The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in June extended its Energy Star program to hotels, with an Energy Performance Rating System based on energy performance data over a one-year period, accounting for square footage, occupancy rates and number of rooms.

The Bozeman Wingate Inn scored 95 and the Laurel Super 8 scored 100 on the EPRS 1-100 point scale. Both use Ultimate Comfort Systems, a company and approach started by Steven Clark in the early 1990s and bought by Texas-based PowerCold 18 months ago.

Rather than a separate, bulky, through-the-wall HVAC unit in each room--as is standard in many hotels--the Ultimate Comfort Systems integrates heating and sprinkler systems, routing pipes through rooms and using a four-pipe fan coil to blow air off the pipes and regulate temperature and ventilation to each guest's preference.

40 Percent Lower Electric Bills

The complication and cost of rerouting pipes effectively prohibits simple retrofitting with UCS, so new construction or major renovation projects are generally the target customers. "It's so integral with the piping systems that the economics come from using the pipe that you're putting there anyway," Clark explained. "It's a little tougher to do it as an afterthought."

The system results in electricity bills that average 40 percent less than similar facilities using traditional HVAC compressor units, according to UCS figures. The company calculates construction costs of $12 to $17 per square foot for its system, compared to $11 to $15 per square foot using individual HVAC units--an increased cost that can be recouped with energy savings and increased revenues from repeat guests.

Bozeman Wingate Inn owner Steve Sparks said the UCS system paid for itself in less than two years and garnered positive comments from guests who slept soundly without the ticking, rattling and temperature variation of most air-conditioning units. Sparks plans to work with UCS on a new Wingate Inn he's developing in Greenwood Village, CO.

PowerCold's acquisition of UCS added marketing and manufacturing resources, and integrated PowerCold's patented Nauticon evaporative water-cooled condenser into the system, first installed at the Laurel Super 8.

The Nauticon condenser is installed on a skid through the wall of a hotel's facilities room, with the chiller on the outside and plumbing delivering cooled water to the sprinkler and air-conditioning system inside. The system also features an exhaust air exchanger and dehumidifier that uses exiting waste air to heat or cool incoming fresh air, without mixing the two streams.

UCS Market

The UCS system has been installed in about 20 buildings since its invention, and each time it has become more efficient, according to Clark. Most of those installations have been in the Northwest, including hotels in Boise and Great Falls, Hamilton and Missoula in Montana.

UCS recently moved the majority of its operations to Tampa, FL, where president Robert Yoho told Con.WEB the market may be better for air-conditioned, dehumidified environments. UCS has since been working with several developers to design an energy efficiency showcase hotel in St. Augustine, FL that would use solar energy for heating guest rooms and swimming pools, and nylon evaporator and heating coils that resist salt air corrosion.

PowerCold president Frank Simola told Con.WEB the company is about to announce "quite a few new orders" from several major hotel chains. Yoho said UCS is still pricing and negotiating for 15 or 20 possible projects, and more than 30 hotels have made inquiries. The company anticipates expanding into managed-care facilities, condominiums, apartment buildings and offices where HVAC systems could benefit from an integrated approach; Yoho said that as yet, the hotel market has kept his staff plenty busy.

Finding contractors to work with UCS on design and installation for the individual projects has sometimes been difficult, Yoho said, forcing PowerCold and UCS to do some work in-house and slowing their ability to take on as many projects as the market might demand. "Really we don't have to sell the job, we just have to have the manpower to produce the system," Yoho said. With newer designs, "When you go into the engineering community you run into a lot of older engineers that don't want to change. A lot of engineers can be more concerned with what they design than what the owner needs."