Blue Star is the presenting partner of the 8th Hotelier India Awards 2016.
CP Mukundan Menon, executive VP-air conditioning and refrigeration products sales group, Blue Star Ltd, tells Vinita Bhatia that hoteliers should calculate the ownership costs while investing in air conditioning solutions, rather than concentrating on the initial CAPEX investment
How have the refrigeration and air conditioning needs in the hospitality industry evolved?
Earlier, the main purpose of air conditioning and refrigeration was cooling. Other aspects like noise, power consumption or aesthetics were ignored. But as the industry evolved, hoteliers realized the importance of these features and started focusing on low noise and minimal power-consuming units. They also wanted solutions that cost less on the operational expense (OPEX) front and were simpler and faster to deploy.
Hence, we developed products with Variable
Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems that are easier to install, ensure faster completion of projects, and are easier to manage in terms of operation, servicing and maintenance.
So hoteliers are finally focusing on OPEX, rather than being fixated on CAPEX while investing air conditioning systems?
Hoteliers are conscious about OPEX costs as air conditioning constitutes roughly 40 percent of their power bill, since it is operational 24/7. They also have to build in some redundancy, in case one system stops working, as they can’t afford any downtime. For instance, in a large hotel, there could be three chillers – two operational and one as a standby. The cost of the standby chiller is also very high. Today, there are modular units where the redundancy is taken care of. So, if one system goes down, smaller units will kick in. This has reduced the CAPEX investment. Also, the power consumption has come down by roughly 50 percent, which is a big OPEX saving. Hotels revamping their air conditioning systems can opt for these new modular systems since they can be easily plugged into an existing infrastructure without too much disruption. So, things had evolved in a big way.
How does choosing the right equipment help an hotelier in maintaining the optimal air quality?
The indoor air quality (IAQ) is very important in hotels. For instance, in a bar or pub, where there is smoke, the air needs to be taken out of the system, purged and then released back. Similarly, in a restaurant or banquet hall where food is served, fresh air has to be taken from outside and pumped back in to remove the smell of cooking food and circulate fresh air.
However, this is not the case in a lobby or other public spaces in the hotel. Hence, while designing air conditioning systems, we have to ensure that the right amount of the fresh air comes into each of these distinct areas to maintain the IAQ.
Given the rising pollution levels, especially in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, we are facing unique challenges when it comes to air conditioning. Now we can’t take the fresh air from outside for recirculation indoors. We have designed systems to purify air that is pumped indoors through multiple filters and remove dust particles, before pumping into the room. We also monitor the PM level in these areas so that guests are breathing fresh air without any impurities.
What product attributes should be part of a hotel procurement head’s checklist while finalizing the air conditioning solutions?
The most important aspect is the person putting together the project – the contractor. At Blue Star, we manufacture air conditioning products and our engineering wing has a contracting division that puts it together, along with other electrical, mechanical and plumbing services. There are few other companies that offer such holistic services in India.
Next, hoteliers should look at the operating cost rather than the initial CAPEX. If a unit is power guzzler, within a couple of years, they will realize they have made a mistake. They should calculate the product’s ownership cost, factoring its power costs, service and maintenance expense, etc, for a 10-year period.
They should pick an optimum solution where all these three are well balanced. Often, people get carried away by the first cost, miscalculating the bigger picture because these two variables can be substantially higher. So they should look at a vendor who is able to maintain the machines for 10 to 15 years.
Blue Star recently ventured into kitchen refrigeration products. What is unique about your offerings for the hospitality industry?
Since we were present in the hotel domain, getting into kitchen refrigeration equipment was a natural extension, especially with products like reach-in and under-the-counter freezers and coolers. We tied up with an Italian firm, called Rightway, for a range of reach-ins and under-the-counters that will be introduced under the Blue Star brand, but keeping the Indian temperatures and erratic power supply in mind since these will be used to store perishable food products.
We launched it a couple of months ago and are doing extremely well because there was a vacuum in this category. There were only local assemblers in this space, which meant that quality products were missing. These suppliers did not understand concepts like food grade stainless steel or realise that these units had to be sturdy enough to work trouble-free for 10 to 15 years, since they are subject to hard use in a busy kitchen. Now with Blue Star in the game, hoteliers know that they have a reputed brand they can trust for the best solution when it comes to reach-ins and under-the-counters.
