ENERGY SAVING METHODS IN HOT WATER SUPPLY FOR HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Sammanfattning: Hotel Industry in Sri Lanka is becoming a vital sector in the economic development in the after the cessation of ethnic conflict that existed in almost 30 years. This has resulted in high demand for energy for enhanced activities in the hotel industry. The prime objective of the hospitality industry is to provide maximum comfort and facilities to its customers. Hence, Hotels utilize more energy to satisfy its visitors which will benefit the hotel as well as the income generated through foreign exchange to the country. Electrical energy is used in this industry for lighting, air conditioning (cooling), water purification, hot water and steam for washing, cleaning and cooking purposes etc. In Sri Lanka, electricity is generated mainly from fossil fuels. Furnace oil is used in boilers for heating of water and supply of steam for laundry, kitchen and washing for guest rooms. If thermal power generation with the use of fossil fuels is to be dominated in meeting energy demand, it will be a heavy burden to the country since Sri Lanka being a developing country lacks much needed foreign exchange. Burning of Fossil fuel will also affect the environment by releasing green house gases to the atmosphere as well. Therefore, it has to explore alternative sources of energy in order to meet the demand for energy in the hotel sector as much as possible. Further, sustainable use of energy is very vital for sustained development of the country at large. In this project, a comprehensive study was carried to identify the opportunities to minimize the energy utilized in hospitality institutes. It has been identified that around 22% of the total energy consumption in a hotel is for hot water generation, which is higher than energy used for cooling and lighting. Hence the amount of energy utilized for hot water production in a selected beach hotel was evaluated and alternative source of energy such as solar hot water system was studied, which could be utilized in order to minimize energy consumption though burning fossil fuel. A comprehensive study in designing the total solution in solar hot water system was undertaken with the available data with the selected hotel. A simulation was carried out to test the validity of solution with software packages Polysun , Kolektor 2.2 , SAM2010 and RETScrean. The proposed system of solar hot water is expected to save SLR 781,200. (Approximately 5,400.00 USD) per year and reduce emission of CO2 by 33 Tons per year.