Historic Strater Hotel’s “behind the scenes” sustainability and “green” efforts come to light

 

DURANGO, Colo. – Recently, the Historic Strater Hotel, one of Downtown Durango’s most photographed landmarks, was honored with a 2008 Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence. The state of Colorado named the 1887 property as the “Best Building Improvement Project: Best Restoration.”

At face value, the award seems perfectly logical as the Strater has enjoyed continual restoration since the New Strater Corporation took over control of the hotel in 1926. Earl Barker Sr. was part of that corporation, and by the 1950s the Barker family was the sole owner. Since that time, successive generations of Barkers have maintained a commitment to sustaining the hotel as the Victorian masterpiece originally constructed by Henry Strater.

But the Governor’s Award wasn’t lauding the red brick, the intricate woodwork or traditional wall paper. It salutes what’s been going on “behind the walls.” The Strater Hotel is indeed a model for 21st century sustainability, while appearing as “Victorian” perfect as a Georges Seurat painting (i.e. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884).

In the mid-1980s, the third-generation Barker to manage the hotel – Rod – began developing a plan to improve the Strater’s energy efficiency, as well as anticipate the needs and desires of guests – before guests even realized the need for the new “green” amenities.

“Because we’ve had a plan for such a long time, whenever we’re into a spot where we need to open up something for some reason, we always put the infrastructure in there for future years because we knew that there was always going to be technology,” said Barker. “So, we’re always anticipating what that technology might be, and when it comes available, we’re ready for it because we’ve thought it through.”

Perhaps Barker’s most ambitious undertakings, and those that are now saving energy and dollars, are the Strater’s hot water and electricity co-generation systems. The pipes, the boilers, the tanks and more are all below ground at the rear of the hotel, unseen by guests.

“We’re really pretty excited,” said Barker. “We have to heat and cool the building, but if we can utilize the full capacity of the energy that we’re using and not throw away heat when you’re trying to produce cold, and not throw away heat when you’re producing energy, then maybe we can be more efficient than anybody else on the block.”

Barker credits energy reclamation engineer Jim Bruvold, who just happened into the Strater in 1985 when Barker was trying to develop a way to capture and use the heat generated by the air conditioning (cooling) system. Traditionally, large structures, such as hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, release the heated gas from the air conditioning’s Freon system into the atmosphere through visible vents and fans in the roof. (The term “Freon” is used generically for any of various non-flammable fluorocarbons used as refrigerants.) The Strater is now recapturing that heat.

“The hot gas that comes off of the Freon system goes through a heat exchanger instead of being released,” said Barker. “So if someone turns on their hot water, cold water comes into the building, it goes through the heat exchanger and it’s brought from maybe 45 degrees up to 52 degrees.”

The water then proceeds to a 5,000 gallon tank, which includes a circulation pump. If no guest or hotel department is pulling hot water out of the tank, the pump continues to circulate the water through the heat exchanger, slowly bringing the temperature up to as much as 105 degrees. Only when the tank is at that temperature does the Feon get released into the atmosphere.

Because air conditioning is traditionally only a summer function, to heat the water during the winter, the Strater uses a small boiler that slowly heats the water 24 hours a day.

“Instead of two million BTUs coming on with a giant boiler to keep up with the (hot water demand at peak periods in the) whole hotel, you’ve got this little water system that can be heating the tank in the middle of the night,” explained Barker. “It’s really a pretty remarkable system.”

Like any innovation, over the years it hasn’t been without its challenges. For example, the original 5,000 gallon tank was buried in dirt, and it eventually rusted through, forcing the Strater to dig it up and rework the boiler systems. The resulting rebuilt system, which includes an underground “room” for the tank, is now far more efficient, but while the reconstruction ensued it was, as Barker said, “a mess.”

Today Barker is exploring installation of solar panels on the Strater’s roof, which would heat the water when the air conditioning system wasn’t in use and, thus, possibly limit use of the boiler.

On the other side of the air conditioning system, Barker has sought a way to lower the electricity demand, especially in peak periods. Because La Plata Electric necessarily charges more for electricity used in high demand periods – including the heart of a summer day when air conditioners are triggered – the Strater was paying $1200 to $1400 a month for electricity, according to Barker.

“So I thought, what would happen if we used maybe diesel or natural gas or some sort of system and we produced the electricity just for the air conditioning system,” he said. “So when the air conditioner needs to come on, it sends a message to the generator to produce electricity.”

By not drawing electricity in peak demand periods, the Strater’s electric bills have come down dramatically. Plus, as Barker noted, the generator throws off additional heat that is funneled into the heat exchanger to heat the water in the 5,000 gallon tank.

The entire system, retrofitted into the hotel, is arguably unique in the industry.

“We really spent a lot of time and money, but it doesn’t cost as much if you know that it’s a five year plan, and wherever you’re going to do something, you do it with the whole picture in mind,” said Barker. “You know you’re going to get it all done in the long run.”

Additional energy efficiency efforts conceived for the Strater, if visible, necessarily must comply with historic preservation guidelines, but as technology improves, the hotel is seizing the opportunities. For example, a product has now come to market that will allow the Strater to replace the old, single pane (non-insulated) windows.

“We have about 200 windows in the hotel,” said Barker, “And we’ve just recently received approval from the historic preservation group to replace them with a wood interior, aluminum clad window that will look like a white wood window. And they will be two or three panes of glass so that the heat transfer will be much, much reduced.”

In the Strater’s Mahogany Grill restaurant, Thermique heated glass has eliminated the need to over-heat the restaurant for the comfort of those seated next to the windows. With the Thermique technology, a virtually invisible metallic film covers the outside of the interior pane of glass, generating heat that feels to restaurant patrons much like sun streaming through the window.

“It really has paid off as we’re able to reduce the heat in the room,” said Barker.

As energy efficient lighting has evolved, the Strater is replacing incandescent light bulbs with CFLs and will soon be laying strings of LED (light emitting diodes) lights around the rim of the hotel.

“From what I’ve heard,” said Barker, “we’ll use less electricity using the LEDs in one year than we would in one day with the other (incandescent) ones.”

In the rooms, which feature authentic Victorian antiques that continue to be restored and reupholstered when needed, the Strater is replacing the cotton robes, towels and sheets with more sustainable bamboo products. Though Barker admits he has some mixed feelings because at this point bamboo fiber is not manufactured in the United States, the resulting products are much more durable, dry faster and feel better on the skin – and are more sustainable.

Further, because the Strater offers its guest high quality soaps, which never are fully used, the hotel team has developed a “to go” bag for guests. The zip lock bag allows patrons to safely take home the unused portion, and avoids the 80 to 90 percent of leftover soap being tossed in the landfill.

“Green” cleaning supplies, recycling efforts, using locally grown foods in the restaurants, plus offering guests the option of not washing towels and sheets daily – all add to the Strater’s efforts at bettering the environment.

“There are still a lot of things that we can do,” said Barker of sustainability. “We’re looking at having somebody on staff who can help us with our ‘greeness.’ There are 150 employees here who all have good ideas. We need to sort through and see what more we can implement.”

The Strater Hotel is located at 699 Main Ave. in Historic Downtown Durango. Learn more at www.strater.com.

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