Month: April 2023

I have spent 25 years of my career working in the energy efficiency industry, developing programmes for commercial and retail clients, and identifying, recommending and implementing strategies for energy and building services engineering to reduce building operating costs and carbon emissions. 

A key factor of my business approach has always been to try and understand the energy culture of an organisation, and what their energy policy is trying to achieve before getting into the detail of energy performance improvements. This can help provide clarity of what is achievable for the client and within what timescale.

My company and I create efficiency programs that are based on best practices, targeting nil & low-cost initiatives initially, whilst being fully comprehensive in identifying all improvement opportunities through a building’s lifecycle. This approach enables the savings to be identified, achieved, and then re-invested in a strategic manner, and is founded on our utilisation of transparent measurement and verification procedures with clear accountability. 

All initiatives are geared to driving saving and reducing operational risk for our clients and when a large investment is required, the associated success criteria need to be clearly defined. As such, it is right that we as a business stand behind the savings promoted, to sometimes have ‘skin in the game’ and be sure of our IPMVP techniques. 

It’s fair to say that there have been many entrants to the energy management market over the years, with many products and consultants overstating the return on investment to the client, which has soured the market somewhat. Similarly, any ESCO or Energy Service Contract can hold enormous promise but there are also real risks if it’s not done properly. 

To ensure the energy management expectations are managed, our advice to clients has always been to:

• Be clear on the intended outcomes.
• Enable free access to the same information and agree on the analysis protocol.
• Have clear and enforceable roles and responsibilities.
• Agree on the contractual agreement with a partnering approach where both parties are working together to achieve the desired results. 

From the years of my energy management career, and the technologies I have witnessed, trialled, embraced, deployed and rejected, I firmly believe that we are now in one of the most exciting phases to date.

Connectivity through the internet has allowed masses of information to be freely available. The information we now collect from buildings is enabling tomorrow’s decision to be made and significantly de-risked. Data is freely available so that we may be descriptive, predictive and prescriptive. The trick is knowing how to interpret the ‘useful information’ and having the experience and engineering knowledge to know what outcomes are possible.

Primarily though, the main lesson I’ve learned to ensure successful energy management programmes is to spend time with clients at the beginning of the process to fully understand the specific project success criteria and wider business drivers, to be technologically agnostic and open to all solutions, and to always act in our clients’ best interests.

You can find out more information about our approach and how we support our clients here.

To discuss your requirements, get in touch. You can contact us by calling 0117 205 0542 or drop us an email at enquiries@energy-ts.com.    

With a dedicated Smart Buildings and Automation team, ETS have the depth of knowledge and expertise to design, specify and integrate new Smart Buildings technologies into your properties, whilst also ensuring that you are getting the very best from the systems you already have in place.

For more information please see here.

To discuss your requirements, get in touch. You can contact us by calling 0117 205 0542 or drop us an email at enquiries@energy-ts.com.   

It’s important to examine the function the office has traditionally played for businesses in order to work out how it might change in the future.

The office has always been a key social space for companies. Not only is it somewhere for existing colleagues to collaborate and connect, but it also acts as an essential hub for new employees, and a key part of the overall business ‘identity’. For staff – especially new recruits – the process of coming to the office, meeting your new colleagues and learning about the company culture has always been an essential step in employee onboarding.

And it’s hard to see this changing drastically in the future. Businesses will always need that physical hub, even if it isn’t used in exactly the same way with the same level of frequency.

One shift we’re expecting to see is just how much office space businesses need. Many large companies structure their office portfolio through a ‘hub-and-spoke’ model. This means that, usually, they have one or a few large offices in the central business districts of key cities, such as a London or Manchester, and several smaller regional offices elsewhere.

With the majority of employees regularly working from home, these smaller offices could come to be seen as inessential, prompting companies to reduce their overall property footprint and instead focus on one or two central offices, which are served by good transport infrastructure – and with a potentially higher requirement on quality of space for these remaining key assets.

It is estimated that real estate roughly accounts from 8% of a company’s total operating costs on average, so cutting back on total occupied space could act as an effective way to protect company finances during these turbulent times. Any freed-up budget could be retained, funnelled into R&D and service development, or be used to fund areas of the business that were traditionally supported by the office, such as company culture and staff collaboration.

Clearly, the first step is to get buildings reactivated in a safe manner – to read more about this initial process, please see our recent article on this here.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the majority of buildings were not able to make use of HVAC system flexibility, and the current crisis has just further exposed this significant gap in performance.

Indeed, as many businesses look to reactivate their properties, and all the associated challenges that this brings to manage risk and staff safety appropriately in an ongoing fashion, the need for flexible and responsive control systems has never been greater – even from a pure ‘building usability’ perspective.

Internal Air Quality monitoring is not necessarily a new thing – but the vast majority of the solutions on the market simply provide monitoring which links to a virtual dashboard which must be checked by an appropriate person and physical interventions then made in an essentially live environment to adjust internal conditions – and this requirement for manual intervention is both time-consuming and can lead to overconsumption of energy and associated cost.

At ETS we work with our clients to provide IAQ solutions that link into Building Management and Control Systems, so that HVAC equipment operation is continually adjusted on the basis of a blend of parameters (including temperature, CO₂, humidity, Particulate Matter, VOCs, etc.) to ensure the continued provision of optimal internal conditions, whilst maintaining a keen eye on energy consumption to avoid overspend.

This, combined with our industry-leading data, analytics and aM&T capabilities, means that we can deploy solutions to meet the exact needs of specific properties, whilst maintaining a firm grip on cost and carbon, across entire portfolios throughout the UK and Europe.

The short-term economic future currently seems to be full of uncertainty, but it is never too late to future-proof your properties against wasted energy costs and poor performance.

As an example, ETS is currently saving one of our clients over 25% on annual energy costs using our blend of independent building controls know-how and ongoing cost reduction support.

If you need assistance, then please do get in touch with us and we can help – no matter the size or nature of your building, or how big your property portfolio is.

You can contact us by calling 0117 205 0542 or drop us an email at enquiries@energy-ts.com.

In response to the pandemic, many buildings have been completely vacated by staff, but with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and lighting having been left operating as if the building were fully occupied for the past number of weeks.

In other buildings, only a skeleton crew of staff remain, but the building’s HVAC and lighting systems do not have the flexibility or granularity of control to reduce their respective outputs to match the reduced occupancy levels.

These issues, both managerial and technological, have resulted in significant energy costs being incurred for buildings that are essentially unoccupied, and as such many businesses are missing significant opportunities for cost saving at a time when, more than ever, ‘cash is king’!

As a first principle, the dilution of internal air streams should reduce the risk of transmission through a reduction of building occupant exposure time to any airborne virus aerosols, whilst also reducing the potential for the virus to settle on any internal surfaces.

As such, the over-riding advice is to reduce internal air recirculation and supply as much outside air to the building as reasonably possible. The key here is the delivery of optimal levels of fresh air provision per person, and maintenance of social distancing between staff that will return to the office to a minimum of 2-3m between individuals.

Any ventilation or air conditioning systems that are normally run with a recirculation mode should be adjusted to run on full outside air where possible. This includes systems which are fitted with return air filters, as it is understood that these will not filter out any viruses themselves.

Any recirculation of air between spaces, rooms or zones occupied by different people should be completely avoided – the primary objective is to maximise the air exchange rate with outside air and to minimise the risk of any pockets of stagnant air.

With regard to HVAC control strategies, it is recommended that extended operation times are implemented, and that ventilation rates should only be reduced down when the building is fully unoccupied. Ventilation systems should not be fully switched off when unoccupied, but ventilation rates can be reduced during full vacancy.

Similarly, CO2 set-points for demand control systems should be set to 400ppm, to optimise the delivery of outside air to internal spaces.

Exhaust ventilation systems of toilets should be left on 24/7.

There will, of course, be implications for energy efficiency through the adoption of these measures – however, it is clear that the health & safety of building occupants is vital, and hopefully adopting this approach in the current season will only result in a relatively limited uplift in consumption.

Whilst it is noted that increased duct cleaning will have no practical effect, as virus particles will not deposit easily in ventilation ducts with appropriate air flow, and it is not necessary to implement an increased regime of changing outdoor air filters, as clogged air filters are not a contamination source, there is potential for virus particles in extract air to re-enter the building – for example in heat-recovery devices that may carry over the virus attached to particles from the exhaust airside to the supply airside via leaks.

In rotary heat exchangers (including enthalpy wheels) particles deposit on the return airside of the heat exchanger surface, after which they might be resuspended when the heat exchanger turns to the supply airside. Based on current evidence, the recommendation is to turn off rotary heat exchangers temporarily.

However, please note that virus transmission via heat-recovery devices is not an issue when a HVAC system is equipped with a twin-coil (‘run around’ coil) or other heat-recovery device that guarantees air separation between return and supply side.

Energy monitoring software need not be complicated or expensive; a modern system will have the capability to provide the correct amount of information in the ideal format and in a straightforward manner. As with all sectors, in retail, it is not possible to accurately identify opportunities for savings without understanding fully what energy is being used, where it is being used and when it is being used. Indeed, having a strong grasp of the what, when and where is essential.

Energy sub-metering and access to live energy data is the life-blood of all successful energy management programs. Effective sub-metering strategies can assist in identifying opportunities, but it should be noted that the level of granularity should be carefully assessed. All businesses will have different requirements depending on their size and, for some organisations, having too much data can be costly while providing very little in terms of benefits to the organisation. As a result, it’s important to take a tailored approach to your energy management solution – there is no “one size fits all.”

Allied to sub-metering is advanced energy system controls. ETS have the expertise to identify the appropriate level of system controls and commission them in such a way that it provides incredible energy cost savings. Our team of experts can then follow the system remotely and continually identify opportunities and implement increased energy savings.

Energy data and analytics is a rapidly changing area with many moving parts. However, there are some specific trends that businesses should be aware of. For example, the growing presence of specialist machine learning and AI is transforming the way that data is processed. Thousands of data points can be accessed in next to no time, and with a greater level of accuracy than humans alone are able to provide. This means that an area that was once slow and manual is now lightning fast – and it’s improving all the time.

An AI solution can be trained to learn how your building operates, having an awareness of elements such as optimum internal thermal comfort levels, and which lights need to remain on given ambient daylighting and lux levels. The solution can also adjust its strategy automatically based on additional factors such as prevailing weather conditions, and specific occupancy patterns. Possessing this level of knowledge will also help it to detect any potential functionality problems – such as system failures – as soon as they arise, allowing them to be resolved before they develop into more serious issues.

In short, this shift towards machine learning and AI is providing businesses with a scaled and sophisticated ‘single point of truth’ when it comes to their energy management. This allows them to plan more effectively and feel secure in the knowledge that they are not unnecessarily wasting energy.

ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning) distinguishes two basic ways to create a baseline when measuring energy consumption: “Forward Models” are based on known users of energy, such as a schedule of lighting loads, or a building’s heat-loss characteristics; “Inverse Models” meanwhile, have no interest in what is using the energy, but instead, rely on patterns of historic consumption to predict future energy use.

“Inverse” or historic-based models are certainly the easiest to create. As a first iteration, you can simply compare one week’s data to the next, to see if it is higher or lower. You might compare day-to-day or year-to-year, but whatever the time period, your baseline is the historic data. The increasing prevalence of energy management software is making historic-based comparison ever more popular, since it’s a relatively simple function to provide. When energy software packages offer targeting and alert functionality, this is nearly always based on whether the data is better or worse than a comparable period in the past.

More sophisticated inverse models use regression analysis to identify how energy use is influenced by factors such as air temperature, occupancy, or production volumes. This can be very useful as a way to use historic performance as a baseline, even when conditions for both periods are not completely identical. For example, an energy manager might use Heating Degree Days to create an energy baseline that is lower in warm weather and higher in cold weather. Machine-learning models do this very well, and can “predict” expected energy use to a high level of accuracy.

But all historic-based models have one major flaw. All they can tell you is whether you are better or worse than you used to be. If your energy consumption has always been higher than it should be, you are likely to perpetuate that poor performance. As Shirley Bassey would say, “It’s all just a little bit of history repeating”.

Smart buildings and automation are increasingly becoming the future of the energy management industry. We can expect to see huge advances in how companies conserve energy in their buildings over the next decade, just as we have seen in the last one. Though there are many companies that have resisted these advances, they are increasingly becoming the minority.

It’s a shift that’s inevitable, and so energy managers must face it head-on. Resisting is only likely to make the journey a more difficult one and increase the risk that a company will be left behind by its competitors. As a result, it’s essential to find the right energy service advisor to guide you through this shift and make it as smooth as possible. Luckily, the benefits of doing so are numerous.