The Headland Hotel, Newquay: 19% verified, £50,453 saved in year one
An iconic Cornwall hotel renowned for its luxurious accommodation, food and spa facilities, with an estate that includes an Aqua Centre and 40 self-catering holiday cottages.
The challenge
The Headland's annual spend on heating and hot water was £380,883, a significant operational expense for a hotel that cannot compromise on the standards its guests expect. In line with their sustainability and cost reduction targets, the operators were keen to find savings without disruption.
What we did
The system was installed with a guarantee that the installation cost would not exceed the year-one saving. The main hotel, spa and Aqua Centre plant was fitted in April 2024 with no downtime on heating or hot water. Across the 40 holiday cottages, installation was phased around lettings: 20 in April 2024 and the remainder that November.
The result
After a complete twelve months, the meters showed a 19% energy saving, adjusted for weather and occupancy: consumption fell from 2,709,597 kWh to 2,194,773 kWh on an adjusted like-for-like basis, and the corresponding cost from £265,540 to £215,087. That is £50,453 saved in year one. If the kWh price simply holds, the ten-year saving exceeds £500,000, an ROI of more than 900%.
“OH4 carried out work for us at the Headland recently, installing the OH4 on our heating and hot water systems, for the main hotel, our Spa, Aqua Centre and most of the cottages on our site. We were delighted with how non-invasive the installation was, with no disruption experienced to the hotel’s operation, working around holiday bookings in the cottages, and scheduled to complete the work in the autumn. The installation was carried out on the main hotel building in April of 2024, and since then we have seen savings of energy usage in excess of 20% measured in kWh per degree, per day, per guest, compared against the previous year, to give truly comparable figures. Steve’s work has been highly professional and efficient, and we are delighted with the savings we have seen already, and those we anticipate are to come. We would highly recommend both Steve and his OH4 system to other hotels and guest accommodation, as the results speak for themselves in terms of energy savings, and the system will be a benefit to the hotel for decades to come.”
How this was measured: the client provides monthly energy usage data, adjusted for degree days to remove ambient weather effects and for occupancy to adjust for guest numbers. Each month is compared with the same month of the previous year on a kWh per degree day per guest basis.
The V1 system is the OH4 Energy Saving System, so client quotes and the full case-study documents refer to it as OH4.
Run a hotel or holiday estate?
Phased around bookings, fitted with zero downtime, verified on your own meters.