By its nature, the hotel industry is not conducive to maintaining a small carbon footprint. Linens are washed every night, and guests have full control of the temperature in the room.
Choice Hotels, which recently acquired Radison, is making an effort to change that, across its portfolio of 10,000 properties, through its Room to be Green initiative, which encourages franchisees (hotel owners) to invest in energy efficiency and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
One hotel looking to change that is the Quality Inn in Moriarty, New Mexico. Five years ago, the owners invested $400,000 to install a large solar photovoltaic array on the roof of the hotel. It’s the largest privately-owned solar grid east of Albuquerque to the Texas border.
At 112 kW, the solar array provides 70-80% of the hotel’s electricity needs. The next step in Quality Inn’s green initiative was updating the heating and cooling system, both for energy efficiency and for guest comfort.
Most hotels and motels rely on PTAC units, although some had vertical self-contained air handlers installed in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Quality Inn has 72 of them, and they’re difficult to service. Each of these R-22, single-stage air handlers weighs about 150 pounds, and they need to be completely uninstalled and removed for cleaning. Casey McCall, general manager and part owner, said the coils get dirty fast in windy, dusty New Mexico, and they burn through compressors quickly.
The McCall family, who own the hotel, wanted a solution that was single zone, so that if a unit failed, only one guest room would be affected.
Reps at Doc Savage Supply suggested the new 21-SEER Fujitsu split terminal heat pump. It’s essentially a 9,000 BTU/h mini-split designed as a drop-in replacement for PTACs. The condensing unit is installed within a wall sleeve that occupies a standard PTAC penetration, and the air handler is identical to a mini-split wall-hung unit.
The existing vertical air handlers at the hotel were installed in a framed-out corner of each guest room. A penetration through the building exterior provided exchange air, and a large supply grille provided conditioned air to the room. However, the property’s HVAC units were not PTACs, and the wall penetration sleeve provided with the STHP couldn’t be used.
Jeff Polk, owner of EcoAir Inc., the hotel’s longtime service provider, was unsure if the existing mechanical space could be customized to accommodate the STHP. That said, there was ample space. Fujitsu provided EcoAir with two test units to install.
Two EcoAir technicians removed the 25-year-old air handlers and installed the new STHP heat pump. Not only did it work out, but the installation went quickly because there was no demolition involved and the existing 220-volt service was reused.
The techs built a custom sheet metal diverter to separate the outdoor and indoor air streams. Linesets, which were covered with line concealment, ran from the condensing unit across the interior wall to the indoor unit. Even the existing supply grille remained in place for service access. Finally, a hard-wired thermostat was installed to avoid lost or broken remote controls.
After several months of testing the first two systems, the McCalls hired EcoAir to retrofit each guest room, when there’s vacancy, with the new heat pumps. One extended-stay guest, who works nearby, stayed in a retrofitted room during the test phase and now specifically requests it, as it’s much quieter and maintains temperature setpoint perfectly.
About one-third of the rooms have been retrofitted so far, and there’s already been a drop in the power bill. McCall expects a 40% reduction in electric use when the work is complete, and expects the solar array will handle the entire load.
