£10,000–£30,000 a year in unnecessary electricity.

Would you know if your hotel was wasting it?

Not necessarily because equipment is faulty. Not necessarily because the building is old.

The real question is how much of your hotel's electrical load is actually necessary for the work the building needs to do.

At 25p/kWh, just 5 kW of unnecessary continuous demand costs £10,950 a year. At 10 kW, the annual cost is £21,900.

The challenge isn't calculating the cost. It's identifying whether the load is necessary in the first place.

Maximum Demand Isn't Normal Demand

Buildings and their plant must be capable of coping with periods of high demand. But hotels don't operate at maximum demand all of the time.

Pumps, fans and other building-services plant are selected to meet the demands placed upon them. Variable-speed drives (VSDs), Building Management Systems (BMS) and other controls can allow plant output to respond as those demands change.

The important question isn't simply whether those systems are installed.
Are they actually responding to demand today?

Plant can continue doing its job while consuming more electricity than necessary. Controls can be overridden. Equipment may remain in manual operation. Operating requirements can change. A VSD may no longer be varying speed as intended.

Nothing necessarily appears to be wrong. Guests still have hot water, rooms remain comfortable and the hotel continues to operate normally. The difference may only become apparent when actual electrical behaviour is measured.