HDG Legacy collaborated with Anacove on deploying its AI- and Cloud-powered smart thermostats, leak detection and asset managements to support its hotel clients in their energy and water management.
“One of my core beliefs is that operating a business that respects the environment in terms of how resources are utilsed is important just because that’s the right thing to do – but there’s also an economic benefit,” explained Navroz F. Saju, Founder and Principal, HDG Legacy. “We initially tested Anacove’s smart thermostats across our express properties, before piloting them in one of our larger hotels, and we were so impressed with the results (we actually have the data showing the savings for 2024-25 thus far – very impressive!) that we are looking to roll out the solutions across our other properties.
“We started using Anacove smart thermostats in July 2024 at the Holiday Inn Express Crystal River, and based on historical data and usage, electricity costs on our utility bills are 35.94% lower per occupied room. The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Silver Springs-Ocala’s electricity costs were 33% less than what we’d budgeted for per room, with the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Inverness-Lecanto coming in at 43% lower than budgeted in electricity usage.”
Anacove’s smart thermostats are IoT devices equipped with advanced sensors that monitor temperature, humidity, air quality, barometric pressure, current weather conditions, daylight conditions and guest presence. They seamlessly integrate with HVAC systems through existing hotel Wi-Fi infrastructure, enabling centralised control throughout the hotel. This allows for continuous optimisation of each room, regardless of occupancy status, leading to immediate and sustained cost savings. Unlike other occupancy-sensing thermostats, Anacove smart thermostats remain active even when guests are asleep or have left their pet in the room.
Learning from each room’s thermal behaviour – heating and cooling coefficients –the thermostats optimise HVAC cycles, resulting in reduced peak energy consumption, and maintenance of guest comfort with less energy usage.
“I have been very pleased with the transition to Anacove smart thermostats, and we will continue to replace older, less efficient thermostat technology with Anacove thermostats,” added Saju. “They are easier to operate – for staff and guests – and install than others on the market – irrespective of their superior energy-saving performance – and are incredibly responsive.”
In addition to rolling out Anacove’s smart thermostats across his hotels, Saju is also deploying the company’s AI-powered, Cloud-maintained Toilet Leak Detectors and Asset Tracking Systems. The AI-enabled water management systems go beyond basic leak detection. While sensors installed in water tanks or behind walls detect even the tiniest leaks, it’s the AI that works to identify anomalies, pinpoints problem areas, and alerts maintenance teams before the issue escalates – saving water, money, repair costs, and mitigating guest inconvenience.
Anacove’s Asset Management System equips hotel assets such as luggage carts, rollaway beds, cribs, housekeeping trollies and other movable items with location tags, which, thanks to the Cloud-maintained AI system, helps to track down missing items, triangulating their exact positions, streamlining retrieval, reducing loss, and improving overall resource management.
“We all expect a lot from our hotel’s front desk,” said Saju. “They’ve got to check people in, the phone’s ringing, someone wants a bandage and then suddenly someone will check in and say, ‘where’s the luggage cart?’ The fact that they’re immediately able to log in to the Anacove Cloud dashboard on their phone and see exactly where the cart is – usually in a guest’s room – is an incredible time-saving benefit, enabling them to locate the cart’s exact location so that they can repurpose the cart for another guest’s use. In the past they would have to ring around guests’ rooms to find it – a waste of time and valuable resources.”
The performance of all four Anacove technology services (thermostats, toilet leaks, staff and asset trackers) are monitored and analysed by the company’s AI Cloud system, effectively a brain hovering over key operational areas of the hotel that make intelligent decisions. This ‘Anacove AI Cloud brain’ looks at the whole hotel as a single living entity, autogenerating reports that allow hoteliers to clearly see the return on their investment.
The AI-enabled, Cloud-connected energy management solution utilises one inclusive dashboard, with a data-rich, monthly ‘flash report’ that provides a summary of how much energy has been saved, what’s going on in terms of potential toilet leakage, and so on.
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