By David Kaupp, Xeros
All our actions have a direct and indirect impact on climate change. Both consumers and businesses are actively trying to reduce their carbon footprint and one of the resulting benefits is reduced energy costs. Energy conservation is a win-win for everyone.
Consumers are turning to technology to help monitor and save on utility savings. According to this article in Clean Technica, a new report by Navigant Research on the residential energy app market found that residential customers are more and more turning to energy-focused apps to make better use of their household energy usage. Apps provided by utilities, as well as vendors for energy-related hardware such as Nest, ecobee, Honeywell, and others, are all contributing to a rise in energy use awareness, which Navigant believes has saved users of such apps an average of 6% to 8% on their energy bills.
Energy represents 7-10% of commercial laundry operational costs and is rising. Natural gas prices are at an all-time high. Utilities are a controllable cost that is often overlooked when considering which laundry equipment to buy. Here are four things to consider when buying new commercial laundry equipment.
1. Wash with Less Water
Hotel laundry operations are a key area to target for conservation since laundry operations in hotels represent 20 percent of overall water usage. In the U.S., a hotel laundry service uses approximately 25 gallons of water for each occupied room every single day.
New polymer bead cleaning technology swaps out up to 80% of the water needed for laundry with small polymer beads. By combining the beads’ molecular structure with a proprietary detergent solution, dirt from soiled items is attracted and absorbed by the beads, producing cleaner results. The reusable beads have a lifespan of hundreds of washes before being collected and recycled for reintroduction into the polymer supply chain.
Since laundry accounts for 20 percent of hotel water use and the polymer bead technology provides the ability to cut water used for laundry by 80 percent, a hotel can cut its water consumption by about 16 percent overall just by implementing this new technology.
2. Wash in Ambient Water
Polymer bead laundry systems, unlike their aqueous counterparts, are capable of cleaning laundry just as efficiently in ambient water. This largely eliminates the need for heating the water used in the wash, which translates into lowered energy consumption.
It is a widely accepted belief that laundry must be done in hot water to disinfect and kill bacteria. But, we recently put that to the test. A recent report indicates the disinfecting efficiency of our washing machines using lower temperature water of 68 degrees effectively killed bacteria at a 99.9999 percent rate for four bacteria types and at a 99.99 percent rate for a fifth type. This rate is comparable to conventional hot water washing. So, yes, ambient temperature water in conjunction with polymer beads can clean just as effectively as a hot water wash cycle.
3. Shorter Dryer Times
Why should energy savings stop at the wash process? Washing in less water means shorter dryer time. New energy efficient dryers continue the energy savings throughout the entire laundry cycle.
4. Look for Utility Incentives
In efforts to promote energy efficiency and environmental stewardship more and more utility companies are incenting businesses to integrate energy-saving technologies and practices into their operations. Nineteen utility firms now offer significant incentives to covert to polymer bead cleaning.
These recommendations will make your laundry operations more energy efficient.
Real Savings with Energy Conservation
Let’s take a look at the real utility savings Hilton/LA Universal City and Sterling Linens Services are realizing using polymer bead cleaning.
The Hilton LA/ Universal City realized substantial financial savings because of the reduction in water and energy. Water rates for the hotel are $11.74 and with an 83% reduction in water and 100% reduction in hot water, the hotel estimates saving over $50,000 per year for one machine and at the same time delivering superior, green cleaning results.
Savings by the Numbers
Water Savings 83% Hot Water Savings 100% Cycles per Day 11 Water Rate $11.74
Sterling Linen Services, one of the largest commercial hospitality laundries in New England, earned incentives totaling $28,000 from utility company Liberty Gas. Sterling installed the Xeros Commercial Laundry System, which uses polymer bead technology at its Manchester, NH headquarters where it demonstrated a 100% reduction in natural gas usage and a 76% reduction in water usage. This extraordinary energy savings secured Sterling an incentive of $28,000 from Liberty Utilities.
Future of Hotel Laundry
The future of hotel laundry has changed. With the introduction of polymer bead based washing systems from Xeros, there is finally a significant enough of a change in the way that laundry is processed to make the thought of upgrading laundry systems warrant serious consideration.
With water utility savings of 80%, half the chemical use, and less reliance on heating utilities for cleaning, these revolutionary new commercial laundry machines provide superior fabric care as well as a significant savings on operational costs.
