Bardessono Reaches for LEED Platinum, Wins with In-room System
MTM Luxury Lodging’s Bardessono was developed on a site previously occupied by a family vineyard in the center of Yountville in the Napa Valley. The objective was to create a hotel which would be conscious of the environment and its immediate surroundings. To achieve this, the Bardessono set out to obtain LEED Platinum certification by the US Green Building Council upon its opening in February 2009.
To meet the LEED Platinum requirements and to be conscious of the environment, the guestrooms at the Bardessono had to be designed so that when the room was in an unoccupied state the requirements of reducing energy consumption could be achieved in both the winter and summer months. This was primarily done by the use of exterior solar shades covering the 200-square-feet of glass windows, which provide natural light into the room, reducing the need for electrical lighting during the daytime. The exterior solar shades keep out the cold in the winter months and the heat in the summer months. They are automatically controlled via a RF switch which communicates with the thermostat located in the guestroom.
Determining room occupancy
The thermostat is one part of a guestroom energy management system provided by Inncom, which controls the thermostat setting and the LED lighting in the guestroom environment. Feedback received from a guestroom door sensor upon its opening creates an event which causes the thermostat and two infrared sensors positioned in different locations within the guestroom to scan the room. The scanning of the guestroom provides the system with the information on whether a guest is entering or leaving the room. If a guest is entering the room, the thermostat will send an RF signal to the solar shade motors to open the solar shades. The thermostat will also change its set point to the pre-determined setting for an occupied guestroom depending on the season.
If the hotel knows a guest’s desired temperature, this information can be entered into the guest’s profile of the PAR-Springer Miller property management system, and via a two way XML interface between the PMS and the Inncom energy management system, that information is sent to the appropriate guestroom thermostat which sets it's set point accordingly.
If the guest is entering the room following check-in, the event created by the door sensor will also turn on a predetermined number of LED lights in the guestroom environment to create a welcome scene for the guest.
If the thermostat and infrared sensors determine that a guest has left the room and that the room is unoccupied, the thermostat will then set itself to a pre-determined setting for an unoccupied room depending on the season. After several minutes the solar shades will automatically close, protecting the room from the heat or cold outside. And after approximately 20 minutes, any lights left on in the guestroom will automatically turn off. When the guest return, the energy management system will automatically turn on the lights that the guest had left on when previously leaving the room and reset the temperature in the room.
As a result of its guestroom energy management efforts, and a number of other initiatives including the use of solar panels and more, the Bardessono was granted LEED Platinum certification in February 2010. It is one of only three hotels in the world to achieve this certification.
Chuck Marratt is vice president, information technology with MTM Luxury Lodging. Marratt became director of information technology for MTM Luxury Lodging in 1999 and is regarded as a hotel industry technology expert. Most recently, Marratt led the implementation of state-of-the-art fully converged IP network applications at Hotel 1000 in Seattle, The Liberty Hotel in Boston and the Bardessono in Napa Valley.
Chuck Marratt is vice president, information technology with MTM Luxury Lodging. Marratt became director of information technology for MTM Luxury Lodging in 1999 and is regarded as a hotel industry technology expert. Most recently, Marratt led the implementation of state-of-the-art fully converged IP network applications at Hotel 1000 in Seattle, The Liberty Hotel in Boston and the Bardessono in Napa Valley.
RELATED ARTICLE