Southwest Energy Efficiency Project

La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe

La Fonda Hotel La Fonda is a 167-room luxury hotel located on the plaza in Santa Fe. The original structure dates to 1922, and additions over the years have brought the hotel to its present size of 173,000 square feet. In addition to guest rooms, La Fonda offers clients an outdoor swimming pool and three indoor spas, eight meeting rooms, a restaurant, two cocktail lounges, and a gift shop.

The hotel consumes about 149,215 therms of natural gas and 4,380 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. The annual energy bill is approximately $375,000.

Rebuild New Mexico recommended 20 different energy efficiency steps the hotel could take, including: insulate all exposed boiler and chiller lines; add controls to the air heaters in the boiler room; upgrade the HVAC controls in the meeting rooms; install a photocell to automatically turn off hallway lighting in the luxury suites; automate the kitchen lights and use stumble lighting at night; replace all T-12/magnetic lighting with T-8/electronic lighting; replace incandescent lamps with compact fluorescents; add occupancy sensors in bathrooms and other intermittent use areas; and retrofit incandescent exit signs with LED lights.

As of August 2002, the following steps had been taken:

114 150-watt incandescent bulbs were replaced with 23-watt compact fluorescent bulbs
82 fluorescent fixtures were refitted with electronic ballasts and T8 lamps
A universal programmable control module for the air conditioner chillers was installed, allowing for "free cooling" during an estimated 135 days per year

The average payback period for these actions is well under one year, as indicated in the following table:

Energy Efficiency Actions: La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe
Installed cost	$13,180
Cost savings	$21,420 per year

© 2002-2008 Southwest Energy Efficiency Project
2260 Baseline Rd. Suite 212, Boulder, CO 80302
(303) 447-0078 fax: (303) 786-8054 info@swenergy.org

Last Updated: 01/28/2008