Projected savings and verified savings are not the same thing

Almost any supplier will give you a savings figure before installing anything. That is a projection: an estimate of what should happen. Verified savings are different: what actually happened, measured against a reference and stripped of everything the measure did not cause.

Why comparing with last year is not enough

A hotel does not consume the same two years running even if nothing changes. Occupancy shifts, winters differ, energy prices move and the mix of open services changes. Compare raw invoices and you may claim a saving that was really a mild autumn, or miss a real one under a summer with more rooms sold.

What a normalised baseline is

• A long enough consumption history, ideally twelve months or more per supply.
• Variables that explain that consumption: occupancy, heating and cooling degree days, floor area in use.
• A model linking the two, so you can estimate what you would have consumed without the measure.

Separating price from consumption

The euro figure on a bill mixes two things: how much energy you used and what you paid for it. Renegotiating a contract lowers the bill without lowering consumption, and a tariff increase can hide a real technical saving. To know whether a measure works, look at consumption; to know whether the contract works, look at unit price. Both questions are fair, but they are different questions.

Why it matters

To justify grants, to close an energy performance contract without arguments and, above all, to know whether the money invested came back. It is the difference between saying you improved and being able to show it with a number that survives review.

This piece is part of our guide on how to reduce hotel operating costs: start from the bills, prioritise by payback and verify the saving afterwards.