Smart HVAC: Transforming the guest experience

Some lessons are learnt the hard way. So it happened with the coronavirus pandemic teaching us humans a few lessons that had been long ignored. One among the many was the importance of indoor air quality that had been one of the topmost priorities but had been put on the backburner time and again. Perhaps now, the new designs of HVAC systems shall be created in such a way that they are capable of maintaining good indoor air quality and neutralising diseases causing organisms.

HVAC systems play an important role in the hotel industry, creating best possible comfort for guests backed by efficient and reliable technologies. While designing an HVAC system for hotels, there are many factors which are to be considered but the most important one is comfort of the customer. “However, the definition of comfort varies from customer to customer. An HVAC system should be designed in such a way that it can adjust as per the requirement of each individual. Good air quality, highly efficient operation in part load conditions and easy to use simple controls are factors which should be kept in mind while designing an HVAC system for hotels,” shares Naohiko Hosokawa, Director & Business Unit Head - Living Environment Division, Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt Ltd.

Reliability is another important factor which should be considered while designing an HVAC system, opines Hosokawa. “While the hotel room is occupied, smooth and trouble-free operation of HVAC system is extremely important as no guest would like to switch rooms or invite technicians to their rooms for some issues faced in the HVAC system. It should be capable of adjusting to the various occupancy needs which can be different between the times of the day or can vary from season to season. HVAC system should be designed in such a way that it can easily fit the varying occupancy rates with minimum power consumption,” he adds.

Rakesh Tripathi, VP - Commercial Air Conditioning, Voltas  Ltd shares some important factors to be considered while designing and energy efficient HVAC system for hotels. “It needs to include real time tracking of room occupancy and adjusting system loads accordingly e.g. a hotel key card; integrating HVAC equipment with IoT-based remote monitoring system of chiller OEMs for constant monitoring of performance including optimising of operating parameters, prediction of failures if timely corrective / remedial actions are not adopted; Chiller Plant Manager at plant room level for scheduling of equipment operation, chilled water temperature set-point control and real time system monitoring; automated monitoring system for inside temperature conditions in common guest areas as well as efficient and smart monitoring of room wise and floor wise energy consumption including symmetrical data assimilation for analysis and course correction,” he says.

He adds that it has become imperative to keep a track of the air quality these days. “More often for the outdoor air but it is necessary for indoor air too. IoT based IAQ monitoring systems should be deployed in the common guest areas of the hotels which helps in capturing data pertaining to CO2 content, volatile organic content (VOC), PM10 & PM2.5 levels, based on these real time data we can take corrective actions for improving the HVAC systems by retrofitting MERV filters, UVGI devices to the centralised Air Handling Unit (AHU) system for these common guest areas for improved indoor AQI. Guests can even be apprised of these air quality parameters on a real time basis with the help of a monitoring screen,” he explains. 

To design more energy efficient air conditioning solutions and proactively educate customers on energy efficient temperature setting, all ACs from Panasonic come with a pre-set temperature at 24 degrees. “We have innovative features like hourly temperature scheduling that allows consumers to pre-set hourly temperature before going to bed. This enables uninterrupted sleep, superior all night comfort and power savings as temperatures can be pre-set a bit higher for late night and early morning hours,” says Gaurav Sah, Business Head, Air Conditioners Group, Panasonic India.

In order to reduce the spread of different kinds of viruses and filter particles which are bigger in size than PM2.5, Mitsubishi Electric recently introduced Plasma Quad Filters. “These filters can be retrofitted to the existing Mitsubishi Electric products without causing any damage to the existing interior layouts. These filters are designed and manufactured at our factory in Japan,” informs Hosokawa. 

Voltas too offers solutions such as UVGI with proper selection of required dosage/ energy to achieve minimum 90 per cent kill rate. “Special anti-viral and anti-bacterial (MERV 13) filters can also be provided to reduce parasite load in the conditioned areas. Duct cleaning at regular intervals is also an effective measure to reduce parasite load,” puts in Tripathi.

Talking about the challenges in HVAC designing in the current scenario, he says, “As today there are various kinds of HVAC systems available, choosing one which is low on capital as well as running cost requires expertise and this could be an important challenge.” Sharing his take, Hosokawa says the ongoing pandemic has changed the expectation of customers. “Nowadays, customers demand a clean room along with good quality of air which is free from disease causing organisms. Requirement of fresh air has always been in demand but it never used to be prioritised over other factors,” he adds. 

Hosokawa continues, “While designing an HVAC system nowadays, indoor air quality maintenance has become the primary factor along with satisfying the requirements of hotel management. Hotel operators require a reliable and efficient system as the occupancy is becoming unpredictable. A good system with limited staff for operations and maintenance is preferred. Variable Refrigerant Flow with maximum factory assembled components and limited field installation is helping to achieve the designed parameters during actual operations.”

Sharing views on the strategy towards sustainability and energy saving and how their products support sustainability, Hosokawa shares that Mitsubishi Electric offers inverter based air-conditioning products which are suitable for various applications inside a hotel room. “Mitsubishi Electric comes with concealed units for guest rooms, large capacity units for auditorium, restaurants etc. We have a wide range of indoor units which are suitable for any type of interior layout required for hotels. Inverter based VRF system coupled with Variable Evaporative technology and variable valve design helps our products to deliver the desired comfort with minimum power consumption,” he says.

Mitsubishi Electric Air Conditioners are designed in Japan and are known for their high reliability. “Highly reliable product makes our system well accepted by hotel managements as very less down time is required for the units that we offer. All our products are designed keeping the Environmental Sustainability Vision 2050 in mind which aims at long-term, sustained efforts to solve global environmental issues. We design our products in such a way that they have less carbon footprint during manufacturing as well as for the entire life cycle of the product,” informs Hosokawa.

As the global pandemic has made people realise the importance of health and hygiene, Panasonic features a proprietary nanoe™ X technology in its HVAC solutions that cleans and deodorises indoor air. The nanoe™ X technology releases hydroxyl radicals (also known as “nature’s detergent”) contained in water that are capable of inhibiting bacteria and viruses, and removes 99 per cent of PM 2.5 particles, allowing healthy indoor air quality. “Panasonic also offers a Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system, acting as a complete HVAC solution to deliver high-efficiency performance, lowering the total cost of ownership and saving energy, resulting in a long-term sustainable solution. HVACs is an efficient way to provide a centralised set-up that enhances aesthetic architecture of buildings, as the outdoor units take up less space,” says Sah.

At Voltas too, the endeavour has been constantly innovating and coming up with products to suit the needs of the customers. “Our current focus is on energy efficiency through technology and green refrigerants. Our wide range of products include energy efficient VRF systems, packaged ACs, ducted systems and engineered products such as high efficiency chillers,” informs Tripathi, adding that there is renewed focus on green and eco-friendly HVAC systems across the globe. “Some trends we have come across are usage of eco-friendly refrigerants like R134a, R407C, R410A and R32. Through special offering of products suitable for high ambient conditions, there are options of high efficiency units that save energy,” he says. n