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LEED Silver Hotel in Boston Suffers from Comfort Complaints and $100,000 in Lost Energy

The Problem

Hostelling International Boston is a 485-bed hostel with over 2,000 heating and cooling complaints in the two years after receiving LEED Silver designation in 2012. The building uses nearly three times the energy of the DOE average for a small hotel in this region of the country.

Solutions

AEI obtained 5-minute utility interval data and applied its AEI SoftStartTM analytics to profile the hotel’s energy use. Combined with a physical tour of the facility, it was apparent from the data and a review of installed equipment that the building is essentially always in the occupied mode. LEED points were gained at the lowest possible cost. There is no appreciable energy reduction during nights and weekends due to the nature of this very active hotel; any setbacks appear to be limited to 15% or less. Also, given the lack of in-room controls with feedback, the building is essentially uncontrolled for weather with only four major systems on any form of EMS control.

The AEI review of the 2014 gas and electric consumption revealed an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 220 kBtu/ft2, compared to the DOE benchmark of 79 kBtu/ft2 for small hotels in this region. A separate comparison of the electric and heating components of the EUI revealed the electric consumption was 22% higher than the benchmark and the heating consumption was almost 7 times higher than expected. At $0.10 per kWh and $1.00/therm, the utility bill is $100,000 higher than expected for a facility of this size, building type and region.

AEI continues to engage with the facility and is working with the EMS vendor to set up trend files that will lead to a detailed set of action items, ultimately allowing the facility to take control of its energy use through energy data analytics.

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We've just released public versions of our AEI Energy Maps for Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans and others built in partnership with the U.S. DOE Better Communities Alliance.

Visit the AEI Energy Maps page

AEI Featured on Energy Matters 2U Podcast

AEI was recently featured along with Leidos on an Energy Matters 2U Podcast. During the 20 minute conversation, Carl Popolo of AEI and Ron Gillooly, Leidos' Industrial Energy Program Director, discussed how a building's energy data profile combines with a physical audit to target efficiency measures that have specific and verifiable results.

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AEI To Provide Energy Maps to U.S. DOE Better Communities Alliance

AEI is pleased to have been selected as an Affiliate to the U.S. Department of Energy Better Communities® Alliance. AEI is committed to provide its Energy Map solutions to selected partners from a list of 40 noteworthy cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco.

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AEI Selected as MHEC Supplier

June 29, 2017 -- Carlisle, MA -- AEI has been selected as a Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC) supplier to provide Facility Maintenance and Energy Assessment Software to MHEC members through June 2020. The letter from MHEC reads: "Your bid response was evaluated and determined to be the most responsible and responsive bid that offered best value to MHEC members".

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Whole-Portfolio Real-Time Main Metering

AEI brings to market a whole-portfolio real-time main meter view of cities, towns and campuses by combining our AEI Soft Start Real-Time technology with our proven Energy Map visualization platform.

For the energy manager who needs to see energy use across the entire building stock in real-time, this affordable solution shadows the utility main meter, requires no BAS integration, feeds upstream applications such as kiosks, and gives the manager real-time insight into demand response opportunities on their own terms. With 1-minute resolution, rolling profiles and SMS and E-Mail alerts, this integrated solution can also help control billing-period peak usage. It's completely incorporated into our Energy Map platform for exploring historical usage, and that means one-stop-shopping for your energy team to study utility trends, track sustainability goals, and to know your real-time position for social awareness and real-time response.

Explore the Demo

The Bigger Apple: City of New York Energy Map

Building on our work last year to deliver an Energy Map of the City of Boston, we figured we should demonstrate a little scalability and bite on something bigger. The result is our City of New York Energy Map that combines data from the PLUTO and LL84 disclosure reporting datasets and shows electricity, natural gas, oil, steam and water consumption for over 13,000 properties with a combined GSF of over 1.8 billion ft2. The data includes GHG emissions, and for most properties we're able to show trends since 2011.

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AEI Commissioning

Are your buildings running efficiently? Let's look at the data and prove it to the managers who pay the utility bills. Efficiency problems? Download the AEI Commissioning Services brochure to see how we can help.