Energy-saving switches
Various energy-saving hotel room switches are presented in this section. Although energy-saving switches are not essential components of the access control system, they interact with it in terms of reading hotel keycards. A guest's keycard activates a switch and supplies power to the lights and selected sockets in the room.
As the name suggests, these devices are designed to reduce the idle power consumption of the room. It is a common situation when a guest or a hotel employee has left the lights on in a restroom, especially in the daytime. Some other sources of light that are also can be left on commonly include bedside lamps, floor lamps, bulbs in the corridor, etc. Using energy-saving switches eliminates idle energy consumption.
The service function of energy-saving switches is also an important aspect. We have described how the issue of lights left on can be easily solved. In addition, guests and employees can leave any room or area without thinking about what lights they need to turn off.
When leaving a room in the evening, a guest can just remove their keycard from the slot of the energy-saving switch (which is a convenient place to store the electronic card from the room at the same time) and the lights turn off in the whole room after a dozen of seconds that are enough to leave the hotel room without haste.
On returning to the room and inserting the card into the pocket of the switch, a guest can turn on exactly the lights that were on when the guest was about to leave. This increases the convenience for guests and, consequently, their comfort of staying at the hotel.
We offer hotel energy-saving switches of three types:
Simple energy-saving switch
Any Mifare card can be used. Please note that a card needs to be fitted with a chip, since an ordinary paper card is useless. This is a simple energy-saving solution.
Intelligent energy-saving switch
This device can be programmed to operate in one of the following modes:
- A switch can be activated only by a keycard that belongs to the hotel. This prevents occasional turning on the lights using a keycard issued in another hotel or any other card with a Mifare chip. This is a convenient solution for hotels that need to be absolutely sure that the room lights are definitely off when a guest has left a room.
- A switch can be activated only by a card issued for a corresponding room at the reception when checking in. It is impossible to turn on the light in the room or leave the air conditioner working with a card issued for another room. This is a great solution for hotels in which groups of guests can be accommodated in several rooms. This mode is indispensable if you need to be sure that the lights are not turned on in the room when there is nobody there and no card issued for a next-door room does not power the room.
- A switch can be activated only between check-in and check-out. This is a convenient solution for hotels where it is essential to track strictly the check-out time. Please note that at the moment of the planned check-out the room power supply will be stopped.
This switch is serviced by the HSU ILMS software
Online energy-saving switch
The online power energy-saving device can use two types of connection to the server running HTLock software.
- A dedicated Ethernet network. This connection type provides the most considerable fault tolerance.
- A Wi-Fi network. This type of connection makes it easy to install the switch. The method is especially convenient for hotels that are transferring the current hotel ACS infrastructure running HTLock.
The fundamental purpose of the online energy-saving switch is to control the use of hotel rooms. Including the feature of remote control.
- The room light can be turned on only after the guest has checked in. The check-in function is supported directly from the PMS of the hotel through the integration module.
- All events of turning on and off the light in the room are recorded in the log in real time. It makes no difference if the light was turned on with the help of a guest or staff card. Reports contain the data on time, card type (guest, staff), name of a guest or an employee.
- The events of a staff card being inserted into the switch pocket for more than one hour are recorded in a separate report on non-standard use of electricity in the room. This option prevents the check-in of a guest with a staff master key.
- The light in the room can be turned on and off remotely from the server. It is not necessary for a card to be inserted into the switch pocket. The option of remote light control has priority over inserting a card into the switch. If the light is turned off remotely from the server, the switch will not respond to a card until the device is switched to the standard mode of operation.
The online energy-saving unit is also the gateway of the electronic online room lock, replacing the infrastructure of the dedicated HSU-BTGW gateways.