The hotel industry spends approximately 20 percent of its operating budgets on energy. Of that total, 70 to 75 percent is spent on the energy consumed in guest rooms. In other words, guest room energy costs consume 15 percent of a hotel’s overall operating budget.

Ski resorts face the same dilemma of paying high energy costs in their lodging buildings. An energy-saving system that was designed to directly cut those costs was introduced in 2001 by Entergize——a technology designed by DBS?Lodging Technologies.

The concept behind Entergize is to provide an easy-to-use system that will allow hotels to reduce energy consumption in guest rooms when the room is unoccupied, allowing management the ability to add profits by reducing energy waste. The Entergize Key Card system is extremely guest friendly and operates in a way already familiar to hotel guests. Just like inserting their key card into the door lock to gain access to the room, once inside the room they perform the same action by inserting their room key card into the illuminated Entergize Master Control Switch (MCS). As soon as the card is inserted, the system automatically places itself in the “occupied” mode, causing the HVAC system to shift from economy to comfort settings and promptly begins to heat or cool the room according to the guest’s desires. When in “occupied” mode, the system is under full guest control. When the guest leaves the room, they remove their key from the MCS, which triggers the thermostats to switch back to “unoccupied” mode and the temperature is lowered to the economy setting. For hotels that use metal entry keys, Entergize provides alternative methods of activation.

The system’s main component that is activated is the digital thermostat. This happens automatically after inserting the key card into the MCS. A signal is immediately sent to the HVAC unit to take the appropriate action based on management’s preset temperature setting or it places the system under total guest control, depending on management’s desires. Guests have the ability to set whatever temperature they wish by changing the desired temperature on the digital thermostats.

Big Sky Resort in Montana installed the Entergize thermostat system in 2008 in over 300 on-mountain units, 95 in the Shoshone Condominium Suites and 221 in the 10-story, luxury Summit Hotel. They use the Key Card system and allow guests to have full control over the thermostat settings while the room is occupied.

Since 2008, Big Sky has seen a 10 percent reduction in propane usage across the board. Guest feedback has been overall positive as guests recognize the importance of sustainability during travel.

In addition to automatic thermostat?control, Entergize provides wireless (RF controlled) lighting and appliance controls. The Key Card activated system uses the same “occupied” and “unoccupied” mode setting. The electrical controls are set to the room occupied mode (on) when the key card is inserted to the MCS. A wireless signal is transmitted to the wall outlet or light switch activating it for use. When the room becomes unoccupied the reverse occurs, turning off energy to the affected outlets/switches. This insures that room lighting and appliance operations will be off and therefore not waste any additional energy.

Entergize proposes their system can reduce guest room energy usage by 25-45% with a payment investment from one to two years. To download their Energy Savings Estimator where you can plug in a custom installation quote and see the savings, check out www.Entergize.com.