Application

Diesel Generators for Hotels

Guests notice three things when the mains fails: whether the lights come back, whether the lifts move, and whether there is hot water and air conditioning. A hotel generator is therefore sized for comfort rather than for safety systems, and it has to deliver that comfort without being heard from the guest rooms or seen from the street.

Sets for hotels and resorts are normally quoted between 200 kVA and 400 kVA, in a silent canopy or a screened roof plant room, with automatic transfer and a shed group that keeps the kitchen and laundry off the generator bus.

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Requirements

What a hotel specification has to state

Typical hotel and resort generator requirements. The building services design and the local code govern.
Item Typical requirement Why it changes the set
Load to carry Guest room lighting and sockets, lifts, water pumps, air conditioning, kitchen refrigeration Fixes the rating; laundry and full kitchen are usually shed
Restoration time Within about 10-15 seconds, with lift ride-through on the smaller installations Drives the starting system and the transfer logic
Autonomy 8-12 h at the standby load is common; 24 h where the region has long outages Decides whether a base tank is sufficient or a bulk tank is needed
Noise 65-70 dB(A) at the nearest guest room or boundary, with day and night limits often different The single most common reason a hotel project needs an acoustic build
Vibration Isolated from the structure where the plant room shares a wall or floor with guest rooms Stops structure-borne noise reaching bedrooms
Footprint and visibility Basement, roof or podium, with louvred screens where the set is visible Decides whether the air path can be ducted and how the enclosure is finished
Exhaust Above roof level, away from guest windows, balconies and fresh-air intakes Exhaust drawn into a ventilation intake reaches guests as smell, not as noise
Fuel handling Bunded storage and a delivery route that does not cross guest areas Refuelling procedures have to fit the operation of the building
Unattended running Start, transfer, retransfer and shutdown without an operator present Determines the control panel and the alarm reporting to the front desk or BMS

Configurations

Configurations we quote most often

Common hotel arrangements. Each rating links to its power range page.
Rating per set Typical arrangement Fits Range page
200 kVA / 160 kW One set, silent canopy Boutique hotels, restaurants and small resorts 200 kVA
300 kVA / 240 kW One set, or two with automatic transfer City hotels of 100-200 rooms 300 kVA
400 kVA / 320 kW Two sets with automatic transfer and load shedding Large city hotels and resort properties 400 kVA
500 kVA / 400 kW and above Two sets in parallel Resort complexes and mixed-use developments 500 kVA

Reference configuration

A worked example

This is an illustrative configuration, not a delivered project. It shows how the requirement table above turns into a specification. Replace the figures with your own load list before pricing.

Example: a 180-room city hotel with three lifts, a rooftop plant room and a full kitchen.
Parameter Example value
Guest room and corridor load About 110 kW of lighting, sockets and small appliances
Lifts Three lifts at 15 kW running each, started in sequence on changeover
Water and air conditioning About 160 kW of pumps, fans and one chiller, with the second chiller shed
Shed group Laundry, full kitchen, pool plant and car park ventilation
Total on generator About 300 kW
Rating selected One set at 400 kVA / 320 kW, standby rating, with automatic transfer and load shedding
Autonomy 10 h at the standby load on a bunded base tank
Enclosure Acoustic canopy, 68-72 dB(A) at 7 m, on anti-vibration mounts
Location Roof plant room with ducted air in and out and exhaust above roof height
Monitoring Alarm reporting to the BMS and the duty engineering line

Questions

Questions we are asked about hotel sets

What loads should a hotel keep on the generator?

Guest rooms, corridors and public area lighting, lifts, domestic water pumps, at least part of the cooling plant, kitchen refrigeration and the fire and life safety systems. What is normally shed is the laundry, the full cooking load, the pool plant and car park ventilation. Writing that list down first is what keeps the set to a sensible size.

How do you stop the set being heard in the guest rooms?

Three things, in order of effect: put the set as far from occupied rooms as the building allows, isolate it from the structure so that vibration does not travel through the floors, and enclose it acoustically so that the airborne path is controlled. A plant room on the same slab as a bedroom can transmit more noise through the structure than a canopy set in the yard transmits through the air.

Will the lifts keep running during a changeover?

Not through a complete power interruption unless the lift has its own ride-through or is on the essential bus with a fast transfer. The usual arrangement is that the generator is up to speed and the transfer completes within about 10-15 seconds, and lifts resume with their own automatic re-levelling. Where an uninterrupted lift service is required, that is a lift specification decision rather than a generator one.

How long should the generator run, and for how long can it run?

A hotel set is normally quoted at the standby rating, which is intended for the duration of a mains outage rather than for continuous duty. Fuel autonomy is therefore the limiting factor rather than the machine: 8-12 h is common on a base tank, and a longer outage needs either a bulk tank or a fuel delivery. Running continuously for days at a time is prime power duty, and the set should be ordered as such.

Can the generator be hidden from view?

Yes, and it usually has to be. Louvred screens and powder-coated enclosures in a building colour are standard for a visible plant area, provided the screens do not block the air path. The one thing that cannot be hidden quietly is the exhaust: it needs to discharge above roof level and away from any opening, which means a flue that the architect has to be told about early.

Related

Related applications and ranges

Specifying a hotel standby set?

Send the room count, the essential load list, where the set will stand and the noise limit at the nearest room or boundary.

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