Category: Energy Efficiency

As we navigate these highly challenging times for all sectors of the economy, businesses are looking to the prospect of staff returning to the office environment, and how the risks to health posed by the COVID-19 virus can be robustly managed as their buildings are increasingly brought back into operation.

As part of this, clearly, the provision of safe internal working environments for staff that will return to the office, in due course, is paramount.

In light of this, CIBSE and REHVA have developed a new set of guidance on how to operate HVAC and water systems within commercial buildings to minimise any spread of the virus.

As noted by CIBSE, the current Public Health England guidance on infection control states that “The transmission of COVID-19 is thought to occur mainly through respiratory droplets generated by coughing and sneezing, and through contact with contaminated surfaces. The predominant modes of transmission are assumed to be droplet and contact”, and whilst droplets will generally fall out of airstreams within a relatively short distance, there is an increasing body of evidence to suggest that the virus can be spread through the air in poorly ventilated indoor spaces.

As such, it is crucial that building services equipment such as mechanical ventilation systems, along with water systems, are reviewed and managed to mitigate risk to occupants as far as possible.

This article details some of the key insights from the current guidance.

John Kane is the Business Unit Director at Energy & Technical Services Ireland.

Since becoming actively involved in the energy management sector over 15 years ago, I have witnessed firsthand an exponential growth in market and technology knowledge amongst clients, contractors, suppliers and the public at large. These have allowed for vast improvements in energy performance in the retail sector.

The availability of hardware and software solutions has increased dramatically over the years. In particular, the increased prevalence of cloud-based reporting software has enabled a paradigm shift in the quantity and quality of data accessible to us at any time, day and night, Monday through Sunday. Rapid developments in portable technology have also been key to this, allowing us to step into our virtual offices at any time. It’s not difficult to see how these advancements have transformed how those working in the retail sector approach energy management.

But let’s face it: not all of us wish to have access to our energy consumption profiles at the dinner table, or during weekend family time. Many of us strive to be in the position of knowing that our energy systems are being professionally managed and are under control without us having to check-in. The last thing we want is to feel the burden of doubt when we leave the office.

The challenge for those responsible for energy management and those accessing the energy data, particularly amongst those who manage multi-site property portfolios, is having both the time and technical ability to know how to achieve this. Indeed, having access to such powerful technology is one thing, but knowing what to do with it is another.

There is perhaps no single aspect of energy management more important than energy data and analytics. In many ways, the energy performance of your buildings is directly tied to how your business is monitoring usage, as well as the number of data sources you have access to. Without the right solution in place, it’s likely that your business is wasting energy and money, perhaps unwittingly.

It’s also important to be aware that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to energy data and analytics. The solution best suited for your business is dependent on a number of factors, including your industry and size. However, understanding the area’s current trajectory – and the technological advancements that are transforming it – is essential for ensuring you make the correct decision. Selecting the best energy analytics solution, as well as the right specialist to support its implementation and monitoring, is key for ensuring that your organisation is able to excel.

For many people, the beginning is the time of year for resolutions and target-setting. So what better time to consider how we measure how well we are doing?

As energy managers, we face this problem all year round when it comes to measuring energy consumption. Our first challenge is to understand how much energy we are using, and our second challenge is to establish whether that energy consumption is reasonable or not. We do this through the regular practice of Monitoring and Targeting (M&T).

M&T relies on the comparison of actual energy consumption to a reference consumption (or baseline) for the same time period. When these values are compared, any differences between the actual consumption and reference consumption are highlighted. These differences can help identify equipment failure, poor control, or other causes of energy waste. But the quality of outputs from an M&T programme are heavily reliant on having an accurate baseline to compare against. So where do these baselines come from?

The obstacles faced by building energy managers are constantly evolving. This is primarily because energy management challenges are always changing, meaning that managers need to keep ahead of the latest trends in order to ensure a building is running as efficiently as possible. Not only this, but the difficulty of implementing these changes can be seen as another obstacle in itself; especially if you’re working with a tight budget. It can be difficult to justify the costs of new technology to an Executive Board, even if it’s likely to save the company time and money in the long term.

The increased reliance on automation is another key concern for many energy managers. By passing off processes that were once handled manually, how do you avoid the risk of having an energy solution that is essentially a black box? It’s important for energy managers to maintain full visibility, and they risk sacrificing it when they decide to work with a new energy management service provider.

Navigating issues such as these can leave energy managers in frustrating positions, and so they need to collaborate with advisors who can guide them effectively.

Historically the energy management agenda has largely used the idea of financial cost saving as the principal driver in promoting buy-in and the uptake of efficiency projects, across all sectors. Additionally, over the last 15 years, the market across all sectors became increasingly attuned to the idea of environmental performance – both as a response to an increasingly onerous legislative landscape around carbon performance of built assets, but also as many companies’ internal and external stakeholders placed greater scrutiny on sustainability and the actions being taken by firms to manage their environmental impact across all areas of their operations.

Increasingly over the past few years the ‘Well Agenda’ has become a significant consideration in its own right, with many funding bodies, institutional investment houses, and corporate occupiers requiring high levels of performance against specific assessment methodologies aimed directly at occupant wellbeing – thinking specifically of the ‘WELL’ Standard as developed by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)

Wellbeing, as much as energy efficiency and carbon reduction, is becoming a key criterion against which a building’s quality is judged. We spend over 90% of our lives in and around buildings, where the concepts of sustainability and environmental impact are widely understood and measured. Now, consideration of buildings’ impact on occupants’ wellbeing – and productivity and absenteeism levels – is advancing. This is not surprising, given 90% of operating expenses typically goes to staff costs and 90% of people say their attitude to work is adversely affected by the quality of their workplace environment.

The Wellness agenda promotes clean air and minimising sources of indoor air pollution, safe and clean water (in recognition of how quickly dehydration is detrimental to human performance), the availability of fresh, nutritious foods and encouraging healthy eating habits, it promotes fitness, through the integration of physical activity into everyday life by providing opportunities for physical activity, such as moving away from prolonged periods of sitting at desks and taking the stairs rather than the lift. The mind element incorporates optimising design, technology, and crowding, noise, indoor air quality and light for the best emotional health. Importantly comfort, including thermal, acoustic, ergonomic and olfactory comfort to optimise the indoor environment, and hence wellbeing and productivity

This Webinar will focus on BeMS in the Built Environment, highlighting common problems such as legacy equipment, redundancy, OEMs, suppliers, closed protocol systems and the like. We will then discuss on how the end user would define their own outcome based solutions.

Recent years have seen rapid advances both in terms of the equipment capabilities, and the sheer number of manufacturers in the market, whilst the evolution of IoT has resulted in an explosion of data available, so how does the client know which manufacturers solution is best for them?

Therefore, migrating or upgrading your BeMS technology can seem like a daunting task.  Consequently, in order to gain the real value from these systems, decision makers must filter through the wide variety of technologies available on the market and assess the suitability of each.

Join us on Monday 4th November at 15:30-16:30 to learn more about this topic.

There are proven business benefits to appropriate metering and subsequent energy monitoring.

According to the Carbon Trust, 20% of a business’ annual energy costs are wasted through inefficient equipment. A British Gas survey of several thousand smart meters also showed that 46% of SME’s total electricity used is outside of occupation hours (between 6pm and 8am). Additionally, in some cases up to 60% of office heat is lost through the fabric of the building.

Other sources also claim many industrial installations are seeing a 50% reduction in efficiency from heat loss due to poor or missing insulation.

So, we can see that there is real potential in unlocking significant energy savings but how do we exploit these opportunities?

Conducting an energy audit is the by far the best way to collect and then analyse energy consumption data. Tracking past and present energy consumption provides information on how much energy is being used and when. This information can help to determine areas of significant energy consumption and identify energy waste.

So now we need to calculate the savings. What does this Involve?

First you need to review the operational performance of the existing HVAC plant and equipment. Also identify current occupancy levels, operating times and conduct a detailed study of the current BMS control strategy.

All this information can then be compared against buildings with similar characteristics. This will provide a projected consumption profile highlighting problem areas which require improvements.

Savings should be determined by comparing consumption before and after implementation of any energy saving initiative. Suitable adjustments for changes in conditions should also be accounted for.

The metering plan, specific for every organisation, is essential to measure and compare consumption over time. It involves the implementation of metering and measurement equipment as well as energy consumption figures to calculate the EPI (Energy Performance Index).

The analysis of all of this data makes it possible to validate the energy savings achieved following the completion of a project. It also helps keep track of energy performance over the long term.

If you would like advice about how to improve energy efficiency within your building, contact us on 0117 379 0850 and speak to one of our specialists.

The terms ‘Smart Building’, ‘Intelligent Building’, and ‘Building Automation’ are often used interchangeably, and the variation in the definition of these terms and their interpretation can be confusing for businesses when assessing the range of energy saving and ‘sustainable’ technologies available on the market.

With the ever-increasing scrutiny on the sustainability and environmental performance of property assets, and the seemingly inexorable rise of the ‘smart cities’ agenda, the notion of the smart building has gained increased exposure over recent years. However it is clear that smart building tech can include everything from automated building management systems, to HVAC plant monitoring platforms, to meeting room booking systems.

At its most basic level, a smart building can be said to use a combination of technologies to automate building management, removing the requirement for the manual control which can often cause inefficiency and poor environmental performance – although clearly one would hesitate to deem a building as being ‘smart’ simply because a BMS is in place!

Over time, and as technology in this space develops, the notional benchmark of what constitutes a ‘smart building’ also shifts – with expectations about the aspects of the property that should be ‘optimised’  and ‘connected’ including more and more factors.

However, in general, smart buildings are those where technology provides granular monitoring and control over plant and systems to optimise energy efficiency, occupant health & wellbeing, comfort levels, and security systems.

To achieve this, smart buildings increasingly exploit IoT connectivity, sensors, metering and controls to remotely monitor and proactively respond to occupant requirements by adjusting the buildings systems accordingly.

When it comes to creating a Smart Building, it all boils down to what your goals are and what the desired end-state is. Smart buildings have the potential to completely change the way we interact with buildings and change our work lives.

At the end of the day, the building should work for its occupants and not the other way around. So, keep this in mind as you embark on this journey. The goal of a Smart Building is to deliver useful services that help make occupants more productive and safer at the lowest cost, and with the least environmental impact.

A Smart Building optimises and minimises energy. Occupant security and quality of life is one of its top priorities. This means not just physical security, such as connected fire suppression and alarm systems, but also health security— good-quality air and water, and the like.

That being the case, Smart Buildings are a critical component regarding energy usage and sustainability. The building automation systems, such as HVAC control, lighting control, power management, and metering play a major role in determining the operational and energy efficiency of a building. So, much thought and planning needs to go into this beforehand.

So here a question. You may wonder how do I validate the amount of energy I use & could save?
Well one of the advantages of IoT equipment is its ease of deployment making it an easy product to install even for a test purpose. This will enable you to find out the energy consumption very quickly and easily.

It could be used just for a number of weeks to get a snap shot of the building before any commitment is made, enabling data to be collated and a report to be generated on any projected ROI. So, this is another idea to keep in mind.

In summary, when clients first think about smart buildings, they often think about using the latest and most exciting technology. However, before jumping right in and purchasing this technology (because there’s plenty out there), take a step back and ask yourself

• What will make this building smart?
• What is our goal and vision for the end product?

Spending a lot of time upfront in this vision and discovery process will help to ensure you embark on the right path. Build your team at this stage, with the right people, get them on board and make them a part of the process. Once you and your team are aligned on the details, plan and plot the journey, and remember it’s more than purchasing a piece of the latest technology; it’s making a commitment to change, but the benefits can be great.