Trial / Demo
IES Consulting were commissioned to conduct energy audits for 9 properties across the Tifco Hotel Group portfolio, producing a series of energy action plans with the potential to deliver a 50% reduction in energy use, a 30% reduction in energy cost and a 43% reduction in CO2 emissions across the sites analysed.
Energy audits are an important first step in understanding where a building uses energy, allowing organisations to identify where operational adjustments and capital projects can be implemented and prioritised to reduce energy consumption, CO2 emissions and operating costs, while limiting financial and climate risks.
To support their sustainability commitments, Tifco Hotel Group - the second largest hotel operator in Ireland - appointed IES Consulting to conduct detailed energy audits for 9 of their hotel properties, under the SEAI Energy Auditing Compliance Scheme. SEAI’s Support Scheme for Energy Audits (SSEA) offers financial support for small and medium enterprises to get an energy audit, helping them to unlock energy efficiency opportunities and contribute to the Irish Government’s national commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030.
The consultants began by gathering as much data as possible to establish the current energy consumption of each site and form a baseline. This was achieved through the assessment of utility bill data and detailed site surveys, to identify all of the major energy consumers and build a complete picture of the energy flows across each site, including any monthly or seasonal trends.
Initial assessment of the data identified domestic hot water (DHW), the building HVAC systems and space heating as being the highest energy consumers across the portfolio, with kitchen electrical equipment and lighting also being amongst the areas highlighted for potentially significant savings opportunities to be achieved.
Having established the areas of high consumption, the consultants began to consider a variety of low/no-cost measures and longer-term capital investments for improving energy efficiency at each property. The measures considered ranged from simple operational changes, including set point adjustments and reducing DHW flow rates, and shallow retrofit measures, such as lighting and BMS upgrades, all the way through to deeper renovation plant and fabric upgrades, and heat pump installations. The analysis also considered the impact of potential renewable installations, such as solar PV, as well as an energy awareness campaign, to help inform improved energy management practices across the Tifco Group’s properties.
The consultants were able to quantify the impact of these various interventions at each of the 9 sites, calculating the energy, cost and carbon savings that could be achieved by each measure. This analysis took into consideration the unique properties of each site, to advise the specific measures most appropriate for each hotel analysed.
On completion of the energy audit, each property was supplied with a detailed energy action plan advising a series of recommended measures, alongside the associated cost to implement, savings potential and estimated payback period for each intervention. Many of the interventions outlined were found to have a payback of less than 5 years, with some measures, including the awareness campaign and many of the operational changes, seeing an almost immediate payback (4 months or less). As such, these savings could potentially help to fund investment in some of the deeper renovation measures advised, for example, heat pump installations. While these were found to have a slightly longer payback (in the region of 8-9 years) heat pumps were identified as being one of the most impactful measures in terms of reducing operational energy use and carbon emissions across the portfolio, in the long term.
Across the 9 properties audited, the consultants we able to demonstrate impressive potential savings, including:
As a result of this project, Tifco Hotel Group can move forward with confidence in their energy efficiency investments. The project is a prime example of the key role that energy audits can play in helping organisations to operate their buildings more efficiently and strategically plan building improvement measures to save money and limit risk, as they work towards their sustainability and climate goals
