Foxhills Hotel and Resort in Surrey is saving thousands of pounds in electricity bills and creating a more energy efficient workforce after turning to voltage optimisation.
The resort has seen its energy bills drop by more than £15,000 a year thanks to the energy saving technology, which is made by British manufacturer iVolt.
The Surrey club sits in 440 acres of land and with four swimming pools, 12 tennis courts, a spa, two championship golf courses and a conference centre, was running-up monthly power bills of around £13,000 and an annual power consumption of 2,074,236kWhr.
The new equipment reduces electricity consumption by lowering the incoming voltage to the four star estate, and also records the peaks and troughs of use to help staff monitor their own behaviour and consumption.
“Our energy demand grows year on year and with it our bills rise, so for some time we had been considering ways of tackling this problem,” explained facilities director Ben Biggs. “Foxhills is a very busy place – we’ve got a lot of guests moving through and a workforce of 150-160 people and that means a lot of energy used.”
Foxhills’ convection ovens, pool plant and thousands of light fittings account for about two thirds of the total power consumption at the site. To find energy efficient solutions for all of these contributors would be costly, disruptive and time consuming but the iVolt was a one off investment that led to zero disruption to the running of the hotel and offers benefits across the whole site – reducing power bills by 12-20% (which equates to thousands of pounds a year), cutting maintenance costs on heavy equipment and significantly reducing expenditure on new lamps.
The system, works by taking the existing electricity supply and reducing it to a steady 220V (+/-1.5%) – the level at which electrical equipment works most efficiently. As well as cutting the amount of energy wasted, the iVolt also helps to prevent damage to electrical equipment, eradicates the risk of under voltage and allows for up to 30% greater savings than with a fixed reduction voltage optimisation system.
Biggs explained that one of the key benefits of the iVolt system – its Intelligent Real Time Energy Monitoring technology, had also helped to educate staff about their own energy use, because it allows real time monitoring of savings. This integrated software not only enables the client to see value for money from the moment they turn the system on, but monitors when electricity use is at its peak.
“The savings are three fold really,” added Biggs. “The iVolt not only saves us money by reducing the amount of power we use but it reduces the strain on equipment, which means it lasts longer, and by monitoring our energy consumption in real time it provides me with crucial information which I can then take to my staff to make them more conscious of the electricity we’re using – and in many cases wasting. This tool was really the reason we chose iVolt over its competitors and we’re very happy with the results we’re seeing.”
