Believe it or not, empty guest rooms are a leading cause of wasted energy…possibly even the leading cause of wasted energy in travel. How many times have you left the lights on in your hotel room without thinking twice about it? What about leaving the air conditioner or heater running all day on high? Even those of us who are ultra green at home can sometimes forget about our environmental commitments while we're on vacation. It seems when we're not the ones footing the bill, it's easier to forget about the ecological impact of our actions. But, even though we may not be paying the hotel's power bill, the CO2 created by the wasted energy from hotel rooms will cost us all in the long run. WattStopper/Legrand has come up with an excellent solution to this temporary memory loss; a line of key card switches called the HS line, that actually turn the lights out for us.
The HS is a master switch that can be installed in all guest rooms. After installation, power to the rooms only comes on when the room's key card is inserted into a slot on the switch. Hotels can program the switch to control certain parts of the room, and leave other parts on (a feature that will keep the alarm from constantly needing to be re-set). The HS switches can be easily located in dark rooms by two LED locator lights that illuminate the slots for the key cards. Especially convenient is the fact that guests no longer have to worry about misplaced key cards on their way out the door.
Key card switches are becoming quite common outside of the US in countries like Latin America, Europe or Asia. Unfortunately in the US, these switches have not yet taken off. Want to see your hotel make the "switch?" Send an email, letter, or make a phone call to management and let them know that it is important to you! Remember, hotels are in the hospitality business…they exist to make YOU happy.
FYI about Wasted Energy in Hotels:
As we know, CO2 is a huge contributor to global warming, and today most of the world's power comes from fossil fuel burning (CO2 emitting) power plants. Studies have shown that hotel lighting usage patterns do not reflect a significant dip in energy consumption from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., when guestrooms are typically unoccupied. Rather, researchers have found that hotel guests or housekeeping staff will leave lights on 20 to 25 percent of the time in unoccupied rooms during this time period. The HS Series switches will positively impact the energy management behavior of housekeeping staff and guests without the need for any special training.
The HS Series Switch:
Article Originally Written By: Melissa Evans
