A Guide for Hotels: Boosting Profits with Energy Efficiency & Conservation
Lighting: Lobbies, Conference Rooms and other Common Areas
Large open areas such as conference rooms, lobbies, exercise rooms, ballrooms and other common areas can greatly benefit from improvements to lighting efficiency and control. Many of these areas are lit by either fluorescent, inefficient incandescent or halogen lighting. Older fluorescent fixtures are often T12 lamps, which are inefficient, often provide poor light and are prone to flickering and buzzing.
To dramatically improve efficiency, consider replacing these older fixtures with high-efficiency T8 and T5 fluorescents. These lamps will result in immediate cost savings and can improve ambiance. Be sure to replace older magnetic ballasts with modern digital or electric units.
When upgrading lighting systems in common areas, consider installing new control systems to manage lighting in large areas. Computerized lighting controls will allow hotel operators to provide the ideal level of lighting based on the time of day, event or situation. This will prevent unnecessarily high lighting levels or unneeded lighting. In common bathrooms and seldom-used rooms, consider motion sensors to limit the number of unneeded lights left on.
What is a “light”?
All lights have a lamp, commonly but incorrectly referred to as the "light bulb." The fixture connects and positions this lamp to its energy source. In fluorescent and high intensity discharge (HID) fixtures, the energy supply is modulated through a ballast. Halogen and incandescent fixtures, on the other hand, connect directly to the energy supply. Taken together, the lamp, ballast, and fixture are called a "luminaire" - light is the product of a luminaire.
What's the difference between fluorescent fixtures, then?
Fluorescent fixtures are named by the diameter of the lamp. For example, a T12 is a 1-1⁄2" lamp, a T8 is a 1" lamp, and a T5 is a 5/8" lamp. The trick is to divide the number by 8 to determine the diameter in inches. Besides lamp diameter, fluorescents are sometimes further categorized by their lumen output - standard or high output (HO).