15 Ways An EAM/CMMS Can Increase Energy Savings

Guest Post by Kelly Potter from Mintek Corporation

Whether you own or lease a building, you typically need lighting, heating, air conditioning, power for equipment and assets, and other services to keep your business afloat and operational. Energy can vary in cost when it comes to the type of infrastructure you have and how you operate on the day to day. Let’s take a look at a hotel cost break down.

This number can fluctuate pending on a hotel’s location, types of assets they house, the age of those assets, how many rooms they have, or even how many different properties owners own. This is why energy savings can be so important to your overall hotel maintenance plan.

One proven way to ensure that your hotel stays as energy efficient as possible is to implement a comprehensive preventive maintenance (PM) program that targets areas most vulnerable to excess energy consumption. Leaky buildings and inefficient equipment easily consume more energy than those properly maintained. They also eat up profits and can negatively impact guest satisfaction.

A preventive maintenance plan, as mentioned, targets areas and assets that are most vulnerable to energy consumption. I am going to give you a sneak peek at five of the ways you can increase energy savings just by making a few adjustments in your maintenance plan.

Five sneak peek energy saving tips

1. Maintenance done on A/C units every six months will produce more than 50 percent in energy savings
2. Commissioning can save a typical 100,000-ft2 hotel 10-15% of its energy costs or roughly $20,000 per year
3. Maintaining refrigerant levels in HVAC units will produce up to 20% in energy savings
4. A 10% reduction in energy consumption would have the same financial effect as increasing the average daily room rate by $0.62 in limited-service hotels and by $1.35 in full-service hotels
5. Leaks in HVAC units can cause a one degree increase in condenser temperature increasing energy consumption by 1.5%

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The percentage of money saved over a week, month, or even a year using a preventive maintenance plan can be allocated elsewhere, including repairs, replacements, which ultimately could increase savings even more. Organizations that have implemented comprehensive maintenance programs find that their total costs can be as much as  50 percent lower than the costs for those organizations that continue maintain equipment reactively.

How to get the most from your Preventive Maintenance Plan

Companies interested in implementing preventive maintenance strategies should start gradually. The switch from reactive maintenance to preventive maintenance does not usually occur overnight, but with time and training it can occur after a moderate period of time.

An EAM/CMMS like Transcendent replaces inefficient paper-based processes still found in many hotels. Transcendent incorporates handheld devices, bar coding, ensures that PMs, rounds, inspections, and work orders are accomplished on time.

Mintek’s system adds accountability to the PM process because managers know exactly when an engineer was at a piece of equipment, what was recorded, and how long the engineer was there. Transcendent automates PM scheduling and streamlines the work order process. Work orders can be generated automatically through the handheld based on answers provided by engineers. The software also tracks parts information for each item needing checked, as well as the costs associated with parts and equipment replacement.

Implementing a proper EAM/CMMS into your business will help make the stress of temperature change easier while managers can decide where to cut back and where to spend a little more to cover those energy costs in the future and for the next winter.

The original post may be found here.