Biomass Heating

Biomass Heating - Green Tourism.

The Lovat Arms, Fort Augustus is a family run hotel with 29 bedrooms that offers a high class of comfort in traditional Victorian surroundings. The hotel employs about 15 full time staff. As part of a refurbishment of the hotel the owners sought to implement measures to improve the energy efficiency of the hotel. Including these measures has significantly reduced operating costs and reduced carbon emissions from the business. The hotel has estimated that it has reduced energy costs by about £2,000 and anticipates that annual energy savings will be in the region of £10,000.

Following advice from the Energy Savings Trust, the hotel installed a fully automated biomass heating system fuelled with wood chips. The installation of the heating system was supported with funding from the Scottish Biomass Support Scheme and Highlands & Islands Enterprise and an interest free loan from Loan Action Scotland .

The woodchips supply heat at a more favourable cost than conventional heating fuels and support a local wood chip supply company. The heating system is controlled individually in each room. In unoccupied rooms temperature is controlled at 12°C which rapidly rises to 19°C when guests check into the hotel. Room temperature can be flexibly controlled to ensure that the comfort of guests and energy efficiency are met at all times.

Energy efficient lighting is installed throughout the hotel. In corridors this is controlled with motion activated sensors. This has reduced the time that lighting is left on when not required, electricity consumption, costs and carbon emissions.

Commenting on the environmental initiatives at the Lovat Arms
Caroline Gregory, hotel manager said:

What I have done at the hotel feels natural to me – this is not an exercise I am just trying out because it is a trend…. I have been passionate about the environment for years and having the hotel is an added bonus because I can pass on the benefits of what we are doing and in turn what they are able to do. I have scary moments of what the planet could be like in a few years time and this has made me act. I am aware that the environmental performance of the hotel could be improved further, however we have made a start on this process and intend to continue.

Lovat Arms Green Toursim (pdf 110kb)