Challenge

Ampersand Hotel sought to identify and reduce energy waste across their operations without compromising guest comfort or requiring major capital expenditure. As a city-centre London hotel, the property needed a clear understanding of where energy was being consumed unnecessarily and how to address it through operational improvements and targeted monitoring.

Solution

Fewton deployed whole-building electricity and gas meter analysis alongside targeted sub-metering to identify and implement efficiency measures.

The approach includes:

• Analysis of half-hourly electricity and gas consumption data to establish baseline patterns and identify usage independent of occupancy or weather.

• Installation of sub-meters on major energy-consuming equipment including HVAC systems, hot water circulation, lighting circuits, and catering equipment.

• Virtual equipment checks using photo analysis to support the engineering team in optimizing routine operations.

• Real-time monitoring and anomaly detection flagging baseload breaches, unexpected peak loads, and manual override misuse.

• Direct collaboration with the Chief Engineer to optimize A/C schedules, hot water temperatures and circulation, boiler sequencing, and electrical controls based on occupancy and weather patterns.

• Monthly performance reviews tracking measured savings against established baselines to validate implemented measures.

Results

Up to 10% electricity savings and up to 27% gas savings identified, with Fewton actively managing the implementation of recommendations as an ongoing process.

Key inefficiencies identified:

Gas:

• Hot water systems account for approximately 50% of gas consumption — significantly above industry benchmarks — indicating excessive circulation losses and overheating.

• Heating systems fail to adjust effectively to outside temperatures, leading to unnecessary usage during mild conditions.

• Gas demand shows minimal correlation with occupancy or weather, suggesting continuous operation regardless of actual need.

Electricity:

• A significant constant baseload was identified, with overnight consumption remaining at approximately 50% of daily peak load during weekdays.

• During weekends, baseload accounts for 60-70% of total daily consumption, indicating substantial energy use independent of guest activity.

• Cooling and ventilation systems operate at constant loads rather than adapting to occupancy or weather conditions.

• Lighting (32%), ventilation (20%), and catering (18%) dominate electricity demand, running continuously even during low-occupancy periods.

• Regular consumption peaks unrelated to guest activity reflect outdated automated cycles requiring optimization.

Fewton is working with the engineering team to translate these findings into operational improvements through controls optimization, scheduling adjustments, and demand-based system operations — all validated through continuous sub-metered monitoring and monthly performance tracking.