Sustainable buildings


Time for lights, heaters, action


The war on energy consumption in buildings begins with changing behaviour. But, writes Mike Scott, it is the technological solutions that lock in energy savings permanently which provide the quickest returns


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uildings are responsible for more than 40% of UK emissions, so they will be an integral part of efforts to decarbonise the


economy. Energy prices in the UK are set to increase and businesses that previously did not worry too much about their energy costs are finding they need to focus more on the issue as a result of the Carbon Reduction Commitment. As a result, landlords are seeing a clear demand for greener buildings from tenants, both because of their reputational benefits and as a way to reduce long-term energy, water, and waste costs, and to mitigate their financial risks associated with rising energy prices and other utility costs.


The war on energy consumption in buildings can be fought on a number of fronts. It starts with behavioural change – ensuring that people turn off lights and computers when they go home, that they do not turn on the heating and then open windows and other common sense measures. Such efforts will only go so far, though and they require constant reinforcement. It is far more effective to implement techno- logical solutions that lock in energy savings per- manently and perform these functions automat- ically. Many of these will be low- or no-cost solutions that provide rapid payback. The obvi- ous targets for energy saving in commercial buildings are heating, cooling and lighting. In lighting, which can account for up to 30% of energy usage in commercial buildings, European standards are leading to the phase-out of incandescent lighting and encouraging its replacement with more efficient CFL and LED technology, which can cut emissions by up to 70%. However, “the majority of the savings associated with lighting come from controls rather than the intrinsic efficiency of the prod- uct,” says Steve Barker, head of energy efficiency and environmental care at Siemens Industry. “A lamp turned off is the most efficient one of all.”


Heating, cooling and lighting are the obvious targets for energy saving in commercial buildings


The installation of a building management system (BMS) can be used to integrate the differ- ent building services including heating, cooling, lighting, fire and security systems. This elimi- nates the conflict of separate systems. Data from electricity, water and gas meters can also be mon- itored using the BMS. This gives the building owner or user a single source of information on how their building is functioning, enabling them to implement improvement strategies. However, a BMS is not a “fit and forget” solution. “Improperly configured systems can actually increase consumption,” says energy efficiency consultant at Siemens Industry, Luke Dale. “Whereas a correctly configured and maintained system can offer energy savings of up to 30%.” Key to this is using high quality, accurate sen- sor technology for temperature, humidity and air quality says Ian Ellis of Siemens Building Technologies and President of the Building Controls Industry Association. This informa- tion can be used to control systems on demand. For example an air quality reading can be used to determine if a meeting room is occupied, if not the lighting can be turned off and the heating set- point reduced. The sensor data can also be linked to an automated monitoring and targeting sys-


06 | Sustainable Business | Green works | September 2010


tem (AM&T). AM&T allows building occu- pants to identify and explain changes in energy use, draw energy consumption trends, diagnose specific areas of wasted energy, develop perform- ance targets for energy management pro- grammes and manage their energy consumption. AM&T measures performance within the building, but there will be overlaps with devel- opments in the wider power system. The Government has mandated a roll-out of smart meters, starting in 2012, which will enable two- way communication between customers and energy suppliers. This will make it easier for businesses to produce their own energy and either use it themselves or feed it into the grid and it will bring fiscal metering and sub-meter- ing into play, says Martin Pollock of the meter- ing services business at Siemens Energy. Companies with multiple sites such as restau- rant chains will be able to compare one site with another and share best practice while the distri- bution networks will get greater visibility about what is happening on the system. This will enable them to manage the networks better and to incorporate new generation sources. “At some point, all the buildings, electric vehi- cles, smart homes and other developments have to connect into the electricity network,” says Colin Henry, of the transmission and distribu- tion business at Siemens Energy. “The smart grid is about the ability to manage and interact with all of these smart nodes. The smart grid will have to develop as all of these other sectors advance.” Buildings will go from being “dumb” recipi- ents of energy to being active participants in the system and this will create new opportunities, new pricing structures and new business models as yet unknown. And in the same way that ener- gy savings in individual buildings are much greater if a systematic approach is taken, the entire network will benefit from the aggregation of opportunities from different sites.


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