The First Facility Management Blog

Motel 6 has signed on to participate in the Cool Control Plus program offered by Honeywell. The energy efficiency program is designed to reduce electricity use in small hotels and motels throughout the service territory of the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) service territory in northern and central California. (The program is not available in Monterey County, San Benito County, and Santa Cruz County.)

The Cool Control Plus program provides lodging owners with free, energy saving retrofits designed to eliminate wasteful use of air conditioning and heating units. Working on behalf of PG&E, Honeywell will install energy saving retrofits in 7,530 rooms in the 66 Motel 6 properties. Motel 6 has independently installed the Telkonet SmartEnergy (formerly Smart Systems) occupancy sensors and thermostats in 49 properties in California, and teaming with PG&E and Honeywell will bring the total number of rooms with retrofits to 13,440.

“By working with PG&E and Honeywell, Motel 6 now has a solution to a common energy issue in the lodging industry,” said Dan Gilligan, vice president of utilities for Accor North America, the parent company of Motel 6. “Motel 6 will no longer waste electricity in empty rooms and will also cut back on properties’ carbon dioxide emissions; we have calculated that this program will yield a reduction of 10.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year for us. Programs like Cool Control Plus help Motel 6 to better serve its customers and the environment.”

Honeywell won the $4.7 million contract from PG&E in March 2007 to implement an energy efficiency program in small hotels and motels. Many hotels waste electricity because they do not have the technology to turn air conditioning and heating units off when rooms are unoccupied.

Honeywell will install the Telkonet SmartEnergy occupancy sensors in the rooms of participating hotels. The sensors turn off air conditioning and heating equipment when the rooms are vacant. Each year, this installation will cut consumption by an estimated average of 1,100 kilowatt-hours per room, saving hotel owners up to $140 per room. Motel 6 has also chosen Honeywell to update interior and exterior lighting fixtures and cold drink vending machines to further reduce energy consumption at its participating California properties.

“Cool Control Plus enables hotels and motels to quickly cut their energy costs,” said Joe Puishys, president of Honeywell Building Solutions. “Conserving energy makes fiscal and environmental sense, and this program makes it automatic, easy to do and free.”

Honeywell began installation in Motel 6 properties in June. The installation is expected to be complete by the end of the year.