A study on the energy performance of hotel buildings in Taiwan

This study presents a discussion on the energy performance of hotel buildings in Taiwan. Energy consumption data, building information, and other operations data were collected from 45 Taiwanese international tourist hotels, 19 standard tourist hotels, 116 hotel enterprises, and 20 bed and breakfast facilities. The energy use intensity (EUI) of the 4 rated hotels is 280.1,237.7,186.3, and 143.6 kWh/m(2)/year. Mean energy consumption per guest room at the 4 rated hotels is 26.7, 25.0, 14.6, and 9.4 MWh/room/year. Electricity predominantly comprises total energy consumption, which accounts for 84% of total energy on average. Pearson correlations between EUI and possible explanatory indicators revealed that certain building conditions, operations, and other factors are significant. Two regression models were established to predict annual energy consumption and EUI, and gross floor area, number of guest rooms, occupancy rate, and building construction year were selected as independent variables. The coefficient of the adjusted R-2 is 0.928 and 0.612, which implies reliability. This study provides managerial suggestions according to the results for improving hotel energy performance. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.