“Emme solved our major discomfort issue. We now have full control 24/7/365 from any smart device. We are saving a ton on labor and energy costs, while meeting our goal of 100% customer satisfaction. I strongly recommend it.”
Joseph Zummo
Director of Engineering, Sheraton Stamford Hotel
Problem
The Sheraton Stamford Hotel is a 389 room, full-service hotel with over 18,000 square feet of meeting space. Three, 30 ton heat pumps provide heating and cooling to the lobby area and conference rooms. The hotel experienced very significant discomfort problems because the system was impossible to control. The lobby would be too cold while the conference rooms were too warm, or vice versa. The hotel lost revenue when customers demanded refunds or when they would take their business elsewhere. The hotel had a full time engineer dedicated to trying to keep the lobby and conference rooms comfortable, but there were still dozens of complaints every day.
The Sheraton Stamford was also striving to reach Starwood’s company-wide environmental goal of reducing energy consumption by 30% by 2020. Due to its inability to properly control temperature, the existing system wasted energy by over-conditioning many areas of the hotel. Energy was also wasted when hotel personnel would forget to turn down thermostats when rooms were not in use.
Emme Solution
The engineers at Emme installed 3 Emme Room-By-Room systems – one for each 30 ton heat pump. They placed at least one wireless temperature sensor in every room and a rugged, inflatable damper in every duct run. This converted what was essentially a 3 zone system into 60 zone system that allowed for very precise control of air flow and temperature. The Emme system was installed without making any openings in walls or ceilings, and was completed without disrupting the hotel’s operation.
The Emme system allowed every room to operate within two degrees of set point while reducing labor costs associated with having hotel engineers trying to manually balance the system on a daily basis. Customer complaints were completely eliminated. The heating and cooling set points for each room are now scheduled in advance through the web-enabled Emme portal. When a room is unoccupied, conditioning is greatly reduced thereby saving energy.
Since the Emme system provided very precise temperature control in key areas, the Sheraton Stamford was also able to install a Demand Limiting Control (“DLC”) system developed by Save Energy Systems. In order to eliminate high electricity demand charges, the DLC system’s server coordinates the activity of all of the hotels 17 heat pumps. By preventing multiple heat pumps from starting up at the same time, the DLC prevents demand spikes and helps to lower utility demand charges. The combined Emme and DLC systems qualified for a 17% energy rebate from Eversource, the local electric utility.