Tankless water heaters lead to gas savings at large hotel
Problem: The Hilton San Francisco Airport Bayfront is a bustling hotel four miles from the SFO airport. Offering views of the San Francisco Bay and skyline, it has 15 floors, 402 rooms, on-site dining and 11,000 square feet of event space. The hotel desperately needed redundancy in its water heating system. It was running with a single 10 million Btu/h, 80% efficiency steam boiler. Replacing the system would require installing two steam boilers to provide sufficient redundancy. This option would be inefficient, very costly and completely unnecessary. At the time of the project the hotel had a 98% occupancy rate.
Solution: The hotel turned to Intellihot via representatives of California Hydronics Corporation. Eight iQ1001 high-output, tankless, on-demand water heaters were installed for the guest rooms totaling 8 million Btu/h at 94% efficiency with a turndown ratio of 264-1. Four iQ 751s were used for the restaurants, public spaces and meeting facilities. The systems are designed to always function at peak efficiency; from as low as 30,000 up to the maximum Btu/h output.
Result: “We are very happy with our Intellihot hot water system,” says John Kellites, Hilton general manager. “Over the past six months the hotel has had 65% gas savings, plus uninterrupted hot water.” 877-835-1705; www.intellihot.com
New toilets help apartment complex save thousands on water bill
Problem: Aqua Savers, a company that specializes in retrofitting water-efficient products in water savings for multifamily properties, completed a water efficiency program at the Jane Apartments, located in Greenbelt, Maryland in August 2021. The 52-unit, three story property was built in 1937 and serves the local community with affordable housing. They found that the facility’s outdated toilets were one of the biggest water-wasting culprits.
Solution: Aqua Savers replaced the old, high flow toilets with Niagara’s The Original model that flushes at 0.8 gpf. Because The Original uses a vacuum-assist technology, it can flush up to 800 g of miso in as little as 0.8 gpf. This model has Niagara’s Stealth Technology, and can come in both round and elongated options.
Result: Thanks to Aqua Savers’ services and Niagara’s low-flow but high-performing toilets, the property was able to realize a 52% reduction in consumption and a 55% decrease in water/sewer costs, saving them nearly $20,000 annually. 833-812-0908; www.pro.niagaracorp.com
Contractor chooses linear shower drains for luxury-hotel bathroom renovation
Problem: The Ritz-Carlton St. Louis renovated its Club Level accommodations in a two-phased approach to the tub-to-shower conversion project. As more tubs were removed, the team realized that the process required core-drilling additional drain holes. The team wanted to avoid this, since it would only increase labor and extend the project time span, so they decided the best route would be to customize the drain system to adapt to existing plumbing rough-ins.
Solution: Once the project managers learned that the drain body could be customized to fit existing drain holes, they felt QuickDrain USA’s ShowerLine PVC System was the best solution. The drain system features a fully sloped trough in which water exits through either a vertical or a side waste outlet, making it easy to accommodate existing plumbing. PET rigid-foam shower floor panels, fabricated from 100%-recycled plastic, were also used in the renovation. “All we had to do was prefab the drains and wait for the tile guys to lay the PET panels,” says project manager Ralph Hoxworth. “Then we placed all of the drains in the holes lined up for the tile guys to match.”
Result: Standalone showers are especially well-suited to a clean, contemporary look, particularly when equipped with a sleek linear drain. The new bathrooms met this expectation and have been running smoothly since the project’s completion. In addition to time-savings, “the ease of installation and allowing for the entire crew to work cohesively were huge benefits from this system,” says Hoxworth. 866-998-6685; www.quickdrainusa.com
