How are you tackling energy efficiency in your building?

All talk and no action? Everyone is on the energy saving bandwagon right now…or at least everyone knows they ought to be…However, there’s a big difference between talking about lowering energy usage and actively doing it.

As I have touched upon previously, with the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) now in full force, the commercial pressure and motivation is now very high for landlords who need to improve their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating to ‘E” or above to be able to let out buildings – this has very much tipped the balance between ‘talk’ and ‘action’.

Even if you are not directly impacted by the MEES legislation, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about the energy consumption levels buildings. We all have a role to play in reducing carbon emissions to help the environment and when all added together, even minor changes can make a significant improvement. The aggregation of marginals?

My advice is to tackle energy reduction now.

Energy reduction is easier to address when action is taken to continuously monitor, manage and control energy usage and iron issues out rather turn a blind eye and let energy consumption take control of you…

Savvy building owners and managers are taking this in hand to ensure their buildings are benefiting from innovative and intelligent controls that are well engineered to enhance energy efficiency.

Here is a great example from the recent winners of the BCIA Energy Management Award – Portal Building Controls, for their London School of Economics Energy Refit. LSE targeted a 54% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 and as such established a Carbon Management Plan to tackle this.

Portal Building Controls enhanced the control and efficiency of numerous systems by designing and implementing energy control measures. One of the key aspects was serial communication to all HVAC plant, solar PV (photovoltaics) and energy metering. This provided a full picture of energy consumption which identified where improvements and savings could be made.

With energy usage clearly visible, an innovative new strategy was implemented to optimise the data collected and as a result, plant was upgraded which led to an improvement in occupants’ satisfaction thanks to a greater element of control over their working environment. Furthermore, the first upgrade programme is currently saving 1500 tonnes of CO2 yearly which translates into upwards of £230,000 per annum in energy savings.

This is a terrific example of just one of many organisations achieving substantial energy reductions, as well as improving the wellbeing of building occupants. So, our collective challenge then, is to raise awareness of the benefits of installing building controls and ensuring they are set up correctly. Furthermore, without creating unnecessary alarm, we must also promote the importance of ensuring buildings are operating at optimum efficiency to meet energy saving targets. This is demonstrated by the MEES statistics which identifies that many commercial buildings are falling short of the standard, while the shortfall in getting buildings operating at the required levels of energy consumption is significant and a very big opportunity…

With skilled and knowledgeable engineers at our disposal, we are well positioned to to share this message and offer professional guidance to help building owners, managers and landlords tackle energy efficiency and achieve the required savings.

These are great opportunities for the building controls sector and for building owners, managers and landlords, so, let’s continue to jointly embrace this, remain one step ahead of the game to help meet these efficiency targets, whatever the motive.