At Ballynahinch Castle, we have set ourselves high standards of energy efficiency. We have implemented many strategies to reduce our energy consumption and we are always looking to reduce and improve our energy usage wherever we can.
All of the lightbulbs throughout the hotel are long-lasting, high grade LED bulbs, we also have a number of motion sensor lights in the back of house areas to reduce unnecessary energy usage. This is an area that we will be adding to in the future as we have identified a number of areas where motion sensor lights would be practical in the business.
All of our heating and hot water is generated by our onsite wood pellet Biomass boiler. This is one of the main aspects in our strategy to become a greener and more environmentally conscious energy consumer, as it is a 100% renewable energy source.
Each bedroom has a thermostat that can be independently changed to regulate the temperature in each room. This can all be monitored remotely to ensure there is no excessive usage or issue with the heating system. Through this system whole areas of the hotel, as well as rooms, can be shut down during quieter periods, thus reducing our energy usage.
Following an extensive energy audit of the business, we made the decision to install a solar array to start generating our own renewable energy onsite. This solar array accounts for approximately 25% of the hotels annual electricity consumption. The remaining electricty is provided to us through a green energy provider thus ensuring that all our electricity needs are from100% renewable sources.