Profitable thermal renovation of hotels to combat climate change and depletion of fossil fuels: the case of Cyprus
Hotel buildings were identified as significant energy consumers. Within the theoretical framework of the thesis it was argued that climate change and increasing energy prices due to depletion of fossil fuels would cause pressure on hotel operations in Cyprus by increasing their cooling loads and operational costs. The analysis was techno-socio-economic and the core aim was to evaluate the costeffectiveness of selected energy saving strategies. These were in the form of building envelope upgrades, changes in indoor environmental criteria and introduction of renewable energy technology via solar air-conditioning to be implemented as part of the hotels’ periodic scheduled building and systems upgrades with the aim of lowering their space conditioning energy costs and improving their profitability and competitiveness. The applied methodology consisted of auditing of a case study hotel, energy consumption data collection both from a sample of hotels and industry-wide and a hotel guest survey. Thermal simulation of hotels in present and future climates was used to identify technically viable renovation strategies. Strategies found cost-effective were further checked for sensitivity to energy prices, hotel occupancy and climate. The major findings of the thesis predict over 20% savings in space conditioning energy costs due to strategic building envelope upgrades, over 50% savings if in addition adjustments in thermal comfort criteria are included and over 80% savings if solar AC is added into the above. It was further found that with a minimal increase in room rates hotels could implement thermal renovation while maintaining or even increasing room income. A unique cost-efficiency indicator that measures profitability of the proposed energy saving strategies in terms of hotels’ room income generation potential was developed in this thesis. Finally, if the suggested renovations were implemented on a mass scale, one quarter of Cyprus’ national energy saving and renewable energy targets could be met.
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