YHA Wellington City
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The theme for the awards was Innovating for Success, and the youth hostel won in the backpacker accommodation category.
The hostel entered the awards citing environmental sustainability as its innovation, not surprising when it is considered that it has more than 250 sustainability features, ranging from 'switch off' stickers on all light switches to recycling of clothing and batteries. But its energy-efficient water heating system was the major reason for the award.
YHA Wellington City is the largest hostel in the YHA New Zealand network of 53 youth hostels and has already achieved a great deal. It is a Qualmark 5 star property with Qualmark Enviro Gold accreditation and was the winner of the 2009 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards for Best Large Accommodation. This international award was presented at the world's largest travel show – WTM – in London last year. The hostel is also a multi award winner in the New Zealand Sustainable Business Network awards and two time winner of the Hostelworld best hostel in Oceania award. More than 80,000 thousand guests pass through its doors every year, so saving energy in heating water can make a huge difference to the operation's economics.
YHA area manager Chris Sperring says YHA New Zealand has a long term commitment to fostering understanding and care of the environment and cultures through travel. It has been an accommodation sector leader in adopting a practical approach to reducing its impact on the environment through waste management and a careful examination and reduction in energy and water consumption, he said.
"The driving force behind that goes back to the Kyoto Protocols of the late '90s from which YHA New Zealand introduced a sustainable living policy across its organisation."
Initial improvements were the simpler ones, such as installing low-flow shower heads. The next level included property management systems and more efficient hot water heating systems. "We did the property extension here in about 2002. That's when we changed to a Quantum hot water heating system, which has a number of energy saving features," Mr Sperring said.
"We have energy transfer panels on the roof that suck the energy out of the atmosphere and channel it into heating our hot water as it comes into the building. We chose that system rather than solar panels because Wellington is not as sunny as somewhere like Nelson." Technically, the Quantum is a heat pump. Refrigerant runs through the air-conditioning coil and, because the refrigerant is colder than air, it collects heat energy from the air passing through the coil to save more energy. It works on the same basis as a refrigerator or residential heat pump.
Among Quantum's claims for its system are:
• Saves up to 75 per cent of the energy used to make hot water
• A standard 340 litre unit will make up to 1600 litres of hot water a day and 100 litres per hour.
• Heats up to 60 degrees C° in all weather.
But Chris Sperring says Quantum is just one part of the hostel's hot water heating complex.
"The other major component of our system is a GFX heat exchanger from a company called Eco Systems. Basically, it's a series of copper spirals that extract the heat out of the waste water as it exits the building.
"Especially with the GFX heat exchange system that goes with it, the Quantum system can show 12 – 15 per cent of savings on energy bills. That is was very attractive to us. It is both responsible and commercial.
"These features mean we don't need to heat our water from scratch. Our water doesn't enter the property cold – it enters it luke warm. During the gas outage in Wellington recently, we had no way to heat our water but no point was it ever cold – pretty useful when you consider our gas was out for about three weeks."
Achieving maximum sustainability is not just the aim of YHA Wellington City. It is practised across the New Zealand youth hostel movement as a whole and improvements are always being made.
"We had a policy of putting in Quantums from about 2000 to 2005," said Mr Sperring, "but now we're moving to the next generation of hot water system where we can use the features we already have, plus gain greater savings because Quantum has improved its technology and the present systems have been superseded. YHA is now installing the Quantum forced draft evaporators units which have a higher efficiency than the old passive panel systems.
"Other forms of heating are adding value to the YHA network. In Nelson last year, we installed a massive solar system with a heat exchanger system with it, and that's working tremendously well for us. New technology's coming on all the time."
