The Priva Blue ID building automation system was installed at the 90-room Maldron Hotel Derry in Northern Ireland. In the first three months, the system helped generate electricity savings of £10,489. It provides easy access controls for staff through a web browser, allowing them to optimize energy usage. The hotel is on track to achieve a project payback of less than four years and annual environmental savings of 320 tons of carbon dioxide through increased energy efficiency from the Priva Blue ID system.

1. Job number: CC5974
Draft: First
Client: Priva UK Limited
Publication:
Date: April 2015
Word count: ~710
• 90-room hotel benefits from Priva Blue ID building automation
• £10,489 electricity savings in first three months
• 320 TCO2e savings per annum
Priva Blue ID provides impressive hotel energy saving solution
The Maldron Hotel Derry in Northern Ireland is among a growing number of facilities to
leverage the benefits of Priva’s Blue ID building automation solution. The simple to
install, easy to use system has proved enormously successful at this forward-thinking
hotel, helping to generate impressive electricity savings of £10,489 in its first three
months of operation.
Located within the historic walls of Derry, Northern Ireland’s second largest city, the
Maldron Hotel is a 90-room facility with restaurant, bar and grill, 300-delegate
conference theatre, banqueting suite, mini gym and sauna. Like a growing number in its
industry, the hotel wanted to update its existing boiler house and AHU control panels to
the latest technology, a move that would help drive considerable energy efficiencies. The
hotel’s owners engaged the help of building services consultants Beers Engineering and
M&E contractor Pipeline Services Belfast to provide the strategy and solution to meet the
project objectives.
First choice solution
Serving the bar and function rooms, as well as the restaurant and kitchen areas, the
existing control panels were manually operated and outdated. To turn the hotel’s vision
into reality, ACS Controls, a specialist in the configuration and installation of energy
management systems were engaged to deliver the controls strategy. The building
automation system of choice at ACS is Priva’s Blue ID, an innovative, modular solution
that is quick and easy to install and program.
ACS Controls has a proven track record in identifying competitive solutions to energy
management by looking at a building through the eyes of the occupier and tailoring the
desired level of controls around the end user’s requirements. The company deemed
Maldron Hotel Derry was ideal for Blue ID, which has been developed in accordance with
the 'best fit' principle. Thanks to its modularity, Priva Blue ID is suitable for every
application, from a small hotel to a large hospital, and from a university complex to a
data centre.
Priva Blue ID hardware consists of a base on which individual functional modules,
containing all mission-critical components, can be installed. The wiring takes place on
the base, which is robust and insensitive to failures.
Easy access
ACS designed the front end controls system with ‘non-engineers’ in mind, making them
simple to use by all front-of-house staff. In fact, Blue ID requires no more than a
computer with an internet connection and a standard browser. The browser provides
access to a web server in each controller. Although each controller has its own IP
address, access to one controller provides access to all others — unlike other systems
which require each controller to be accessed individually.

2. The software provides a complete overview of the system’s status, allowing users to
analyse the behaviour of the building. For example, the effects of a particular setting of
indoor temperature can be examined —as can the relation between indoor and outdoor
temperature.
“The system was designed in such a way that all front office staff have access to the
controls and can easily operate the heating, ventilation and hot water,” states Mike Gatt,
General Manager at Maldron Hotel Derry. “This allows us to maintain operating levels
where required and, importantly, provides the option to switch off energy to areas within
the hotel when they are not needed. Historically, these areas would have been served by
systems running excess to requirement. Since installation, we have seen significant
reductions in energy bills.”
Impressive savings
Following installation, the first three months showed that electricity consumption at
Maldron Hotel Derry had reduced by 76,007 kWh compared with the same period in the
previous year. In financial terms, this equates to a saving of £10,489.
“The new equipment establishes best practice at the hotel in terms of relating energy
consumption to occupancy and reliability of supply,” says Mr Gatt. “The fact that this was
achieved with the project fully funded by the Carbon Trust Interest Free Loan Scheme is
a testament to the technology’s potential in terms of cost and environmental savings.”
Mr Gatt confirms that the hotel is on track to achieve a project payback of less than four
years, with an environmental saving of 320 TCO2e per annum.
“This is tremendous performance given the level of capital investment involved and
establishes a terrific platform upon which the business can trade for the next 15 years,”
he concludes.
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www.priva.co.uk
Press Release Supplied by: Content Communications Associates Ltd
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
At the Client:
Anders Norén
Managing Director
PRIVA UK LTD
T: 01923 813 480
e: anders.noren@priva.co.uk
At the Agency:
Joanna Watchman FRSA – Director
CONTENT COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATES LTD
www.contentcoms.co.uk
T: 0117 315 5281
e: joanna.watchman@contentcoms.co.uk