Hotel Focuses on Lighting Retrofit to Save Energy

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff October 17, 2006

A lighting retrofit in July 2005 involving 7,300 fixtures at the 390-room Baltimore Marriott Hunt Valley Inn made for a summer of delight, not discontent, for the facility’s owner and manager.

The hotel cut wasteful spending on energy for lighting over 50% by replacing outdated incandescent and fluorescent lamps in favor of dimmable, long-life plug-in and screw-in compact fluorescent lamps and high-efficiency T8 linear fluorescent lamps with electronic ballasts.

“We’ve helped the hotel hit a 50% improvement on kilowatt savings alone,” says Richard G. Lubinski, president of Ohio-based energy consulting firm Think Energy Management, LLC. “There’s also a tangible reduction in electrical demand peaks (KW), lower maintenance hassles and lower costs whenever long-life lighting products are applied.”

Lubinski reports that the six-month performance of the new lighting nets out as a recurring annual savings of 1,250,000 kWh of electricity consumed, compared with the old lighting. Most of the retrofit involves compact fluorescent lamps used for downlighting and general lighting applications in hotel hallways, banquet rooms, conference rooms and guestrooms.

Lubinski’s firm collaborated with the lighting manufacturer to develop a self-funding energy-efficiency initiative that not only cuts wasteful spending on energy for lighting, but also delivers lower maintenance costs and better quality lighting throughout the hotel. Thus far, the companies have conducted investment-grade lighting audits and established lighting retrofit standards for 28 properties. As new properties are purchased by the owner, the new energy efficient lighting standard will be applied.

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