pipework etc will all impact on the efficiency of the laundry operation, there is a further cost when the location of the laundry is such that it ends up being “built in” and the cost of building work years down the track to repair/replace equipment has not been taken into account.

All factors need to be looked at in conjunction with:

• • • • •

Space.

Equipment.

Linen.

Staff Utilities.

Space Space for a laundry or valet facility is more often or not compromised and given way less thought than anything the other back of house service the kitchen is afforded. Even then the amount of space provided is often, less than is required to be able to allow the laundry to operate satisfactory.

The actual location of the laundry even allowing for the total area allocated is the start of the Hotel’s engineering issues.

By trying to reduce the total area the laundry/valet takes up within the building and the location of the laundry/valet will

often result with the laundry having to function seven (7) days a week up to twenty (20) hours per day.

Preventative maintenance thereby often is not able to be undertaken, as engineering simply cannot get access to equipment until it breaks down.

This presents further issues often as a direct result of the location of the laundry within the building ceiling height is kept down to a minimum, machines are pushed back as far as they can be and butted up against one another.

In addition the laundry will most likely still have to maintain some level of output to satisfy the hotel managers and guests.

Equipment All laundry and valet equipment has a limited life span depending on the amount of use involved and will have to be replaced at some stage. in most cases manufacturers estimate that the

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warranty will cover 12 months or 2080 operating hours.

Yet with the architect and builder responsible for where the equipment is placed what thought is given to the possibility of having to replace equipment, even servicing of the equipment can provide difficult, with limited access.

What happens when major pieces of equipment have to be replaced or major service work has to be undertaken. The laundry equipment is installed more often than not in an out of the way location and built in afterwards. Effectively out of sight out of mind.

No matter whether installed in a sub basement or even when installed is on upper levels similar problems can present themselves.

Access during the construction phase of a building may not present an issue for getting the equipment delivery, placed into position and then installed.

During the design phase the services requirements for the laundry/valet can be calculated and passed on to the builder, however we have experienced more than one occasion when the position of boilers and other sundry essential services are relocated or car park ramps come between the two and the services have to take a detour, which as a result effect the final laundry/valet supply and hence the production required.

Staff Within most major hotels and resorts the chief engineer has to manage his staff resources, so the first question that has to be asked within the hotel will be who will take responsibility for the servicing of the equipment.

Does the chief engineer allocate a dedicated engineer or use the services of whoever engineer on staff is available. The laundry functions at its best when engineering personnel take ownership of the laundry equipment. Without a dedicated engineer for the laundry how reliant does the facility become of outsourcing the laundry service and maintenance.

Where no one person is given the responsibility of the laundry/valet within

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the engineering department often the cost to maintain the facility increases as a direct result of the facility having to rely on outsourced service providers.

Most of the major equipment suppliers run training workshops/seminars and invite hotel service department engineers to attend and it is recommended that such offers are taken up, the major equipment suppliers have a vested interest in assisting with the smooth running of your laundry.

In a number of cases arrangements are made for the engineering department to carry stock on indent on premises, this particularly applies in the more remote areas.

Engineering during any warranty periods need to be there when suppliers/ manufacturers staff are on site asking questions and learning about the equipment

Linen The other issue down the track is once the equipment is getting past the used by date the hotels management may have changed hands, and now the asset manager sees big expensive equipment which needs replacing and to make the decision on whether to update the laundry/valet or use an outsourced provider

valet service. The linen and valet will stay on site reducing the lost factor and time factor from an outside provider.

With the laundry being on premises you can also keep your linen par levels around 3 (although five would be better).

There are a number of well managed well equipment run laundries in most major cities, but if you take Sydney as an example the good ones have their production quota full.

With the possible move away from replacing their own equipment to using an outsource linen service provider, the first question to be asked is does the hotel fully retain its own linen, start off with its own linen but as it needs replacing move over to the laundry service providers stock, or sell its linen assets and start from day one as a linen hire client.

All have their issues, three (3) par is acceptable for an in-house set up, once the decision is made to outsource whilst retaining ownership of the linen this number increases to 5-7 par.

If using rental linen to any extent, what guarantee or contract is entered into to provide assurance of the linen quality levels.

Utilities

Which way will they go, what benchmarking will they use, will it be which is the cheaper?

Hotels should insure that their in-house laundry confirms to the Australian Laundry Standard

The initial question they ask can be is running a laundry/valet part of the hotels core business.

AS/NZS: 4146-2000. It should also be asked of any outsource provider do they comply and can this be validated.

We have frequently seen this done with work going to the cheapest provided, one small issue when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a 5 star hotel, quality and service is what your guests pay for and the bed linen now needs to be hand ironed by the staff as the quality v cost is now what you get.

Under the standard the linen being processed must either be thermally or chemically disinfected.

A recent article in the Executive Housekeeper magazine covered what make a Hotel Stand out from the Crowd , often it is the linen used.

With an in house laundry/valet, the hotel has control of its linen/valet. The hotel can control the quality of its linen to meet its standard. The hotel can keep the revenue from providing their clients with a

To be able to achieve thermal disinfection the wash must reach 65oC for 10 minutes or 72oC for 3 minutes. If neither can be reached then the linen must be chemically treated.

Thermal disinfection with todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modern equipment can be readily validated via the washing machines computers.

To be able to achieve thermal disinfection the hotel engineer must insured that the laundry is provided with the required dry steam at the required pressure and flow rate, the engineering department also

needing to maintain the steam traps and other services. This all taking place without the hotels engineering department having a say in the initial size or location within the building of the boiler(s) Having to provide the laundry with the required services can place a strain on the effective use of engineering service, so what are the options.

Under the standard AS/NZS-4146:2000 where thermal disinfection cannot/is not used then the linen to be able to achieve the required outcome must be chemically disinfected.

The use of cleaning via chemical disinfection has appeal as it is low temperature washing, thus not requiring the hotel engineer to be concerned over providing steam for the laundry, with cold water washing and direct gas heating for the dryers.

With any chemical disinfection process, companies can confirm that the required

chemical dosing is/has taken place but sample testing of batches would still need to be undertaken on a regular basis to provide validation.

It should be noted that under the standard the main wash time for chemical disinfection increase to twelve (12) minutes) Currently under chemical disinfection umbrella is Ozone which as per the standard AS/NZS 4146:2000 is deemed to be treated as any other chemical product.

Ozone has great properties for removing odour, but still needs to be treated as a gas and monitored accordingly. Some of the claims applied to the use of ozone as a cleaning agent are in our opinion, still to be proven Water is the other large utility used by the laundry.

Unless the laundry is able to justify the cost, and size of a Tunnel Washer, they will use washer extractors which will need

between 20-25 liters of water per Kg of dry weight linen placing yet further strains on the engineering department to deliver not only the water in but also the volume of discharge water, all whilst having to monitor the flow and temperature of the discharge water to meet the local regulations that govern discharge.

All too often when an in-house laundry facility is set up little or no thought is given to water recycling or another form of energy reuse including waste heat.

So should a hotel install its own in-house operation or outsource. There is any number of variables to be resolved to answered is question, however, one thing that is for certain, is that when it comes to looking at the options or for that matter consideration with any changes to an existing in-house laundry/ valet facility one person that needs to be included for the outset is the hotel chief engineer. â&#x2013;

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DDA Implications for Existing Hotel Upgrades and Alterations

By MARK LEWIS Manager Building Surveying, Hendry Group

Recent moves to improve the commonality of the Access Code for Buildings to the Building Code of Australia 2011 (BCA) and the Disability (Access to Premises – Buildings) Standards 2009 have substantially harmonised the BCA with the Disability Discrimination Act. As a result, the integration of the Access Code with the BCA carries significant implications for building owners, tenants, hotel engineers and facility managers.

The Premises Standards contain detailed information specifying the circumstances and types of building where the Standards apply, and they apply to a new building, a new part of an existing building, and the affected part of an existing building.

The affected part of a building means: • the principal pedestrian entrance of an existing building that contains a new part and • any part of an existing building that contains a new part, that is necessary to provide a continuous accessible path of travel from the entrance to the new part.

Generally speaking, the affected part of a building must comply with the new access requirements where alterations and/or additions are proposed to an existing building, and the proposed work is subject to a building permit/complying development certificate or a construction certificate.

The affected part of the building does not apply to: • existing parts of buildings outside the area of the new work and the affected part upgrade • an accessway from the allotment boundary, from any accessible car parking space on the allotment or between other buildings on the allotment.

Upgrading works for an affected part may include: • accessibility of upper floors to new work

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• providing lift access features such as Braille or tactile buttons • signage • removing a step at a building entrance • upgrading handrails on a ramp • minimum width requirements of doorways or passageways, including passing and turning spaces.

Lessees submitting an application for approval for the building work to their leased area only, do not need to ensure that the affected part of the building complies with the Premises Standards.

However, this concession does not apply if the new part is within a building with only one lessee, or where the works include works to other parts of the building. Note that for building owners who make alterations or upgrades to their buildings, the Premises Standards provisions will apply regardless of whether the building is multi-tenanted or not.

The Premises Standards makes some limited concessions to these circumstances. For example, a lift is not required in a building of not more than three storeys, with a floor area of each storey, of not more than 200m².

There are also concessions for existing lifts and disabled persons toilets under certain circumstances, and there is also a general exemption for areas where providing access would be inappropriate because of the purpose for which the area is used, such as a fire lookout tower for example, or to areas that would pose a health or safety risk for people with a disability.

Existing buildings that are not undergoing any alterations or change of use are not required to be upgraded to comply with the BCA 2011. However the existing building could still be the subject of a compliant under the Disability Discrimination Act, and the case made that the building does not meet the general requirements for access in accordance with the Premises Standard.

While an application can be made on the grounds of unjustifiable hardship, the extent of documentation that must be submitted with the application, (including financial position and so forth) is likely to make the process a difficult one that will receive serious scrutiny by the applicable State or Territory Appeals authority, and ultimately, unjustifiable hardship may only be conclusively determined by a Federal Court or the Federal Magistrates Court.

The circumstances under which these provisions will prevail will in all likelihood be tested going forward, but there is no doubt that the provisions for access code compliance have been significantly strengthened, and the scope for dispensations significantly curtailed.

Source material courtesy Victorian Building Commission website, the NSW Building Professionals Board website and the Australasian Legal Information Institute (A joint facility of UTS and UNSW Faculties of Law) website. For further reading go to the Victorian Building commission website – “Practice Notes”, or the NSW Building Professionals Board website – “Premises Standards” menu item.

HSIA made easy HSIA – high-speed guest Internet access – is now reaching that stage where it is an expected commodity within the hotel/motel room in Australia. Staying connected while on the move has become an accepted part of the Australian lifestyle, illustrated with Internet access penetration now at 74.3% of the population.

Guests expect to have Internet access at properties where they decide to stay and your potential guest will know in advance whether or not you have it. The tried and tested argument “my guests don’t ask for it” is exhausted. It is the guest that never checks in who is the one you missed because they decided to stay somewhere else that has HSIA. When a property is considering installing guest Internet access, there are a number of things a property should consider. These include the following questions that will influence the style of service that the property decides to adopt.

• Where on the property will I provide coverage? Will the Internet service be in all of the rooms and the common areas, inside and outside, or just in one central area?

• How will the Internet access be provided? Access can be provided by a blue cable in the room, wirelessly or via television wiring, on the television, on a computer in the property or via the guests own laptop.

• Do I want a system that is integrated into my current IT systems, talking to my PMS system or do I want it stand alone?

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Systems can be automated requiring no staff interaction or you can have a system that has guest access managed by your staff.

If you have an automatic system it requires little or no maintenance as all charges will automatically post to your guest folio in your PMS if the guest uses the service. If you have a manual network you will need to ensure all of your staff know how to use the system.

• How will I support my guests who want to use the service?

Some guests may need help to get connected. Will you have someone on site to help them or use a help desk service that the guest can call? Between what hours can a guest get support, remembering that Internet usage peak times are between 7am and 9am and 7pm and 11pm.

• Will you charge guests for access or give the access away for free? If you own the equipment you have the flexibility to provide free access to all or preferred guests. If you don’t own the equipment you will have little influence over the prices charged. Guests generally expect to pay for Internet access and it can be a revenue generator not just a cost.

• Will I allow my guests access to everything on the Internet or will I block some content?

The Internet offers a plethora of content, some of which is very large in size. You may wish to block some content (such as movie and music downloads) that use up lots of bandwidth as your ISP may charge you for exceeding your monthly download limit. You may also want to block illegal or inappropriate content.

• Do you want to own the system or do you want someone else to own it? “User owns” or “revenue share” models are the two most popular ways to get an HSIA network. User owns means that you own the equipment and it becomes an asset of the

property. Most providers will either sell it or lease it to you, which means it becomes either a tax deduction or a depreciating asset. If you own it you can control how much you charge for access and retain all of the revenue. Revenue share means that someone else installs in the equipment, someone else owns it and someone else makes the majority of the money that the system generates. Revenue share generally gives between five to 15% of all revenue back to the property.

How you install the access on your property will also depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to: • How big is your property? Are you on acreage, is the building single storey or multi storey building, are you a caravan park or do you have multiple buildings on your property?

• What is your building made of? Materials such as brick, double brick, sheet metal, trees and distance between buildings can have an influence on how you install your HSIA. • How much of your site do you want to cover? If you have a large site, one device sitting in reception is not going to offer coverage in every room. You may need multiple devices that can need cabling and power, which will be in addition to the cost of the equipment.

• What equipment do you already have on site? These days HSIA can be provided using wireless, telephone wiring and television wiring.

Wireless: This travels through the air and requires no cables for a guest to connect to. It involves installing wireless devices such as antennas, access points and boosters on a site in multiple locations. Wireless can be the hardest to install properly as you may need multiple devices to get a signal that covers your whole property. The belief that you can install one device and cover an eight-story building with wireless Internet access is a common misconception!

Telephone wiring: If you have telephone wiring in the building this can be used to get a signal to each room. It requires no additional cabling and involves installing a device alongside the phone system and a small device in each room. All the guest will see is a blue cable to connect to their laptop.

Television cabling: Coax solutions allow you to use your television wiring to provide Internet access in each room. One device is installed at the junction box of your television antenna input and another small device in each room. All the guest will see is a blue cable to connect to their laptop.

Ideally equipment you already have on site will be used to create a HSIA network.

Now that you have an idea as to how you could get HSIA on your property, it is also important to consider what else you can do with the service. It is no longer just about Internet access, it is almost like, my Internet access network is just the road, and now what vehicles can I drive on it?

As the Internet and Internet technologies continue to expand it becomes about services, how can you use this network to better service your guests, how can you use it to:

• Get your guests to spend more money?

• Get your guests to use more services?

• Service your guests better with no extra resources?

• Use your staffing resources more effectively?

New products and services coming for hotels and motels that can use your Internet service include: • Internet radio - some radio stations now broadcast over the Internet. You can listen to your favourite radio station from home (local or overseas) while you are travelling.

There are also Internet radio alarm clocks that connect to the net.

• IPTV - this is television that is delivered via the Internet.

More and more stations are taking to the Internet and there are television stations that you can watch from overseas. This requires the television to be connected to the Internet.

• Movies and videos on demand - instead of having DVD players and physical DVDs you would have them stored on a server and then play to the room as the guest wants it.

Generally you would have 100 movies that change every week, keeping them up to date and fresh.

• Online compendiums - with the move to “green” imagine if your whole guest compendium could be seen on the television when the guest turned it on. No more ripped or missing pages and it can be updated daily without the need to print it out for every room.

• E-commerce – what if your guest could order room service through their laptop or the television and didn’t need to call the kitchen or speak to hotel staff? What if you could have the room service menu and all hotel information in multiple languages? E-commerce is the latest technology to emerge in the accommodation industry. A hotel/motel room can be connected to outside services to book things such as taxis, tours or food online 24 hours a day without the need to speak to your staff.

Just imagine you have a guest from Germany. They turn up to their room, they open the door and the radio is playing their favourite local German radio station. They turn on the television and the welcome message and daily hotel news is on the television in German. The guest wants room service so on the television they can see the menu in English and in German and they can order by using the television – no more struggling to know the right words and no ordering something that they want when they are in a country where they don’t speak the language well (if at all!)

Would this improve the experience the guest has while staying at your property? How many people do you think they would tell and do you think that they may just come back?

Technology is something that is no longer just for techies, it can be used to help you run your business better and sell beds, which at the end of the day is the thing that you all need to do best. ■

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ADVERTORIAL

An Integrated Approach to Guest Room Entertainment & Internet

By ROSS COLDWELL

Converging all the key elements of a guest’s expectations of quality information, communication and entertainment into a single easy-to-use interface.

L

ifestylepanel Pty Ltd develops leading-edge in-room display and information technologies for use in the international hotel market.

We deal to the all too common difficulties and frustration guests have trying to work or being informed or entertained in their hotel room. The simple things, like access to the internet, movies, television and other hotel services, and being able to easily communicate with their business, family and friends while away from home.

The LSP System meets those needs neatly and simply by integrating the range of guest services a hotel has to offer, such as movies, television, the Internet, Skype communications, hotel information, advertising and online shopping, all into a proprietary system driving a High Definition LCD display panel with easy-to-use remote control and wireless keyboard.

Many international hotels are now facing high cost capital outlays to upgrade their outdated, typically analogue in-room entertainment systems, often having to deal with multiple vendors. The LSP System and business model allows the hotel to undertake such an upgrade with little or no capital outlay, and with little or no disruption to existing guest services. Subject to a site survey a hotel’s current coax infrastructure may be used. Installation is quick, efficient and leaves a tidy room setup. No set top box is required, no tacked-on hardware – the panel is cabled discreetly directly into the wall, and it can quickly start generating revenue for the hotel.

Importantly, the hotel has only the one vendor to deal with. LSP controls and manages the entire process, from installation through ongoing provision and management of the system including movies and other entertainment content.

The LSP system has real time online reporting with simplified billing. It can be integrated with leading PMS systems, and the interface customised for the Hotel’s branding. Access to web-based online compendiums and information pages is available. LSP can also offer menu language support in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

The LSP System allows for tuning to all panels in the hotel via remote access bringing a significant benefit as there is no requirement to visit individual rooms to manually adjust the TV. Having the Internet and Skype available via the screen captures revenues from Guests who otherwise would need to carry their own laptops or other device. The Laptop Internet access will also work regardless of the

All the key elements of the Guest’s expectations of quality information, communication and entertainment converge into a single easy-to-use interface

Guest’s computer setup, be it DCHP or Static IP. Guest email does not require changes to POP or SMTP settings.

A Guest VPN is supported by the LSP system and Port forwarding requirements can be configured remotely by LSP support staff as and when required.

The LSP System delivers: •

fast and secure internet browsing

•

access to WebMail services and inbuilt VOIP Skype service

•

discretion - all Internet history is removed from the system at the close of each internet session

•

simulcast movies viewable immediately or bookmark to view any time later – all with full trick-play functions

•

discrete movie billing with non-disclosure of titles

The LSP System is an easy to manage service utilising dependable industry class hardware and software platforms, with full 24/7 support for Hotel staff and guests.

LSP manages it all and offers the Hotel a real point of difference. ■

Ross Coldwell is the Managing Director of Lifestylepanel Pty Limited and can be contacted at ross@lifestylepanel.com

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 41

Why emotional intelligence is needed by hotel engineers There is nothing warm and fuzzy about an emotionally intelligent engineer.

By RACHEL GREEN

What is emotional intelligence and why should it matter to hotel engineers? This paper illustrates the reasons why emotional intelligence is important, what it is and isn’t, and how emotions drive the way people, including hotel engineers, behave. It contains comments and examples from a recent engineering conference and some of the reactions from the audience. Practical applications are included so the benefits of using emotional intelligence skills can be gained when managing staff, communicating with stakeholders and making important decisions. It is clear from this paper that emotional intelligence is not a warm fuzzy way to access your feminine side but a vital set of skills impacting on work productivity when planning, building and maintaining your hotel.

W

hen I grew up I was encouraged to hide and control my emotions, as though they were something bad. When I was first employed I understood I was not to take them to work with me and I was to factor them OUT of any decisions I made. Sound familiar?

Nowadays, people talk about emotional intelligence and say that emotions DO matter. Do they, and if so, why? How can emotions possibly have any relevance to the work of hotel engineers?

Let’s roll the clocks back to 1990. At that time two leading USA psychologists, Professors Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer coined the term “emotional intelligence”. They’d been investigating what else, in addition to IQ, could help explain or predict people’s successful adaptation to life.

You and I are both familiar with the IQ factory production line. It predicts that if you go to school, prove that you’re brainy, pass all your exams and graduate from college or university, your life will be successful.

However, it turns out that this is not always the case. Instead, Salovey, Mayer and others noticed that some people with

really high IQs fell by the wayside. They would end up in abusive relationships, become alcoholics or find themselves broke, unemployed or in jail.

I am sure we all know people who are very well educated and have high IQs but who, for example, are unpleasant to deal with, socially inept or unable to work well in a team.

One of the factors that Salovey and Mayer found contributed to how well people managed their lives was their ability to be aware of and manage their own and others’ emotions, hence the term “emotional intelligence”.

Before explaining this further it is important to say that EI complements IQ; it doesn’t replace it. IQ is still important, as are technical skills. No one wants an engineer, architect or electrician who is not technically competent. In addition, people’s personalities, cultural backgrounds, life experiences, ages, religious beliefs, genders and luck also contribute to their success, as does their emotional intelligence.

These researchers and their colleagues went on to discover that emotional intelligence was not just an important influence on life generally, but there was

also a significant correlation between higher levels of emotional intelligence and success at work. The found that emotional intelligence could have a profound effect on the way people work and how productive they are.

Australian research conducted by Dr Ben Palmer and Professor Con Stough, from Swinburne University in Melbourne, for instance, found that employees who have higher levels of emotional intelligence are more likely to cope with organisational stress, have less absenteeism and higher job satisfaction.

In other words, people with lower levels of emotional intelligence could be having a detrimental effect on your bottom line.

How much does absenteeism cost your workplace?

In case you don’t think emotions are relevant at work, what about feeling determined, motivated, loyal, confident or appreciated? If your staff, contractors, colleagues and even yourself, felt such emotions they would impact on work output, wouldn’t they? If I have still not convinced you would it make any difference to productivity if you, your staff or contractors felt complacent, apathetic, disconnected, unwanted, shafted, stressed or disengaged? Yes!

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Emotions do matter at work. Which ones you foster could make a big difference to getting your projects completed on time, on budget and to specification.

Your skills in emotional intelligence will influence the effectiveness of your self-management skills, how well you read other people, and how efficiently you manage and influence people. Suffice it to say ignoring emotions may be possible but there are negative consequences if you do.

There are increasing amounts of economic data that demonstrate that people with higher levels of emotional intelligence economically outperform those who have lower levels of EI. I don’t just mean in terms of their pay packets, but also in terms of annual business turnover, increased sales, customer loyalty, etc.

For example, David Rosete, from the University of Wollongong, found that, “Executives who achieved superior business outcomes scored higher on the EI ability test. The ability measure of EI predicted effective leadership over and above well-established workplace measures such as reasoning ability and personality…”.

Can you afford to be without it?

What is emotional intelligence?

Let me give you a brief definition of what emotional intelligence is and then explain how else this may help you as a hotel engineer.

I will use the definition of Palmer and Stough, as their model focuses on the workplace. They say that: “Emotional intelligence is the skill with which you perceive, express, reason with and manage your own and others’ emotions.”

Their Genos model of emotional intelligence covers seven dimensions: 1. Emotional self-awareness: The ability to identify your emotions.

2. Emotional expression: The ability to express your emotions clearly.

3. Emotional awareness of others: The skill of perceiving and understanding others’ emotions.

4. Reasoning with emotions: The skill of utilising accurate emotional information

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in decision-making. (This is not the same as making emotional decisions.)

5. Emotional self-management: The ability to manage your emotions.

6. Emotional management of others: The skill of influencing the emotions of others.

7. Emotional self-control: The skill of effectively controlling strong emotions.

There are many different skills involved and everyone is likely to be more or less skilled in each dimension.

How skilled are you?

What emotional intelligence isn’t.

It’s also important to clarify what emotional intelligence isn’t. At many of my presentations I get predictable cheeky remarks, such as “We’re in for a group hug are we Rachel?” and “Are you going to make us warm and fuzzy?” Thanks for thinking I had the power to do this, but no! Fortunately, it isn’t what emotional intelligence is about.

There is nothing warm or fuzzy about feeling angry, anxious, resentful, frustrated, scared, cheated or powerless, yet these are all emotions, and all emotions that occur in association with hotel facilities. Emotional intelligence involves the full range of emotions, not just so-called “positive” ones.

Similarly, emotional intelligence is not about making people happy, or saying “yes” to people. Nor is it about being emotional. Being emotional may be no more intelligent than ignoring or repressing emotions.

Why do emotions matter for hotel engineers?

Emotions are at the core of emotional intelligence. Emotions are drivers of behaviour – even in engineers. At the conference I demonstrated this quite simply by using three examples. In one I asked how many people knew all the health information on how much exercise, sleep and alcohol were good for them.

Naturally, of course, everyone knew this; it’s in the media on a daily basis. Everyone had the cognitive knowledge they needed to make informed and rational decisions about their health.

Then I asked, “How many of you do all these things?” It turned out hardly anyone did.

When we discussed why not a variety of reasons were produced and most were based around emotions. “Exercise is too boring” someone said. ”Does this mean that if you’re bored by it you avoid healthy exercise?” I asked. “Yes” he said. “In which case your emotions are driving your behaviour, not your cognition, as boredom is an emotion”, I replied.

Here was a group of highly intelligent (IQ) engineers making emotional and unhealthy decisions even though they had the knowledge to make healthier ones.

Why is this? Because behaviour is mostly driven by emotions.

The decision to act on what we know comes from emotions. When we feel convinced or excited (emotions) we may act. When we feel disinterested or complacent (emotions), we may not.

In the second example, we moved on to imagine that a car had cut in front of us in the traffic. “What would you do?” I asked.

The replies included gesturing, yelling and various retaliatory behaviours such as horn blowing and tail-gating. “Why would you do this when it’s safer to simply slow down?” I enquired.

Ah! It turned out that the gestures and yelling were because they felt indignant, angry, anxious, put-out or scared. Emotions were the drivers of their behaviour.

Finally I asked, “Last night at the conference, how many of you drank more than you knew you ought to?” Many hands went up. Why? Their responses included, “It feels good”, “I like it”, “It relaxes me”, “I like the taste” and “It’s comforting”.

Yes, emotions drive behaviour in engineers just as in all other people.

As Joshua Freedman states, “Emotions can lead to our worst decisions or our best ones: the difference is emotional intelligence.”

Practical applications of emotional intelligence – for hotel engineers managing staff.

How does any of this relate to your work?

The key is that emotions influence people to act in the way that they do. This means that if someone behaves on the job in a

certain way, be they male or female; the engineer, accountant or architect; the contractors, consultants or staff; the behaviour is often driven by emotions.

Thus, if you want to influence or change people’s behaviours when you are planning, developing or maintaining a hotel then look for and manage the emotions UNDER their behaviour.

For example, I once helped a manager who had two members of staff who weren’t talking to each other. He had called them into his office and laid down the rules about workplace communication and what he expected of them. In other words he gave them knowledge. You’ve guessed it, haven’t you? Their behaviour didn’t change.

When I came in I helped him plan a meeting with them to talk about the feelings that were going on underneath the behaviour. It turned out that one of the women had held an afternoon tea in the staff room, and had not invited the other one.

His first step was to ask, “How did you feel?” The woman who was not invited had felt slighted, ignored and hurt. Unable to tell the other woman this she had instead fallen into resentment, sulking and back-stabbing.

The second step the manager took was to ask her how she’d like to feel. The woman who had felt ignored said, “Included”.

The third step the manger carried out was to ask, “What could be done to help you feel included?” Between them they came up with some practical solutions. The problem was solved. No, the manger hadn’t become a counsellor he had merely used emotional intelligence skills to get the two women to sort out the problem and improve their behaviour.

People issues always involve emotions.

Anyone not got people issues to manage?

To be able to manage people you need to be aware of and able to manage emotions, yours and theirs.

In case you think your own emotions don’t matter – have you ever avoided giving hard and difficult feedback to someone?

If so, why? It’s quite common for people in supervisory, managerial or executive positions to avoid giving honest direct

feedback because of their own feelings of discomfort, awkwardness and anxiety.

Instead of managing these feelings in an emotionally intelligent way, they simply avoid the situation or soften what they say. Conversely they may brace themselves and carry out the discussions insensitively and harshly.

By being aware of how you feel and managing these feelings well, you have more choice and control over how effective you are.

You may also doubt whether you can control anyone else’s feelings. It is certainly possible. You influence the emotions of the people around you by what you say and do, by what you don’t say or do, and by how you speak and behave. When you influence their emotions you also influence their engagement, their buy-in and their productivity.

Emotional Intelligence can make things happen.

Let me give you a recent example.

I was on my way to Sydney to speak at a conference when the airport was closed because of fog. There were thousands of people stranded for hours. Communication from the airlines was poor, and the airport terminal was undergoing renovations and lacking in sufficient seats or toilets. I was sitting between two people who were furious. I could feel their negativity flowing from their bodies into mine. Emotions can be contagious.

I decided to read a book and stayed calm.

However, the person next to me became indignant that the Sydney plane was leaving before the Adelaide one. I was pleased to fly and said, “At least it’s good for the Sydney people”, thinking I was being light-hearted.

Did I change his emotions? You bet I did.

They got even worse. He seethed!

Quickly I decided to try and improve the situation. I apologised on behalf of Western Australia for the airport being closed. I told him it was very unusual and how sorry I was that he’d got caught up in it. Then I asked him how his holiday was.

He said, “We had a wonderful time, we so enjoyed ourselves, we spent 5 days on the beach and loved it”.

Do you think I changed his emotions? Yes! When he started talking about his holiday and re-living the good times his negativity dissolved. I had taken his attention to a happier place.

Do you know the impact that you have on the people around you and how they feel about working for you or with you? It could make the difference between high staff turn-over and staff loyalty. It could help reduce stakeholder conflicts or continued on page 49 >

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 45

ADVERTORIAL

Bosch is paving the way in Commercial water heating

B

osch commercial hot water products are well-known for their quality, flexibility, and reliability when it there is demand for large volumes of hot water. Because no two commercial projects are the same, Bosch offers a versatile range of manifold systems to suit your unique specification.

These applications include sporting clubs, restaurants, commercial kitchens, cafés and pubs, hotels, and commercial laundries.

To give an example of the functionality of this system, a Bosch 32 Manifold was installed in to the 4 star Parkview Hotel located in St Kilda Road, Melbourne (see image). A total of eight Bosch 32 units were in manifold, coupled with four Bosch commercial storage tanks to deliver hot water to a total of 185 rooms with a first hour delivery capacity of 7,500 litres at a 50°C rise. The management at the Parkview Hotel are very satisfied with the new Bosch system as they never run out of hot water, and the increased efficiency has allowed their running costs to be reduced by 30 per cent.

Bosch Commercial Manifold Pack A Bosch Commercial Manifold Pack can consist of 2 to 6 Commercial continuous flow water heaters (Bosch 32 or 32C units only) plumbed together to allow higher flow rates than a single unit can provide.

How are Bosch Manifold Packs supplied?

The Bosch Commercial Manifold Pack is fully assembled on a custom engineered frame. Pipe work and heavy insulation including isolating valves are already installed ready to be plumbed into your specific commercial project. Supplied in a modular system of 2 and 3 units, the Bosch Commercial Manifold Pack is packed in heavy duty separate timber crates for ease of transport and handling. The Bosch Commercial Manifold Packs of 4, 5 and 6 units are supplied in combinations of 2 and 3 unit modules as required for your application. For example, a Bosch Commercial Manifold Pack of 6 will be supplied as 2 modular packs of 3, with a connection kit to join the prepackaged manifolds together (BCK32 – side by side installation only). Up to 24 Bosch Commercial units can be manifolded electronically.

> 6 units in manifold pack capacity (192 litres per minute at a 25°C rise) > Higher Mj/H rating to allow higher flow rates for commercial demand > Strong custom frame – wall or floor mounted > Heavy duty timber packaging to prevent delivery damage > Available in packs of 2 or 3 units with the ability to interconnect to make 4, 5 or 6 units > Durable weatherproof insulation on pipe work to minimise heat loss > Constant outlet temperature even when the flow rate varies > No gas consumption when not in use

> Available with Bosch 32 and 32C units

> Can be used either in standard or recirculation installations (please note, a recirculation pump needs to be installed for the ring main and it must have correct pump sizing for recirculation system

> Internal* or external** installation

> Main Controller included for easy system diagnostics

> Flexible modular design for easy pre-plumbed installation

> Comprehensive commercial warranties available

> Sophisticated electronic staging and rotation system for extended life of the system

*Internal installations require flueing and adequate ventilation. **External installations require a Vent Cap.

Key Features: Features:

Hotel Hot Ho tel En E Engineer gine gi neer er r | VVol ol 16 No. 2 | 47 4

> continued from page 47 increase them. It could bring greater buy-in from suppliers and consultants or result in a lack of co-operation.

Practical applications of emotional intelligence – for hotel engineers making decisions.

Level four on the emotional intelligence model is “Reasoning with emotions”. This means factoring in accurate emotional data as part of the decision-making process and not solely relying on cognitive data. If you have been trained to remove all the emotions from a decision and to stick only to “the facts” - you may be limiting your decisions or even making the wrong ones. Emotions are part of “the facts” about people.

Hotels are designed by, built by and maintained by people and for people.

Your design, construction and maintenance will impact on the tourists and guests who stay there, the staff involved in the day-to-day running of the hotel, and the owners who are trying to make a profit. That’s a lot of emotions to consider.

On my recent Sydney trip, there were a lot of frustrated guests in our hotel, me included. Why? Because the lifts were frequently out of action or very slow.

Worse still, when I needed to go from the conference on level 2 to my room on level 3 I found there were no stairs I could climb. I had to allow at least 15 minutes to “pop” upstairs. The emotions felt by the guests impacted on the ratings given to the conference and the hotel.

Everything a hotel engineer does will impact on someone’s emotions at some stage. Being able to predict and understand these and factoring this information into your planning, along with all the other relevant facts and figures, can help make the best decisions.

you are right? By bombarding them with facts, figures and costings maybe? What if this doesn’t work? How could applying emotional intelligence skills help?

One step could be to identify how they are feeling. Are they feeling left out of the process and unheard, or are they feeling anxious, frustrated or concerned? Once you have identified their possible emotions then decide how to best explain your decision, taking these emotions into consideration.

For instance, if they feel anxious about the energy consumption you might say, “I know some of you are worried in case the energy consumption is too high. I’d like to present you with the data I’ve collected so you can feel reassured that we’ve reduced total energy consumption by over 30%”.

If in contrast you think they feel unheard, you might say, “I know this process has involved a great number of people and you may be feeling left out. Let’s start by my hearing all your concerns, and then I’ll go through them one step at a time to ensure I’ve understood each one fully”.

By the way, in case you think this is too warm and fuzzy, there is research by Lieberman et al. based on fMRI scans showing that simply naming a feeling can reduce the reactivity in the brain and thus the strength of people’s emotions. If you alter how your stakeholders are feeling you alter the drivers of their behaviour.

How you communicate and how well you predict the emotions of the people you are communicating with can greatly affect the outcomes you achieve and the speed with which you achieve them. Much time can be wasted on trying to change behaviours when the underlying emotions are ignored. Have you ever done that?

Conclusions Practical applications of emotional intelligence – when hotel engineers are communicating.

Let me give you one more example. Let’s imagine a new air-conditioning system has been designed for your hotel. You’re sure it’s the best design. However, some other members of your staff or management want changes that you think are unnecessary. How will you convince them

Emotions drive behaviour. Your skills in managing your own emotions and those of the people around you can influence the outcomes you achieve, the impact you make, and your abilities to inspire, influence and negotiate with your key stakeholders, colleagues, contractors and staff. Bring your emotional intelligence to work with you and develop it to its full potential. There are benefits of being

skilled in each dimension of emotional intelligence and ways to develop each of them to a high level in your work.

There is so much to say about emotional intelligence and how to apply the skills in a practical way in your work. This is only a brief overview of the possibilities. I am collating a lot more information on emotional intelligence on my website for you. You are welcome to visit: http://www. rachelgreen.com/emotional-intelligence. html

References 1. Freedman J. “The business case for emotional intelligence.” White paper.

Six Seconds. 2010.

2. Lieberman M. D. et al. “Putting feelings into words”. Psychological Science, Vol 18 (5), pgs 421-428, 2007.

3. Palmer B. R. et al. “Genos emotional intelligence inventory: A measure designed specifically for workplace applications.” In the book by Stough C., Saklofske D. and Parker J. (Eds.), Assessing emotional intelligence: Theory, research and applications.

Springer, New York, pgs 103-118, 2009.

4. Rosete D. “Does emotional intelligence play an important role in leadership effectiveness?” PhD thesis. University of Wollongong, 2007.

5. Salovey, P. and Mayer J. D. “Emotional intelligence”. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, Vol 9 (3), pgs 185-211, 1990.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Green, an award-winning communication specialist, emotional intelligence coach and motivational speaker, has spoken at a recent engineering conference and managed to convince cynical engineers to consider their emotions! As such, we have invited her to write this article. In 2010 she was awarded the highest level of accreditation in the professional speaking profession: Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). She has tertiary qualifications in psychology, speech pathology, adult education and the Feldenkrais method. She is also an accredited user of two emotional intelligence assessments (the Genos and the MSCEIT).

Rachel provides keynote speeches, expert seminars and practical 1-1 coaching to professional people in emotional intelligence, communication and networking skills and often works with engineers. Some of her key clients have included the Water Corporation, Western Power, Landcorp, Retirement Villages Association, Institute Hospital Engineers, Fremantle Hospital, Kwinana Power Station, and more. She can be contacted on rachel@rachelgreen.com or 08 9390 1188.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 49

COOLING TOWER WATER TREATMENT Who’s Responsible or Don't Shoot The Messenger Don’t blame the person who brings bad news.

(This idea was expressed by Sophocles as far back as 442 B.C. and much later by Shakespeare in ‘Henry IV, Part II’ (1598) and in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-07).

No one wants bad news or to believe that they have done something wrong.

In today’s world of responsibility and accountability everyone wants to believe that they are doing the right things to ensure that their products and services are providing a high level of performance and to be told that this hasn’t been achieved bring about a whole host of responses and not the least of these is that the other person must be wrong!

In regard to chemical treatment of cooling towers the two areas that draw the most response of this kind is in the areas of microbiological monitoring (Legionella and Total Bacteria Counts) and corrosion levels.

The ASHRAE Journal, July, 2007 by Bill Gaines, Martin R. Orban, David R. Welch said “the primary responsibility of a water treatment supplier is to manage the water”.

What then is meant by this statement?

The three potential problems associated with cooling water are: • Corrosion • Scale/deposits • Microbiological activity Controlling these three factors is critical in order to maintain clean, efficient and safe systems for all types of cooling; from comfort cooling to critical industrial process cooling. Corrosion will shorten the life of the equipment, Scale/deposits will decrease heat transfer and increase energy usage and unchecked microbiological activity will cause system blockages and potential health hazards.

Further, a poorly maintained cooling water system will contribute to the growth of Legionella. Having said all this though doesn’t really impact on those responsible

unless they understand the true costs of poor water management.

Corrosion can be defined as the destruction of a metal by chemical or electrochemical reaction with its environment. In cooling systems, corrosion causes two basic problems. The first and most obvious is the failure of equipment with the resultant cost of replacement and plant downtime. The second is decreased plant efficiency due to loss of heat transfer-the result of heat exchanger fouling caused by the accumulation of corrosion products. – GE Handbook of Industrial Water Treatment chapter 24 Scale deposits are formed by precipitation and crystal growth at a surface in contact with water. Precipitation occurs when solubilities are exceeded either in the bulk water or at the surface. The most common scale-forming salts that deposit on heat transfer surfaces are those that exhibit retrograde solubility with temperature.

Although they may be completely soluble in the lower-temperature bulk water, these compounds (e.g., calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, and magnesium silicate) supersaturate in the highertemperature water adjacent to the heat transfer surface and precipitate on the surface. – GE Handbook of Industrial Water Treatment Chapter 25

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 51

Microbiological fouling in cooling systems is the result of abundant growth of algae, fungi, and bacteria on surfaces.

Once-through and open or closed recirculating water systems may support microbial growth, but fouling problems usually develop more quickly and are more extensive in open recirculating systems. Cooling water systems, particularly open recirculating systems, provide a favourable environment for the growth of microorganisms. Microbial growth on wetted surfaces leads to the formation of biofilms. If uncontrolled, such films cause fouling, which can adversely affect equipment performance, promote metal corrosion, and accelerate wood deterioration. These problems can be controlled through proper biomonitoring and application of appropriate cooling water antimicrobials. -GE Handbook of Industrial Water Treatment chapter 26.

The microorganisms that form slime deposits in cooling water systems are common soil, aquatic, and airborne microbes. These microbes may enter the system with makeup water, either in low numbers from fresh water sources or in high numbers when the makeup is wastewater. Significant amounts may also be scrubbed from the air as it is drawn through the cooling tower. Process leaks may contribute microorganisms as well.

biochemical machinery to run at top speed. Because there is strong competition for the available nutrients, those species most efficient at concentrating their essential nutrients will have the opportunity to grow most rapidly. The rate of growth will ultimately be limited by the nutrient which first falls below an optimal concentration, but this will not necessarily be the nutrient in the lowest concentration.

Chemicals applied to cooling systems may, at times, provide added sources of the limiting nutrient and thus contribute to microbial growth in the systems. Alterations of pH may shift a stable population balance to an unbalanced, troublesome state.

Although bacteria may be under control at neutral pH, a shift to an acid pH may result in domination by moulds or yeast. Because many algae grow most abundantly at an alkaline pH, an attempt to reduce corrosion by raising the pH can lead to an algal bloom.

The importance of monitoring microbiological levels in your cooling waters can’t be stressed enough.

Bacteria. A wide variety of bacteria can colonize cooling systems. Spherical, rod-shaped, spiral, and filamentous forms are common. Some produce spores to survive adverse environmental conditions such as dry periods or high temperatures. Both aerobic bacteria (which thrive in oxygenated waters) and anaerobic bacteria (which are inhibited or killed by oxygen) can be found in cooling systems.

Fungi. Two forms of fungi commonly encountered are moulds (filamentous forms) and yeasts (unicellular forms). Moulds can be quite troublesome, causing white rot or brown rot of the cooling tower wood, depending on whether they are cellulolytic (attack cellulose) or lignin degrading. Yeasts are also cellulolytic. They can produce slime in abundant amounts and preferentially colonize wood surfaces.

Algae. Algae are photosynthetic organisms. Green and bluegreen algae are very common in cooling systems (blue-green algae are now classified with the bacteria and are called cyanobacteria). Various types of algae can be responsible for green growths which block screens and distribution decks.

Severe algae fouling can ultimately lead to unbalanced water flow and reduced cooling tower efficiency. Diatoms (algae enclosed by a silicaceous cell wall) may also be present but generally do not play a significant role in cooling system problems.

Usually, cooling waters are not nutrient-rich, so microbes must expend a great deal of energy transporting and concentrating nutrients inside the cell. This process may spend energy resources already in short supply, but it is necessary to allow the

Seasonal changes also affect growth patterns in cooling water systems.

Natural algal communities in a fresh water supply are quite dynamic, and the dominant species can change rapidly with changing temperatures, nutrients, and amounts of sunlight. Cyanobacteria can often be primary colonizers in a cooling system. Seasonal changes which increase their numbers in the makeup water can lead to an algal bloom in the system. In autumn, as falling leaves increase the nutrient level and depress the pH, the bacterial population can increase at the expense of the algal population – GE Handbook of Industrial Water Treatment chapter 26. Your open recirculating systems are prime environments for microorganisms. If uncontrolled, the resulting bio-films can result in microbiologically influenced corrosion and other system efficiency issues that can cause equipment failure, unscheduled downtime, reduced heat transfer, lost production, and increased risk of Legionella. – GE Water & Process Technologies The importance of monitoring microbiological levels in your cooling waters can’t be stressed enough. The risks attached to your business should an outbreak of Legionellosis occur can be catastrophic. Everyone is aware of the many outbreaks that have occurred around the world and the events surrounding death to those that were unfortunate enough to contract this disease.

Hospitals, Hotels and Shopping Centres are especially vulnerable due to their exposure to peoples meeting the high risk categories.

Legionnaires’ disease was first identified in the United States in the mid 1970s after a large outbreak of pneumonia among war veterans in Philadelphia. Since then outbreaks have been identified worldwide. Outbreaks in Australia have been mainly caused by contaminated aerosols generated by cooling water systems (CWSs) (the aquatic environment within the cooling towers that are part of air conditioning systems on large buildings are conducive to the proliferation of L.pneumophila)

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 53

and other sources of misted water such as shower heads and spa pools. Although exposure to Legionella is fairly ubiquitous, some people are at high risk for overt disease, including people with pre-existing lung disease or immune suppression, smokers and people with a history of substantial alcohol use. An ageing population and increased use of immunosuppressive therapy may increase the number of vulnerable people within the community over time. – Australian National guideline for public health units 2009.

With all of the information known about Legionella and the need to maintain a sound water management programme in cooling water systems especially one that establishes strong KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), Managers must know that simply accepting whatever the chemical treatment service provider offers can result in greatly reduced life of the cooling systems, and potentially high risk to everyone at, in or around their properties. The need for independent monitoring and testing in addition enables them the ability to assess performance criteria’s and safety levels on a non conflict of interest basis.

Selection of who tests the cooling water and on what frequency should be a simple process. Thoughts of using the water treatment service company should be dismissed immediately due to the conflict of interest (a situation in which decisions are influenced by personal interests).

Experienced businesses specialising and practised in proper sample collections independent of any involvement with the system treatment or Service Company should be chosen. Such companies have strict procedures in place to collect and transport samples to the testing laboratory under controlled temperature conditions using sterile sampling containers spiked with a small amount of chemical compound designed to remove any concentrations of chlorine to ensure that the sample isn’t compromised.

The testing laboratory must be accredited and competent to perform all testings and have in place a fixed schedule of Proficiency testing practises that they can produce to prove their competency. (This testing is similar to schools requiring students to sit for regular tests and exams to prove that they are capable and knowledgeable on the subject matter).

And, lastly how often should the sampling and testing be performed? Legionella is a ubiquitous aquatic organism, widespread in the environment, found in lakes, rivers and other bodies of water as well as soils and thrives in temperatures between 25 and 45°C (77 and 113°F), with an optimum around 35°C (95°F) it can be found in cooling towers. These conditions allow the bacteria to multiply in large numbers. Most OHS Legislations require proper investigation and remedial actions to protect persons from exposure to biological contaminants.

Properties at higher risk are Hospitals, Hotels and Shopping Centres because of the high numbers of people over 50 years of age (predominantly males), heavy smokers, heavy drinkers, diabetics, people with chronic lung disease and people with impaired immune systems. Based on experience and current practices many of these properties perform monthly monitoring to evaluate and manage the risk.

Independent Monitoring Consultants is a professional sampling and accredited testing consultancy business with more than 17 years experience in sampling, testing and consulting to major Hotels, Property Management, Shopping Centres and Hospitals throughout Australia and Asia. IMC provides independent sampling of cooling tower water systems, swimming pools, spas, potable waters, indoor air quality and foods.

At the opening of this paper we made the statement that, no one wants bad news or to believe that they have done something wrong. We also ask that you don’t blame the messenger when a report comes to you with detection for high Legionella or Total Bacteria Count. Responsibility and accountability for what happens in the cooling water system belongs to the treatment supplier.

Detections in cooling systems do occur but if you have the correct procedures and action plan to respond when there is detection the risk is minimised. Major concerns for most authorities is when sampling and testing is performed by the chemical treatment supplier, and when testing reports consistently come back with no detections.

Testing facilities are accredited to International laboratory quality system ISO17025 by their respective country organisations. Like all quality systems they are only as good as the people implementing them. Proper evaluation and assessment should always be undertaken by the client to ensure that the service provider is competent and able to provide the services offered.

Understanding the standards and procedures applicable to any testing is a must.

Don’t take the risk or become complacent that everything with your cooling system is good just because the supplier produces a good report. Set proper KPIs, independently measure corrosion rates to insure that corrosion is under control and employ independent microbiological sampling and testing to ensure that the system is protected all the time.

The costs in replacing a heat exchanger/chiller or repairing broken pipework can be substantial. The death of an employee, guest or customer from an outbreak of Legionella can devastate your business. ■

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 55

®

NextGeneration Service We all know technology is moving rapidly in all areas of life, we asked Anthony Seddon of Otis Elevator Company How technology has benefited the way they look at elevator maintenance.

I

am working at home today because of the power of the technology in my laptop, my blackberry and the internet.

Unfortunately this same power has been unavailable to the 500 or more service field technicians at Otis but recently things have changed.

I would call it a revolution in the way that lifts will now be serviced, but it’s a revolution that started more than ten years ago and which we have only been able to fulfil through the latest advances in wireless communication.

In the late 1990’s Otis Australia changed its service philosophy. Historically the industry has defined the “inputs” of service as the measures of value to customers. At Otis we changed our focus

and moved to measuring and delivering the “outcomes” of good preventative maintenance. We call it “NextGeneration® Service”. Fundamental to this philosophy is the recognition that each building and each lift within a building is unique. A car that sits in a garage for 6 days and then only gets driven to the corner shop requires a different type of service to the car that drives in peak traffic for 2 hours every day.

Lifts are the same, NextGeneration® Service uniquely defines the service requirements for each lift that we maintain (over 20,000 in Australia) based on factors like vintage, age, type of building (e.g. commercial or residential) and usage. The service routine for each specific lift is then

tailored to suit. Once in place we then measure outcome KPI’s like uptime and reliability, things that our customers value the most. Until now we have been running this system from the back office but recent technologies have allowed us to “complete the revolution” and put the power of this servicing system where it needs to be, in the palm of our field service technicians.

What changed? Two things, firstly the introduction of the 3G network. Prior to 3G it was difficult to maintain reliable communication to field technicians. 3G allows wireless communication into the depths of building lift shafts, the place where our field people spend 90% of their time. Yes, those ads on the TV showing people making calls and accessing the internet from within a lift are true, prior to this our technicians were basically working alone without the access to databases and information that most of us take for granted.

The other change has been the hardware processing power in modern hand held devices. The recent technological advances in wireless devices have been phenomenal. Processing power and speed, in the palm, that exceeds that of laptops, large on-device memory capacities, cameras and high resolution touch screen displays have allowed Otis to fulfil its vision of “NextGeneration® Service”. Mechanics using a ruggedized hand device can not only make calls, but will also be able to access safety and technical databases, view lift breakdown and contract histories, take photos of components for spare-part identification, prepare quotations, capture customer approval signatures, link to technical forums, communicate to expert Otis field engineers from the other side of the world and communicate with customers via internet and email every time they carry out an activity on their site. The future possibilities are almost limitless with each new application that developed being downloaded to the device just as you would download an application to your iPhone.

These technologies put the power of our previous back office systems directly in the hand of the employees which are at a critical point in the customer value chain, the field technician. ■

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 57

Ants in Your Kitchen Plants?

At last, a new range of professional ant control products

By GLENN DUBOIS, MCom(UNSW) - Secretary of Australian Pest Controllers Association Inc.

Ants can be an intolerable nuisance pest when they infest kitchens, pantries and dining areas in large numbers.

U

ntil recently, ants were by far the most difficult of all pest control problems to solve in a timely and cost effective manner.

At long last, the Australian Pest Control Industry now has new range of ant baits and non-repellent liquid surface sprays from the USA that provide certain control over even the severest of ant control problems in commercial kitchens, food handling and other premises. The new products are non-repellent to the ants and to focus on achieving a transfer effect, that is, the ants come into contact with the surface spray and ingest the bait due to a delayed effect, transfer the chemical back to the colony nests.

Ants have been around for more than 120 million years. A single colony of some ant pest species in Australia may contain several hundred thousand members.

They are known to literally cover kitchen and pantry walls and benches in a black seething mess. Late Summer time is most problematic. The ants are out in force, building up their numbers and searching incessantly for food to be stored in their colony nest for the colder winter months.

Most ant pest species in Australia are advanced social insects with multiple queens, kings, workers and winged reproductive. Ants live in permanent colony nests located in a variety of habitats, in the soil, in timber, under

pavers, in wall cavities and roof void spaces of buildings.

Correct identification of the particular pest species of ant is vital to implementing a control program. You need to know their likely nesting location and the type of food they prefer. Some species nest in the ground, others are more likely find a home in your roof void or wall cavity. Some ants prefer sugary foods whilst others are predominately meat eaters. The problem ants for kitchens and commercial premises are usually the sugar feeding variety.

The Main Ant Pest Species in Australia The three main ant pest species commonly found in Australian kitchens are the White-footed house ant, Odorous house ant and Coastal Brown Ants.

White-footed house ants are approx 2.7mm in length, body is black in colour with yellow feet. Colonies of White-footed house ants often contain many satellite colony nesting sites spread over a wide area. The entire ant colony may contain several million workers and many queens.

White-footed house ants prefer sweet tasting food, sugar, soft drinks and the like. Nesting sites commonly found outdoors, in the ground, in trees, buildings, wall cavities, roof voids, architraves, fireplaces and are known to infest and short-circuit air conditioners.

The Odorous house ants are approx 2 to 3 mm in length, black to brown colour. If crushed, it has a distinct rotten odour, like rancid butter. Odorous house ant colonies can contain more than 10,000 workers and several reproductive queens used to establish subsidiary colonies. Nesting sites are most often found outdoors in the soil, at the base of trees or under concrete pathways and pavers. They commonly nest under buildings and inside wall cavities, particularly if there is a regular moisture source available from faulty plumbing, leaking shower recess, broken guttering and roof tiles.

Coastal brown ants are approximately 2 to 3 mm in length. Common nesting sites include wall cavities, garden beds and sub-floor areas.

New â&#x20AC;&#x153;Transfer Effectâ&#x20AC;? Ant Control Products The beauty of the new technology ant baits is that they have a delayed lethal transfer effect. Ant baits are applied to high activity areas. Foraging ants collect and carry the appetising food bait back to feed the other ants in the colony nest.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 59

The ant baits are designed to be very palatable to the ants but does a day or more before the lethal effect kicks in.

Enough time to be transferred back to the colony nest to be fed to other ants. With sufficient dosage the entire colony is eradicated in matter of days.

Advion Ant Gel (DuPont) contains Indoxacarb. Formulated to be highly attractive to sweet feeding ants. The product is of extremely low hazard to humans. It is odour-free, does not cause skin or eye irritation, is long lasting, does not stain and can be applied to vertical surfaces without running. This is a new type of technology whereby the ants digestive process actually converts it into a compound highly lethal to the ant. The product can be used indoors or outdoors in variety of buildings, including food handling premises, hospitals and schools.

Optigard Ant Bait Gel (Syngenta) contains Thiamethoxam – also for the sweet feeding ants. Similar to Avion in method of use by professional pest controller. This

product also has a delayed transfer effect and can be used in a variety of situations and environmentally sensitive areas.

Please note - the APCA is highly impressed by the industry feedback as to the efficiency and safety of these products.

Arilon Liquid Spray (DuPont) contains Indoxacarb – can be applied inside and outside – is non-repellent - the foraging ants can easily injest or collect the chemical on their cuticles and transfer it back to central colony thereby infecting other ants in a cascading effect. With sufficient doseage the entire colony is eliminated.

This product can also be used against cockroaches and house flies in a variety of interior and exterior surfaces, including concrete. The chemical is long lasting – in sheltered areas outside for up to 3 months and interior areas for up to 6 months.

CAUTION: There are many of the older style insectides for ant control on the market that are far cheaper but will not give such certainty of total elimination of the infestation. Make sure you ask the pest controller if they use these leading new generation products. They are safer and much more effective.

Phantom Liquid Surface Spray (BASF) contains chlorfenapyr. This product can be applied inside against ants, cockroaches and bed bugs. It is undetectable by these pests. Cockroaches and ants consistently groom others in their colony nests. The colony nest can be devastated within a few days.

In addition, if applied in sheltered locations, the new generation ants baits and sprays, should last the majority of the extended summer period. You would be unlikely to need any follow up procedures.

So it’s probably cheaper in the long run to use the more expensive but highly effective ant control products. ■

For further information go to pestcontrol.org.au or contact Glenn DuBois at Australian Pest Controllers Association Inc - phone 1300 660 200

Is solar worth it?

Solar energy is becoming more affordable and practical. DR HILARY DAVIES examines international trends and finds that solar power can indeed be a feasible option in many facilities.

62 |

Vol 16 No. 2 |

Hotel Engineer

What is your stance on sustainability, or carbon emissions, or climate change? Are you a passionate advocate taking an active interest in what your organisation can do to ‘save the planet’? Or are you someone who feels it is yet one more responsibility to add to your already full portfolio? I ask because I recently joined a group called Zero Carbon Australia (www.beyondzeroemissions.org). I have to admit I have not been an active participant in discussions (I’m more on the side of that person with the already full portfolio), but I am interested. And reading a New Scientist article circulated to the group has inspired the rest of this article.1 It suggested that Germany was going to be overwhelmed with solargenerated power this year. Wow, I thought, and this is a country with a cold

and temperate climate. Apparently Germany will have over 9.8GW installed photovoltaic capacity by the end of 2010 and it is projected to reach 30GW by the end of 2011, sufficient for all weekend power demands. Meanwhile, Australia will have less than 1GW. What ever happened to Australia’s leadership in the solar energy field back in the 1990s? Is there anything that we, as building and facility managers, can do to really participate in reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions (buildings typically are quoted as using 40+ percent of all energy) and get some action on renewable energy?

BETTER THAN NOTHING Anything is better than nothing. There is increasing evidence of the benefits of

adopting strategies to become ‘green’ building managers. Larger companies are mandating the use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) guidelines when considering leased space, and commercial buildings with solar power systems are reported to attract improved yields and higher valuations.2 But, of more immediate benefit can be reduced energy consumption – claims suggesting that reducing energy demand could cut world energy use by more than 70 percent3 through simple actions such as increased insulation and passive design are not far-fetched. Net zero energy buildings (NZE) are even being commissioned using today’s technology.4 Of course, closer to home, separate metering instils instant frugality (and on average 21 percent lower bills5) when tenants are made responsible for their own energy usage. So there is plenty that can be done to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.

energy companies are working with rooftop-owning companies to make solar installations more affordable and practical.12 There, energy companies are required to obtain a certain percentage of their energy supply from renewable sources. They are entering into rooftop leases with property groups to install solar cells and harvest the energy either to sell back to the property owner or to anyone in the local grid. This has removed most of the complexities for the property owner of capturing incentives (federal or utility) and the risks of financing the project and the necessity of finding long-term tenants willing to purchase the energy.

IS SOLAR PRACTICAL?

So yes, solar technology can be practical and, yes, it really can make a difference.

Some more mindboggling research from Stanford University14 has suggested that it would not be impractical for all energy worldwide to come from renewable sources (mainly solar, wind and water) within the next 20–40 years. The technologies are there. What is needed is the political and social will to make the necessary changes to infrastructure (against many vested interests, of course).

We can contribute to the social change – I’ve never been sure which comes first: the market forces or the political – but with technology making solar ever more efficient, and the generation of industrial volumes becoming more practical,15 the economic costs of installation are coming down. Therefore, there is no excuse for not investigating the installation of solar equipment on buildings under your control.

But what of renewable energy and solar energy’s contribution? Is it practical for commercial buildings and hotels? What of the issues with the technology, government support, tariffs, etc, etc?

Technological advances are providing us with ever more efficient solar cells,6,7 and even cells that work at night using infrared.8 Government support could go further. Japan, Spain, Germany and the US have all allocated enormous resources to improving the effectiveness of solar energy systems and have thus become the world leaders in innovation and adoption of the technology.9 The Federal Government has been offering a Solar Credit Scheme10 but this has been nowhere near as attractive (or as effective) as Germany’s subsidies, which have generated their enormous growth in solar power. Tariffs are a thorny issue. Some users may find their electricity bills even increase depending on measurement and billing practices.11 (I can relate to this.

Having installed subsidised PV cells at home, they are still not connected to the grid because of the requirement to go onto what sounded like very unfavourable rates. The meter is running backwards on sunny days and I am monitoring the situation!) However, there are some interesting initiatives in California where

It can make good commercial sense too – those companies that have invested in renewable energy are reporting a ROI of 15 percent or better.13

SOLAR CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

One small step by each building manager could add up to one giant leap for mankind.

FOOTNOTES 1. Solar power could crash Germany’s grid http://www.newscientist.com/article/ mg20827842.800-solar-power-couldcrash-Germanys-grid.html?DCMP=OTCrss&nsref=environment

2. http://www.austwidesolar.com.au/aussolar-advantage-commercial.php 3. Efficiency could cut world energy use by over 70% http://www.newscientist.com/ article/dn20037-efficiency-could-cutworld-energy-use-over-70-per-cent.html 4. Net Zero Energy Buildings are achievable today http://buildaroo.com/news/article/ net-zero-energy-buildings-achievable/ 5. Do Green Buildings Make Dollars and Sense http://www.gbca.org.au/uploads/ DoGreenBuildingsMakeDollarsandSense draftNov102009.pdf 6. SunPower Solar Panels Achieve over 19% Efficiency http://buildaroo.com/news/ article/sunpower-solar-panels-19-percentefficiency/ 7. Better Solar for Big Buildings http://www.technologyreview.com/ energy/21473/ 8. Is night falling on classic solar panels? http://www.newscientist.com/article/ mg20827915.000-is-night-falling-onclassic-solar-panels.html 9. Where’s the sun? Australia’s green energy revolution leaving solar energy behind http://www.goswitch.com.au/newsj?p=25 10. http://www.austwidesolar.com.au/solarcredit-scheme.php 11. Southern California Utilities New Billing Structure Increases Solar Financial Appeal in S. California http://buildaroo.com/ news/article/southern-california-utilitiesnew-option-r-increases-solar-flnancialappeal-in-s-california/ 12. New Models for Rooftop solar Power http://energypriorities.com/entries/2010/ 04/bpb_sce_rooftop_ solar.php 13. Renewable Energy Investments Outperforming Estimates. Now Companies Want More. http://buildaroo. com/news/article/renewable-energyinvestments-outperforming-estimates/ 14. The World Can Be Powered By Alternative Energy, Using Today’s Technology, In 20–40 Years http:// www.redorbit.com/news/science/ 1985656/the_world_can_be_ powered_by_ alternative_energy_using_ todays/index.html?source=r_science 15. Where’s the sun? Australia’s green energy revolution leaving solar energy behind http://www.goswitch.com.au/ news/?p=25.

Dr Hilary Davies is a senior lecturer in Facilities Management and Construction Management at Deakin University in the School of Architecture and Building.

NB: Deakin University offers a Masters in Facilities Management degree.

Email: hilarydavies@deakin.edu.au More information Deakin University (FM courses) www.deakin.edu.au/scitech/ab

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 63

MANAGING WITH NEW ENERGY PRICING Part 2

By MARK CROWTHER Rheem Australia

In our previous article, we looked at how electricity pricing is increasing but also very importantly, changing in pricing structure. These changes in electricity price structure reflect a more sophisticated approach to how and when a consumer uses power and are driven by a desire by electricity suppliers to flatten electricity demand with the new price signals being facilitated by new digital metering options.

resources that are otherwise under-utilized outside of the peak demand periods.

It is useful as a building manager to understand what is driving electricity price rises. The pressure comes from the booming demand for air-conditioning, new appliances, etc. The increase in usage is concentrated in the peak hours, so this not only creates demand for increased power generation but also on the ability of the existing electricity supply assets such as substations, to reliably meet this load. It is this burden of augmenting ageing supply assets that creates the need for a big hike on business to generate the capital needed for the upgrade of these poles and lines. Likewise, as a society we have largely ignored the need for new electricity generation in the last two decades and clearly, new power generation is also a sensitive environmental issue.

So these factors create a scenario where there is a very powerful incentive on electricity suppliers to see the rising electricity demand spread more evenly throughout the day, i.e. by allowing the new demand to be met from existing generation and supply

Areas such as pool heating and air conditioning offer the opportunity to make decisions on how electricity is used with the variable parameters of time and temperature.

As mentioned, the tool to achieve this flattening of demand without stifling growing usage is digital or smart metering combined with more sophisticated pricing mechanisms. In turn, it is the availability of these price signals that gives the smart building manager or resort operator an opportunity to lower their average cost of electricity, to the point that they can consume more whilst actually lowering the total electricity bill.

This article began life with the intent of providing real and practical strategies on lowering electricity costs associated with pool heating but as can be seen, the lessons made will translate to all uses of electricity.

The opportunities to lower costs do vary as electricity pricing and metering is different across the States of Australia and we will look at some of these below to provide examples of what may be achieved.

In NSW, there are clear options for lowering power costs by smart control of pool plant. Despite the substantial general price rise for electricity, there is potential for hotel and resort pool operators to achieve a heating cost today close to that which would have applied in 2004, when the General Supply price was 12.34c/KWh. The achievement of an average electricity input price around this level (or even lower) is possible with time-ofuse tariffs. For example, Energy Australia now offers Business

Hotel E Engineer ngine neer r | Vol 16 16 No. 2 | 65 5

PowerSmart pricing. This is a three tier tariff, comprising off peak, shoulder and peak price periods. Provided that consumption is minimized in the peak period of 2pm to 8pm Monday to Friday, then all other usage would be a combination of the discounted off peak (8.8c/KWh) and shoulder (14.96c/ KWh) pricing (prices as per price release of 1 July 2010). With these periods being billed at 8.8c/KWh and 14.96c/KWh (as per prices released on 1 July 2010), the potential to achieve a low average price is clearly evident particularly when it understood that the discounted hours represent some 82% of the available hours in working week.

In Victoria, time of use pricing is also well established. The tariff options cover peak and off peak, so a higher level of peak usage can be anticipated. Extended Trader Tariff D provides 11pm â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7am as off peak and all day Saturday and Sunday at 10.274c/ KWh, while Business Tariff E applies the peak/off peak split to a seven-day week, ignoring any concession for weekends.

Tasmania lacks time-of-use metering but discussion with the Supply Authority on tariff options would be worthwhile. Off Peak Tariff 61 could be an option but in particular, some flexibility is possible in the application of Business Hot Water Tariff 43. This discounted rate of 15.558c/KWh provides a good reduction on the standard General Tariff 22 of 20.849c/KWh, which would otherwise apply to the pool heater and pump.

In South Australia, General Supply Time of Use Tariff 128 provides a blend of peak times (26.1c/KWh) and off peak

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(12.88c/KWh). With control to optimise off peak run-hours, an average price of 16-17c/KWh would seem feasible and would be attractive relative to the standard Business rate of 23.6c/KWh. Western Australian business customers can target maximum savings by connection to Time-of-Use Tariff R1, with a blend of peak (26.11c/KWh) and off peak (8.05c/KWh) offering potentially strong savings when compared with the standard small business rate of 21.5c/KWh. Interestingly, WA has introduced smart (digital) metering for residential users and the SmartPower Tariff provides a unique blend of off peak, shoulder and peak pricing which is sensitive not only to weekday/weekend but also to season, with a changing price mix between summer and winter.

Hotel and resort operators in Queensland can look to Time-ofUse Tariff 22. Some 58% of the hours of the week are off peak with the discounted 9.31c/KWh price offering good potential for time clocking and shifting of load to maximize reduction in plant operating costs. This rate is less than half the cost of the standard tariff.

This brief look at electricity tariff options across the States ignores other variations which will be present in electricity pricing such as Contract Rates and demand tariffs. Contract Rates can include Network and Other Costs which are confusing and not linked to actual usage but these do need to be understood. I would stress that pricing signals may change and indeed, variations from the tariffs quoted above may be apparent between suppliers or with any recently released tariff

reviews. However, the important point that we hope to demonstrate is that substantial reductions in average input costs can be achieved provided that some attention is paid to the manner in which electricity is metered and billed.

This understanding of tariffs and tariff options is but one part of the equation. The full management of electricity plant within the new energy pricing covers also the choice of technology, efficiency of the plant, the capacity selection and the control logic.

Our starting point of pool heating provides a good example of how the tariffs shown above may be used to your advantage.

For those States offering time-of-use pricing, the lowest possible running cost for any plant comes if its operation can be restricted to off peak hours only. This can give the building operator a plant operating cost of less than half that which would apply if standard (7 day/24 hour flat rate) tariffs apply. But this objective would carry two consequences. Firstly, the heating plant chosen must be upgraded in its capacity so that it is able to meet the heat load of the pool within the condensed time period of the off peak electricity price (or as near as possible to this). Likewise, heating overnight will see a continual gradual decline in the pool temperature in the peak tariff hours. Part of the strategy taken to overcome this can be that the heat pump temperature control is sensitive to the tariff structure and has the ability to ramp-up the pool temperature prior to the finish of the off peak price period.

In effect, the heater controller will seek to store cheaplygenerated heat value in the pool to delay the need to reactivate heating and lower the overall portion of the heating task made in peak hours. Ideally, the controller would allow the pool to fall to a lower threshold temperature, set by the pool operator, before resuming heating in peak hours.

The design of the system would then most likely allow some operation in peak hours. The main priority will be to minimize this as much as practical without creating discomfort to pool users, for as much of the year as possible. Operation in summer months to an outdoor pool can comfortably be made almost fully at off peak times, while the window for peak use gradually opens as the weather cools.

The three-tiered tariffs which we examined above provide the maximum scope for eliminating peak usage as off peak run times can slip into shoulder times, while still achieving a discounted heating cost.

I would stress that we are looking only at the management of the pool facility in the context of new electricity pricing and are ignoring the potential to lower costs by the integration of new technologies or other heating types such as gas or solar heating. Clearly, the major saving in electricity billing is made where a high efficiency pool heat pump is used. With a heat pump absorbing solar value in air and operating at efficiencies of up to 5:1, the effective price paid for heat value contributed to pool heating can effectively be as low as 2c/KWh. The level of pay-back achieved in pool heating by the heat pump technology compared with natural gas varies by State, in line with the variations discussed in electricity tariffs and the changing price of natural gas by State. It is fair to say that some level of saving can be achieved in all States, but the level of saving is not necessarily compelling in every case. â&#x2013;

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 67

ADVERTORIAL

Philips Dynalite provides green lights for Scarlet

The luxury Scarlet eco-hotel employs an energy-saving lighting control system from Philips Dynalite, including a garden lighting design using less than 100 watts in total.

Leading lighting control and automation group, Philips Dynalite, has drawn on its expertise in the hospitality sector to supply an energy-saving lighting control system for the luxury Scarlet eco-hotel in Cornwall. The design by Philips Dynalite Dimension dealer, Lightmaster-Direct, embraces best environmental practices to yield a lighting scheme in harmony with the surroundings—using just 3.36 watts per square metre—and providing guests with an unparalleled ambience and sense of opulence.

A

ccording to the Development Director for the Scarlet Hotel, Simon Baldwin, the lighting system reflects the pioneering approach to environmental sustainability that is the hallmark of the hotel’s design. “Lighting is very important within a hotel, and the energy used to maintain lighting is something that has been overlooked for a long time,” he said. “The Scarlet has been designed to maximise the use of natural light as much as possible, and this has driven the development of the lighting system itself.”

Energy-saving fluorescent and LED luminaires, along with multipurpose sensors, are integral elements of the

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hotel’s light fittings were custom-designed and built by Lightmaster-Direct to meet these exacting standards.

“The design brief called for an integrated lighting control system to provide preset lighting scenes in all public areas and mood lighting to bedrooms—all controlled by a combination of wallcontrols, remote controls and motion sensors,” said Lightmaster Design Director, Richard Nock. “A Philips Dynalite solution was the obvious choice to meet this specification. Its controllers are without question the best on the market for fluorescent and LED lighting, and the Philips Dynalite solutionset remains our preferred lighting control system to work with, due to its performance, reliability and versatility.”

Two Philips Dynalite touch-screen control panels allow the lighting moods of the public areas to be set by the hotel staff.

The Scarlet’s fluorescent and LED circuits are controlled by a combination of Philips Dynalite relay and ballast controllers.

Philips Dynalite universal sensors help ensure that lighting only activates when areas are occupied and when ambient light levels fall below a threshold level. The backbone to the Scarlet’s lighting control system is provided by Philips Dynalite’s sophisticated peer-to-peer communications serial bus network, DyNet. lighting design. “All the lighting is either fluorescent or LED, and the Scarlet is probably unique in this respect,” said Baldwin. “The design is also challenging the expectation that hotel lights need to be on all the time, making extensive use of multipurpose sensors to ensure lights are turned off when not required.

Lightmaster-Direct has helped us achieve a lighting design that delivers both the environmental and architectural outcome we were seeking.”

Lightmaster-Direct designed, engineered and commissioned the innovative lighting system to meet stringent environmental, functional and architectural criteria.

Integral to the overall design, many of the

Two Philips Dynalite touch-screen control panels allow the lighting moods of the public areas to be set by the hotel staff.

Revolution 2 user-interface wall panels permit local user control for some public areas and all the guest rooms. There are two engraved and backlit Revolution 2 wall panels in each guest room—one by the entrance and one by the bed—and these have been designed to be intuitive and simple to operate. Guests can match their mood from a choice of seven lighting scenes carefully created by the design team—‘ambient’, ‘bright’, ‘relax’, ‘bath’, ‘night’, ‘balcony’, and ‘all off’.

In spite of the architectural and mood lighting results achieved, considerable

Guests can match their mood from a choice of seven lighting scenes, carefully created by the design team to enhance the ambience of the guest rooms.

Stunning architectural and mood lighting belie the considerable energy savings realised—with an internal lighting efficacy of just 3.36 watts per square metre being achieved.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 69

ADVERTORIAL

energy savings have been realised. “Where a conventional hotel typically achieves lighting efficacy of 10 watts per square metre, the design brief for the Scarlet called for 8 watts per square metre,” said Nock.

“However, the finished system achieved a staggering internal lighting efficacy of just 3.36 watts per square metre—representing just 34 per cent of the energy use of a conventional design. We have also achieved significant energy savings with the garden lighting. Using discreet 1 watt LED fittings, a subtle and beautiful garden lighting design has been achieved using less than 100 watts in total!”

In order to measure actual power consumption—and to facilitate real-time monitoring for maintenance—of the lighting system, the Scarlet is considering the addition of a DLight III server and MapView software from Philips Dynalite to the lighting infrastructure. This will enable fine tuning of the system over time to achieve further energy savings in the future.

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“The goal of this project was to build a unique and opulent hotel in a beautiful location, and to achieve performance at the cutting edge of environmental sustainability,” said Baldwin. “While these goals are often considered mutually exclusive, the Scarlet proves that you don’t have to sacrifice luxury to achieve high levels of energy efficiency. Scarlet really is the new green!” ■ For further information, please contact: www.dynalite-online.com

Philips Dynalite universal sensors ensure that lighting only activates when areas— such as the library—are occupied and when ambient light levels fall below a threshold level.

The lighting design in the dining room maximise the use of natural light during the day, and provides an intimate atmosphere at night.

The Scarlet’s fluorescent and LED circuits are controlled by a combination of Philips Dynalite relay and ballast controllers to provide an energy-efficient lighting design.

Hotel management urged to assess fire risks

By MARK GOWANS | Managing Director, Wormald Australia & New Zealand

F

ire is a risk for every hospitality facility and hotel and can pose a serious threat to guests, property and a businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; reputation. Busy kitchens, careless guests and equipment malfunction can all contribute to the risk of fire and with high occupancy loads, minor mishaps can quickly become serious threats.

Hotel owners and managers have the responsibility of providing a safe environment for their staff and guests and they must consider all the potential risks and be adequately prepared.

Firstly, any fire safety plan must be in accordance with State and Territory regulations, building codes and occupational health and safety requirements. Associated fire protection codes and standards also play a crucial role in determining the necessary fire protection solutions that hotels should consider to meet their life-safety obligations. Consulting a fire specialist will assist in identifying what is required for your specific situation.

Some of the common fire and life safety hazards found in hotels include

missing or broken fire safety equipment, locked exit doors, accumulated trash, blocked stairways, open fire doors and burned out exit lights. While it is impossible to prevent all fires, it is important to be aware of the risks and have adequate fire protection systems in place.

The choice of fire safety solutions for hotels is extensive and ranges from portable equipment to comprehensive sprinkler systems and smoke detection systems integrated into a hotelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s control room.

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Fire detection systems are vital and can help prevent loss of life and minimise damage. Wormald’s MX™ Technology fire detection systems provide very early detection of even slow smouldering fires and can be configured to detect carbon monoxide (CO), smoke and heat. The fire detection systems can also be fully interconnected with fire suppression systems such as sprinklers, as well as emergency evacuation systems.

Hotels may need to install comprehensive fire suppression systems to deal with large fires should they occur. With the kitchen presenting one of the biggest fire hazards, hotel management should consider fire protection systems designed specifically for use with higher temperature cooking oils and slow-cooking appliances. For example, Wormald offers the PIRANHA® kitchen fire suppression system, which discharges a wet chemical liquid fire suppressant for rapid flame knockdown of burning oil. The ANSUL® R-102 is another system which can be installed directly into the hood and ductwork of cooking

appliances and releases a liquid fire suppressant when the temperature in the hood reaches a predetermined level.

guests, but an unprofessional approach and panic outbreak may take years to recover from.

Having serviced and functional fire equipment on hand when and where you need it can mean the difference between a minor blaze and a devastating full scale fire. Fire extinguishers, fire hose reels and fire blankets are a quick solution for helping to suppress smaller fires and all staff should be trained in how to use them.

Emergency lights are beneficial for guiding hotel guests to the nearest safe exit in the event of a fire or emergency evacuation situation. Some advanced solutions can even be integrated with fire detection, building automation, public address and other control systems to react to the emergency as it unfolds and escort people away to safety.

To help contain fire and prevent the spread of harmful flames, hot gases and smoke, corridors should be fitted with fire doors. Exhaust fans should also be installed in emergency stairwells to prevent the build up of smoke in the escape routes.

It is also important to maintain all fire protection equipment and systems.

Australian Standards, such as AS1851 require that equipment is regularly tested to ensure it will perform when required.

Your fire protection provider should carry out regular inspections and tests so that systems and equipment operate effectively should an incident occur.

In addition to having adequate fire protection equipment, hotel management should also have an effective response and evacuation procedure in place. A swift and competent response to a fire incident can enhance your reputation amongst

To find out more about fire safety solutions and legislation visit the Fire Protection Association of Australia at www.fpaa.com. au or Wormald at www.wormald.com.au

Are you paying too much for Electricity?

A CASE STUDY

By MICHAEL NEWTON | Watt Utilities

Gabba Central has saved an estimated $30,000 in two months since implementing changes identified from an energy audit, with a reduction in electricity usage of around 43% overall. The energy performance index has improved substantially to approximately 12.3 MJ/m2 per month, equivalent to 147.7 MJ/m2 for a full year.

T

his is a building that had many complexities about it, combining residential living with commercial shops with shared common areas and separate legal entities for the residential towers and the retail lot.

The audit was requested to resolve numerous business issues with the ultimate outcome to reduce costs and the maximum demand and electricity usage of the building, thus reducing its carbon footprint.

Site Description: Gabba Centralâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s base building energy consumption over the 12 month period from July 2009 to June 2010 was 2,134,199 kWh or 7,677 GJ of electricity at a cost of $295,196 including GST. It is equivalent to 2,155 tonnes of greenhouse gas CO2-e or 501 cars on

the road. This gave an annual energy performance index of 177.91 MJ/ m2 of gross building floor area. However some of the air handling plant was out of service for five months of this period. After allowing for this the cost for a full year was estimated at $359,000, representing an energy performance index of 244 MJ/ m2.

Gabba Central has a gross building floor area of 43,154 m2 with seven levels of residential apartments across four towers and three levels of underground car parking. The car parking is designed such that there are seven split levels over three general car park areas, each being assigned to one of three basements.

The tower tenancies comprise 186 apartments and several commercial tenancies of varying size covering 4250 m2 of the ground level.

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 75

One of the Business Issues: Cost allocation of common power What energy consumption is being used in the common area? Are the costs allocated between residential bodies corporate and the retail lot fair and reasonable? To add further complexity to this question the common areas are not individually sub-metered, so there are no current measurement tools in place.

Watt Utilities was asked by the body corporate to perform a Level 2 audit, and Cypher was retained by Watt Utilities to undertake the site investigation and report. We had to identify and analyse what uses power within the building using measurement tools and then provide a series of recommendations to reduce energy usage and costs and an analysis of the energy used by the residential and the retail lots to assist in cost allocation.

The breakdown of the common area is listed in the graph below. It was apparent

Estimated Annual Savings Recommendation

$ pa incl GST

kWh pa

GJ pa

t CO2-e

% Total Energy

Project Cost

Payback (yrs)

$350

0.0005

Tender for a forward dated electricity market contract

$63,000

Downlight Lighting Option 1: Replace 50 watt Halogen with 20 Watt Halogen Downlights

$19,408

161,345

580.38

162.96

8.74%

$26,800

1.38

$25,231

209,749

754.49

211.85

11.36%

$82,544

3.27

$49,291

409,766

1473.98

413.86

22.19%

$158,000

3.21

Downlight Lighting Option 2: Replace 50 watt Halogen with 11 Watt compact fluorescent lamps Downlight Lighting Implementation Plan: Replace 50 watt Halogen lamps with LED lamps. Step 1. Undertake a trial with LED downlights in one lift and one corridor to evaluate light levels. Can be done by building maintenance manager, by simply replacing lamps.

Step 2. If suitable, prepare a program for replacing all downlights.

Install Carpark Emissions Monitoring System to Control Air Movement

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 77

the car park exhaust fans were the major cost contributor to common area power at 41% of use.

Areas looked at within the Audit: We looked at all areas that consumed power and gave recommendations based on those with payback periods less than 4 years and those items with greater than 4 year pay back periods. Below are listed those with under 4 year payback period.

Savings Identified: The energy audit identified energy efficiency cost savings worth approximately $82,000 per annum. These savings represent reduction in electricity consumption of 684,624 kWh per annum or a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 691 tonnes of CO2-e, equivalent to taking 160 cars off the road.

It also identified cost reduction in the electricity account for the common area with a saving of approximately $62,000 per annum or 21% at the consumption

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levels expected prior to implementation of the audit recommendations.

What was implemented: Market Contract: The new contract commenced 1 January 2011 and savings of 32 % per month have already been seen in January and February compared with the rates under the old market contract.

Car park monitoring system: A system comprising carbon monoxide sensors and variable speed drives was implemented and it has not only reduced the electricity usage prior to the introduction of the new system, but it has also reduced the maximum demand. Another positive outcome is that it has reduced the noise in the car parking levels dramatically.

See below; when the monitoring system was implemented the reduction was clear.

Lighting: Gabba Central chose to implement the trial proposed in the implementation plan, replacing the current 50 watt Halogen downlights with

ALTLED Aurora MR16 series 7 watt lamps as they fail. Initial reaction is that there is no discernable difference in the light output. These lamps are claimed by the manufacturer to have a life of 30,000 hours. They are direct replacements for the 50 watt Halogen lamps. If the trials are successful, savings will be greater than the estimated savings under Option s 1 or 2.

Other: Audit recommendations with payback periods longer than 4 years will be considered as funds are available. The sub-metering recommended for the common areas is still under consideration.

This will provide usage sub-meters for the common areas, so that the allocation of electricity costs among the residential and retail common areas can be based on metered usage rather than agreement on calculated usage as at present.

This building not only has made significant savings as a result of the energy audit, but it has also reduced its carbon footprint. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t useâ&#x20AC;?

Neil Weenink’s

Back of House T

here were perks with the position of Junior Engineer on the good ship Port Quebec which I had joined fresh out of ‘serving his time’ in 1954. And for me the big perk was being off duty in port for 12 hours. Especially if it’s New York you happen to be off duty in; you did see old Frankie in that film when he sings ‘New York, New York what a wonderful town – where the buildings go up and the people go down’ and there I was never having seen a subway or an elevator or a skyscraper.

The joys of ignorance!

I did so much in that 12 hours that today I shudder to recall. I saw my first Television set [the lady watching me watching through the window called ‘Come on in Honey and rest up.’ Honey! I was entranced]. And the Dictaphone you talked into, and for 35 cents you got a Bakelite disc and envelope. This unfortunately I recorded at the end of the day and addressed to my Mother in New Zealand – a land at that time, about as far removed from Staten Island, as it is possible to be. Consequently maternal relationships for some time following this incident were pretty grim.

But what I really want to tell you about, the essence if you will of this note, is my coming face to face with three of the hugely great buildings of the last century.

The Chrysler Building, the Empire State, and the Waldorf Astoria. Needless to remark that the lad from Novo Zealandia was truly and utterly blown away.

The three were built in the 1930s and today remain icons of architecture and construction: •

The Chrysler Building at 319m remains the world’s tallest steel supported brick building.

•

The Waldorf–Astoria now owned

by Conrad Hotels & Resorts was the first hotel in the world to offer room service.

•

And the Empire State, built during the Great Depression in the 30s, is now going through a $550 million renovation.

Bloody marvellous Mavis if you don’t mind my French. I mean to say all this, and me totally agog with the shear magnificence of it all. The imagination, the hesitancy with never afore tried design, the shear to-hell-with-it-let’s-give-it-a-go from human kind. Like the Titanic and those blokes in the drawing office. I had a few short years too before the lads in Silicone Valley changed all that. My time was with slide rules and Logs. The dreaming was with Them in The Office and not to be questioned my son. And so to science and actuality ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ Newton perhaps?

The really amazing thing here, was that the height of these buildings and hence the absolute awesomeness of design at that period, would never have been feasible without the dream of Otis, whom you will recall. built the first passengercarrying elevator. Incredible achievement using iron pawls to engage with racks in the event of cable breakages. [etc & etc].

And this was enabled by the evolution of steel wire rope, which the immigrant fellow to New York put together for the Brooklyn Bridge. And so on. Big fleas have smaller fleas upon their backs to ride ‘em, and these fleas have smaller fleas and so ad-infinitum!

At that time of my life and career, I knew little about heating and cooling, or about the mechanical systems to bring these objectives to effect. I recall gazing up at the enormous sky-scrapers [the new in-word at the time] and wondering about these matters, little knowing that the brilliant Willis Carrier had developed a system to induce huge volumes of warm humid air and reject same at comfortable levels of temperature and humidity. The turbine/compressor no less. Another long and fascinating story.

My time as a Junior Marine Engineer ended with my induction into low speed Allen DC generators. There was no air conditioning, just cardboard Budweiser beer-can boxes craftily formed into scoops and fitted into cabin portholes to catch the air as the old ship travelled forward at her stately 10 knots or so.

But New York! Oh my. Here was the Rockefeller Building and the gorgeous high-stepping Rockettes – a precision dance company performing out of the Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York City. During the Christmas season, the Rockettes have performed five shows a day, seven days a week, for 77 years.

Perhaps their best-known routine is an eye-high leg kicks in perfect unison in a chorus line, which they include at the end of every performance. Which also I made the grave mistake of describing to my Mother on the Bakelite disc. Those of you being only sons will verily understand the truth of this perilous error.

And I can tell you in absolute sincerity, that if I had that opportunity just one more time, as surely as God makes little apples, I would do it all again!

Stay well,

Neil Weenink Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 79

New Technologies to the Aid of the Hotel Engineer – Part 2 Solar Parabolic Trough Reflector / Collector

By ALAN LEWIS | Pool Consultant

T

his new development comes to improve the efficiency and intensity of solar collectors for heating of swimming pools and hot water cisterns, on roofs – or in appropriately positioned open sites. In many cases this would be very appropriate and cost effective, for harnessing solar energy in hotels and motels.

It is not new. The first such troughs were built, to the best of my knowledge, in 1912. The magnification of the solar radiation is achieved by focussing the parabolic reflector, in the form of a trough, on to a single black pipe. The reflector works best when the central axis of the parabolic trough is in direct line with the sun.

Two approaches have been adopted by various inventors: In the first, the reflector is automatically aligned with the angle of the sun using a light sensor linked to a small motorised shaft which tilts it up or down as the sun moves through the sky.

A pipe of a diameter which matches the essential design consideration of the volume of the pool (or hot water cistern), is suspended though the trough(s), at the precise focal point of the parabola. Thus the reflection of the sun’s radiation is concentrated maximally onto the pipe. It has also been shown that this parabolic reflecting surface multiplies the heat collection by 6 – 7 times the heat energy that would fall on a flat surface of similar area. The reflector itself is automatically aligned with the angle of the sun using a light sensor linked to a small motorised shaft which tilts it up or down as the sun moves through the sky.

In the second the reflector is built in a fixed curve suited to the latitude of the client’s premises so that a good part of the reflector is always aligned with the sun. At the focal point of the parabola the pipe in this trough follows the contour of the design – while its diameter again is designed to allow for the volume of water that needs to be heated. Only small adjustments to the angle of the trough’s alignment, are needed to suit the seasonal adjustments of the sun’s azimuth. This adjustment requires manual tilting of the troughs just four times

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 81

in the course of one year and does no involve major effort. The water passing through the pipe is circulated to and from the pool during the hours of sunlight and the multiplication of the absorbed energy heats the pool in a very short time. In areas where sunshine is plentiful and cloudy skies are rare – it is possible to conceive that carefully designed sites could drive the hot water circulation by convection alone – with just a small pump for back-up when skies are very cloudy. This would be yet another major saving in energy for such a system.

subsidised and offers other incentives this could be of great long term value for Motels and Hotels.

ValuHeat™ Commercial Solar Parabolic Troughs

A similar system to this has already been applied very successfully in Kibbutz Samar in southern Israel. All of Kibbutz Samar’s energy is now produced on site and is sufficient for the electricity needs of the 100 families on the Kibbutz, as well as the refrigeration needs of the Kibbutz dairy and other industries.

There is ample space in this desert settlement to build a facility based on parabolic dishes (rather than troughs) which focus on one bulb shaped vessel poised high above the ground.

Solar Water Heating for pools and much more!

New ValuHeat™ technology has made solar heating much more affordable and efficient.

• • • •

Clearly this is a more efficient and intelligent approach to collection of solar energy for pools, than the current options available in this country. It should only be a matter of time until our own manufacturers learn to use this principle. The added advantage would be huge savings in energy to run the system.

Supplementary hot water needed after sunset, could be stored in thermally insulated hot water cisterns.

Dimensions: 24’ x 8 1/2’ Trough consists of two sections. Each section weights 200 lbs.

Static design - no moving parts Troughs are easily connectable depending on your specific heating demands.

There is no reason why this could not effectively heat domestic water systems for showering , washing clothes or dishes. In fact one Swedish company has developed Parabolic Trough Collectors that combine both production of electricity (ProVoltaic) as well as water heating on roofs of multistorey housing and group housing. They claim to achieve an efficiency which increases the uptake of solar energy tenfold, with this combination. For large Motels this would be an ideal energy saver. In Australia where the application of PV systems is both

FLOWER POWER : THE WORLDS FIRST SOLAR HYBRID POWER STATION The patented receiver uses the solar energy to heat air to a temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius and directs this energy into the turbine, which converts the thermal energy into electric power. Any excess energy can be fed directly into the national grid.

Besides solar energy, the power station can also run on other alternative fuel, including bio-gas, bio-diesel and natural gas. So the station can produce electricity when sunlight is insufficient, such as at night or when it is cloudy. The kibbutz dairy also provides some of this “bio-fuel”.

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Hotel Engineer

THE STELTH PUMP An inventor from Queensland recently displayed a pump with a unique impeller and an even more unique operating principle in a SPLASH trade show. The performance of this pump has proven to be of tremendous significance, since tests have shown that it outclasses every other pump in the world in several important spheres.

This means that this pump will enjoy the highest rating when the new requirements for energy labeling of pumps shortly come into vogue.

• Only Stelth will be awarded 9 stars.

• Most pumps will get 7 stars.

• A pump of 9 stars is 56% more efficient than one of 7 stars.

The pump has a quieter motor cooling fan than its competitors.

The performance of this pump has proven to be of tremendous significance, since the tests have shown that it outclasses every other pump in the world in several important spheres. All of this has been proven in numerous scientific testing done on Stelth pumps at the University of Adelaide, and at ITT, (the world’s largest pump company) in the USA.

The internal rotating structures can generate a solid body vortex similar to the rotating bucket of Newton’s experiment in which a bucket with parallel sides is hung vertically and rotated.

NOTE: Importantly the water in the bucket remains like a solid of constant molecular alignment with no movement whatsoever, relative to the rotating bucket. Consider the drum or spigot as an “axle” which induces the water to spin with it. Thus the water becomes a “solid body” vortex.

The pump’s cooling fan has also been tested for noise, and found to be the quieter than any of its competitors.

The chart below relates to pool and spa pumps but shows similar efficiency increases for other applications.

This chart below compares the Stelth and the DAB pump: model number K14/400 M, 2.5 HP. (in red below). Dab is used for agriculture and general pumping worldwide.

The STELTH develops its pressure by centrifugal force at the solid body vortex periphery only millimetres inside the casing wall!!

As its name implies, it is quieter then any other pump. This of course is important when a pump needs to work at night while the neighbours want to sleep. It uses considerably less energy than all other pumps, to pump the same amount of water.

Yellow and dark red are efficiency curves – Blue / Red are output in litres per minute

The pressure flow curve of the Stelth is ALWAYS much BROADER than conventional pumps. The above curve shows efficiency increases that are significant for a broad range of industrial,domestic, rural, marine, automotive and aerospace applications.

There is little doubt that the Stelthpump is the pump of the future. It will bring new and added effiency to all pool pumps world wide. We will most certainly be learning more of this important improvement on pump technologies in the near future.

For further information regarding these new developments please contact me by email: aquazure34@gmail.com

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 83

Swimming Pool Heating Options

By PAUL WERE | DONTEK Electronics Pty Ltd

Inviting Swimming Pools and Spas are one way for Hotels to entice new patrons or to keep their existing ones.

Whilst looking inviting is great, the water temperature must also be set to a level where the experience meets the expectation.

A

s we know there are a number of heating options and the most economical systems are not necessarily reliable all year round.

GAS Gas has traditionally been the most common form of pool heating as it is easy to install, has a low capital outlay and can provide rapid heat up times. The heater usually has pool water pumped through a Heat Exchanger which sits above a gas fired burner tray; this heat is transferred to the water and returns to the pool. Newer style gas heaters utilise fan assistance that aids in the combustion and heat transfer process that increases efficiencies and reduces operating costs. A gas heater is the perfect back up for Solar or Heat Pump systems.

fitted to the roof and returns to the pool.

This heat collector can be made in many different styles; some are made from extruded PVC strip, moulded tube panels and more. When year round heating is required a backup system such as Gas or Heat pump is normally required.

High Efficiency Solar High Efficiency Solar comes in a number of forms. One of the popular types is fully Glassed Panels that utilises a clear polycarbonate cover over HDPE (high density poly ethylene) coiled pipes that sit within a housing. When sunlight strikes the collector, the solar radiation travels through the clear glassing and is absorbed by the black HDPE inner tubing. These systems are not greatly affected by wind and can be angled to face the northern sun to increase efficiency and only a small roof area is required

SOLAR Solar is an economical way of heating and has a relatively low capital cost. Water is pumped from the pool to a heat collector

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Hotel Engineer

HEAT PUMP Heat Pumps have become more common for heating as capital costs have been

reduced over the past few years. Heat pumps are least efficient during the coldest months and it is common practice to have a gas heater as back up for prolonged cold spells.

Heat pumps work like a reversed air conditioner. Instead of taking air from a room or building, removing the heat and returning it, a heat pump takes large quantities of air from the atmosphere, removing the heat contained in the air and transferring this to water from the pool or spa passing through the unit.

As we know, the most economical heating systems for pools and spas can require a back up system and this is where a digital control system is required. The controller must monitor the most economical way of heating and switch between heat sources as required.

Smart Electronics means Maximum efficiency.

On Solar Systems the controller will monitor the pool temperature and when

heating is required will turn the solar system on if there is solar gain. When auxiliary heating, normally gas or heatpump is fitted in conjunction with solar, the controller will determine which heat source is best to use. If heating is required the controller will check solar temperature and if not available will switch on the auxiliary heater and run till limit or until there is some solar gain. When there is some solar gain but not enough for the pool to achieve limit both heat sources should run in conjunction. When there is enough solar gain to achieve limit the auxiliary heating should be turned off and the more economical solar heat source should only be utilised.

When Salt Chlorinators are used in multiple or smaller systems over Chlorination is common as the Filter pump has to run for extended hours to keep the Heat Pump going. The controller should turn the Salt Chlorinator off when extended heating times are required or an electronic monitoring system should be fitted.

How to save on running costs and the Environment.

When multiple heat sources are utilised it is imperative to set the most economical heat source to a higher set temperature than the auxiliary set temperature. By doing this the cheaper heat source will push the temperature past the auxiliary limit that will minimise the auxiliary run time, the greater the difference the larger the savings will be. What needs to be considered is what the minimum temperature set point can be tolerated without customer discomfort and the maximum temperature taking into account customer satisfaction and accelerated chemical consumption. The minimum set temperature will be the Auxiliary heater with the highest energy consumption that can be set at about 26 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature will be the least expensive to run to a temperature of about 29 degrees Celsius. This will differ from State to State as pool temperature needs to be set relevant to ambient air temperature to achieve a comfort level. â&#x2013;

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 85

“Look Before You Leap” – Perfecting Pool Design

By AIRCHANGE AUSTRALIA

Indoor Pools need to be well ventilated to ensure a healthy indoor air environment.

Conditioning the air inside a heated indoor pool space is a particularly challenging and energy intensive process in which three major problems must be overcome: • Heat and water loss • Indoor Air Quality • Corrosion Designers must be aware that most guidelines for indoor pool design do not address all these aspects adequately and they must therefore carefully consider their design and the equipment they select.

Hotel Grand Chancellor, Tasmania Heat & Water Loss The air temperature inside the space is a critical aspect in pool design. By maintaining it slightly above the water temperature (+1 to 2°C), heat loss from the water to the air can be minimised.

It is much more energy efficient to heat air, as opposed to heating water, subsequently designing for this temperature is highly recommended.

Reduced evaporation loss from the pool surface in addition to enhanced comfort levels for swimmers leaving the water further validates the decision to control air temperature.

The air distribution should be directed away from the pool surface to further reduce evaporation and instead should be

Hotel Grand Chancellor, Tasmania

supplied to effectively wash over any glass surfaces that are exposed to the outside environment.

Indoor Pools can require up to 8 air changes/hour to reduce airborne impurities and control condensation. With outside air heating using 34kW per 1000 l/s (based on 0°C ambient / 28°C indoor) a small 25m indoor pool could require up to 170kW of airside heating. A high efficiency Heat Recovery System (HRS) can reclaim up to 80% of the heat in the exhaust air and use only 7kW per 1000 l/s.

The HRS can also be used to re-capture evaporated moisture as it condenses in the exhaust air stream. To do this the drain from the HRS must be independent of any systems that would require drainage to waste.

Ryde Aquatic Centre, Sydney Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Maintaining proper indoor air quality is another major challenge facing designers. Nitrogen trichloride, a readily inhalable toxin, is one of the by-products of pool chlorination. Chloramines are produced by the reaction of bodily proteins and chlorine.

Research has shown this to be a major cause of childhood asthma and can cause lung damage equivalent to regular smoking, as well as skin and eye irritation.

As shock chlorine dosing is generally not an option available to public pools, high ventilation rates are essential for efficient removal of chloramines and other air impurities. A ventilation system can also assist with maintaining water quality as airborne chloramines will redissolve in the pool unless removed.

Ryde Aquatic Centre, Sydney

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 87

The indoor pool environment is also ideal for the growth of mould and mildew.

Indoor pool operators should mitigate potential Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) risks by maintaining acceptable IAQ. Staff exposed to the atmosphere for prolonged periods may suffer health effects as identified in numerous studies.

Effects on the lung occur when nitrogen trichloride in the air exceeds a concentration of 300 mg/m3 “Our results show, indeed, that nitrogen trichloride (produced by Chlorine) is a cause of occupational asthma in indoor swimming pool workers like lifeguards and swim instructors,” Dr. K. Thickett of the Occupational Lung Diseases Unit at the Birmingham Heartlands Hospital.

The high efficiency HRS provides a high ventilation rate of warm, dry outside air to the pool hall while minimising energy usage and reducing water loss through evaporation.

Air Change has worked with indoor pool designers, engineers and specifiers to combat the harsh effects an indoor pool environment often produces. The PoolPacTM has been designed specifically for indoor pools and includes features to overcome issues of corrosion, poor air quality and heat /water loss.

Emirates Wolgan Valley Emirates Wolgan Valley is a luxury resort and spa located three hours drive from Sydney. Its setting at the foot of the Blue Mountains is indicative of its sustainable nature and the emphasis Emirates have placed on conservation.

Private dwellings are set around the fully restored homestead and each luxury residence features its own private plunge pool.

35 Air Change Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV’s) were selected to condition the air within the pool area inside each residence.

ERV’s were specified over the PoolPacTM in this case, as the space warranted the smaller design of the ERV. The specially constructed ERV’s feature corrosion resistant coatings, similar to the PoolPacTM. The units are 250 L/s with up to 10 air changes per hour, which minimises condensation and delivers high IAQ.

The Air Change PoolPacTM Unit

Other Air Change PoolPacTM installations include: The Hotel Grand Chancellor, Tasmania. Consultant: ASC Engineers. Installation: White & McAllister Pty Ltd.

The Air Change PoolPacTM Unit Corrosion In 1985, twelve people were killed in Uster, Switzerland, when the concrete roof of a swimming pool collapsed after only thirteen years of use. The roof was supported by stainless steel rods in tension, which failed due to stress corrosion cracking.

The atmosphere of indoor swimming pools is one of the most aggressive in the building industry. As condensation evaporates, chloramines concentrate and become corrosive. The corrosive effects can cause major damage to plant equipment, the building structure, brackets for suspended light fittings and loudspeakers, pipework, conduits, rod/bar supports for ventilation ducts, water slides and other design features, wire rope supports for water slides and also fasteners.

The key to minimising this type of damage, providing a safe indoor environment and reducing heat loss from the water is to maintain a sufficiently high quantity of warm, dry air circulating throughout the pool hall and in particular those areas that come in to contact with the cold outdoor environment. Recirculation of pool air can increase humidity, as well as adding to the build up of contaminants in the atmosphere. Regular washing, maintenance and inspection is also required.

Although it is contradictory to most design principles an indoor pool hall should maintain a slight negative pressure to prevent condensation in the seams of the building and to contain the corrosive atmosphere. Obviously an effective rate would be dependant on the buildings seal.

Corrosion can be effectively controlled by a combination of good design, careful selection of exposed components and effective management, including maintenance and inspection.

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Hotel Engineer

Whakatane District Aquatic Centre. Consultant: Jackson Engineering. Installation: ESP Technologies

Tweed Regional Aquatic Centre.

Consultant: Floth Sustainable Building Consultants. Installation: L.E.N Enterprises. Builder: Multi Span Australia.

AMENDMENT On page 55 of the last issue we ran an article on Heat Recovery. The author was shown as Dean Scicluna, Munters Pty Limited. This was incorrect. The author was Shane Carmichael of Air Change Australia. We apologise for this error and any inconvenience it may have caused.

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THE

HOTEL ENGINEER

Company: Blygold stops corrosion in air cooled Air Conditioning systems from occurring by cleaning and coating both new and existing heat exchangers with our unique anti-corrosion products. As a result substantially savings are realized on energy expenses and capital costs.

Blygold also specializes in treating AHU’s and casings of chillers with the Blygold anti-corrosion treatment.

Background: Blygold Australia is part of Blygold International, which has been established for over 30 years and has a reputation for excellence and quality of products and services. Blygold services many clients Australia wide, amongst them: office buildings, shopping malls, airports, hospitals, universities, hotels, museums, restaurants, and many industries.

Our great value proposition: Everyone knows Air-conditioning systems are huge energy consumers (40 - 70% of energy use in most buildings). Therefore, it is very important for each unit to operate at optimal levels with the highest efficiency possible. When corrosion occurs and pollution adheres the performance will decrease dramatically and energy consumption will increase.

The Blygold corrosion protection will avoid this from happening and stop an increase of energy consumption.

The current generation of anti-corrosion treatments from Blygold has been tested successfully at 4000 Hours + against salt and acid spray.

In existing (aged) coils Blygold coating acts like a paint filler and fills the cracks between the fins and the tubes and due to the metal pigmentation conductivity is partly restored and the unit will be more efficient after

Product News

treatment than before. The coating is very smooth (Teflon like), which has a result of far less dirt adhesion, airflow stays high, and therefore the heat transfer and efficiency stays high.

New heat exchangers and slightly corroded units can be treated to prevent or to stop further deterioration. Most heat exchangers will corrode as they are exposed to rather harsh conditions being in a marine/urban environment.

Benefits Blygold treatment: • save up to 20% on energy use • double the lifespan of the heat exchangers • ensure the highest level of performance of heat exchangers • increase reliability of the climate control system • provide cleaner air to staff, visitors and other users • our services generally earn themselves back within 12 months

Specifications Blygold treatment: • a post coating, meaning applied after assembly of the coils • salt and acid resistant for over 4000 hours • coating 25 to 30 microns • provides full coverage, not only of the fins but also the copper tubes and the connection between the fins and the tubes • has a metal pigmentation, so conductivity stays high • can be applied on site as well as in our workshop • can be maintained on site • a member of the GBCA and approved by EcoSpecifier Blygold can increase the lifespan of these systems as well as greatly reduce the amount of energy they use over their lifetime.

Contact Blygold Australia on 1300 271 115 25 Fulton Street Oakleigh South, Vic 3167 or email: admin@blygold.com.au

www.blygold.com.au 90 | Vol 16 No. o.2 | Hotel Engineer 90 | Vol 16 N 2 | Hotel Engineer

THE

HOTEL ENGINEER The Safety Cooling Tower

Product News

Superchill cooling tower range, which includes the German designed Modupol range and the low noise and super low noise fibreglass forced draft towers.

The MPCT tower is a modular tower, with an extremely strong and durable pulltruded fibreglass frame. The basin and fan cowling are made in traditional high quality marine grade fibreglass. The full size removable side panels are made from preformed plastic and are designed for easy removal and handling to allow entire access for cleaning and maintenance.

The panels are very light and small enough for one person to handle without the risk of any injury.

The locally designed and locally manufactured new Superchill cooling tower type MPCT (Modular pulltruded cooling tower) is the latest and safest addition to the high quality

The tower is designed to fully comply with the Australian standards and has the best and most efficient drift eliminators and air intake louvers available on the market.

The air intake lovers are double the thickness compared with most currently offered local cooling towers. This reduces light ingress into

Water Chiller Cost Considerations

W

ater chillers today are very sophisticated, generally very efficient and certainly are a major capital cost to any project.

The 2 major cost considerations are: 1) Capital cost – easy to see and quantify as a fixed and immediate cost. 2) Running cost – these are more difficult to quantify.

The key elements of running costs are: (a) Power required to produce the required cooling effect at full load C.O.P. and at Part Load IPLV & NPLV. Since to introduction of the federal government Minimum energy Performance Standards in July 2009, all water chillers, air and water cooled, over 350 kW cooling capacity must meet stringent full and part load performance guidelines as new machines. Often Building owners pay more money for machines with a higher performance (ie: less input for more output). The extra money paid up front is often justified by reduced electricity costs providing payback periods of 1-2 or more years. This performance is all verifiable at the time the chiller is purchased.

the tower basin and helps prevent algae and bacteria growth. It also reduces water splashing outside the tower and reduces noise level.

The best fill for this tower is the high quality 2H plastics cooling tower fill called Sanipacking. (see www.sanipacking.com for more information) This fill is arguably the safest cooling tower fill available. It is made from moulded polypropylene (PP) and treated to prevent bacteria growing on it’s surface. To distinguish this high quality fill from normal fill the colour of the fill is blue. The polypropylene fill is also extremely long lasting and can withstand temperatures up to 80 degrees.

Superchill is working closely together with 2H plastics and we are the local distributor and manufacturer for the number one European fill producer GEA 2H Water Technologies (former 2H Kunststoff).

For further information please contact Superchill Australia or 2H plastics Australia www.superchill.com or www.2h.com.au or 1300667 018 and 03 9793 6166

(b) Maintenance and Breakdown. These costs are often not treated with the same priority as the cost of the power to run the chiller. Maintenance is however paramount to ensuring that costly breakdowns are avoided but more importantly that the performance you paid for is achieved over the life of the chiller. Once the chiller is operating in the real world heat exchanger surfaces on both air and water cooled machines become fouled with the dirt and grit of our busy cities. Corrosion on temperature sensors can give inaccurate feedback to chiller controllers causing erratic or inappropriate response to the real system requirements, resulting in poor chilled water temperature control and poor comfort control of the building.

Simple preventative maintenance visits, logging chiller heat exchanger performances, sensor and transducer performances as well as refrigerant charges and water flows will ensure that your chiller continues to perform as it did on the test rig for the majority of its lifespan as well as ensuring that the performance costs savings that were expected continues to be realised. ■

Gary Davies National Sales Manager

Hotel Engineer | Vol 16 No. 2 | 91

THE

HOTEL ENGINEER

Product News

JOHNSON CONTROLS, a global leader in products, services, and solutions for increased building efficiency, proudly introduces the YORK YMC2 water cooled, active magnetic bearing, oil free, permanent magnet motor, variable speed driven, centrifugal chiller. Advanced driveline technology utilized by the York YMC2 chiller is designed to deliver superior efficiency, greater sustainability, and lower sound levels.

Oil free, frictionless operation, combined with fewer moving parts, results in one of the most innovative and dependable drivelines available. York YMC2 chillers offer a real solution to the growing challenges of increasing energy prices, and the need to create a more sustainable future.

Featuring one of the highest efficiencies in its class at both full load, design and part load, off design conditions, the YMC2 chiller delivers intelligent cost reduction under all operating conditions. YMC2 energy savings can surpass existing centrifugal chiller designs by up to 10%.

Johnson Controls pioneered the term “real world energy” to illustrate the potential for focussing on performance during operation at off design conditions . Utilizing the same application philosophy as the renowned York YK OptiSpeedTM chiller, YMC2 chillers are optimized to deliver outstanding efficiencies with full flow, cold entering condenser water, over the full load spectrum.

York YMC2 chillers also feature OptiSoundTM, a patented combination of hardware and software that expands chiller operating range and reduces operational sound levels. The YMC2 chiller sound level is less than 73dBA per AHRI-575 standard.

Key design elements of the YMC2 also feature next generation developments in variable speed drive and heat exchanger technologies.

The YMC2 OptiSpeedTM Variable Speed Drive, equipped with a standard, factory packaged IEEE-519 active harmonic filter, delivers a power factor of at least 0.97 and THD levels < 5% .

Peace of mind comes from a long lineage of York OptiSpeedTM, single driveline, field serviceable centrifugal chillers, since 1978.

The YMC2 chiller is the result of considerable experience; with over 115 York active magnetic bearing, oil free, permanent magnet motor, military grade centrifugal chillers installed in some of the world’s most demanding and sensitive applications, since 1998, by York Navy Systems.

When combined with a Johnson Controls Metasys CPO-10 chiller plant optimizer system, the extraordinary performance potential of an all variable speed YMC2 multiple chiller plant will be fully delivered with the confidence of single source responsibility.

To find out more about the innovative York YMC2 chiller, contact the Johnson Controls Building Efficiency team at + 61 2 9805 8300 or visit www.johnsoncontrols.com.au

Phantom® insecticide Phantom® insecticide, by BASF Pest Control Solutions, is a major breakthrough in pest control for Australia, with unique properties that make it unlike other insecticides. Phantom is a liquid SC formulation for the control of ants, cockroaches and bed bugs, used as an internal treatment for cracks and crevices. The active ingredient, new to Australia in this application, is derived from a natural product, based on a toxin of the bacterium Streptomyces fumanus. Phantom is a non repellent, so it is undetectable to the pests and also makes it suitable for use near cockroach gels. Phantom is also Australia’s first insecticide to be HACCP endorsed.

Ask your pest control service provider if they are using the latest in undetectable technology -Phantom insecticide.

Product information hotline (Freecall): 1800 006 393 or visit www.termidor.com.au.

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