Digital Extra Property Management Select
Saving money needn’t be rocket science
away on unnecessary fuel bills. Please don’t stop reading just because
I
every energy company and its dog is telling you about saving energy at present. It’s simple, it’s easy, it can result in much kudos for you, and a much improved bottom line for your company. You can have all this – but you have to read on.
Operational engineering Most experts in building services will tell you that they can save 20% of a building’s energy without raising a sweat. How? By simple operational engineering. The problem is that most building owners or operators don’t believe them. They have usually already had energy audits or surveys and left the resulting reports gathering dust on a shelf. Why? “They wanted me to invest and the
payback was three years – no way.” Or: “I’ve seen those bits of kit they suggested before – they never work.” or perhaps: “It sounded great but who was going to do all the set up?” You may have said similar things in the
past, but don’t be fooled. The way to minimise your energy use is often nothing to do with new kit or fancy designs, it’s about identifying simple problems with what you’ve got now – and putting them right – it’s that simple!
The reality I can imagine your scepticism at this point, if it was that easy surely everyone would already have done it. Well the ‘save £32,000 in a single building, every year, for a one-off cost of £8,000’ example is from real life. A well maintained reasonably efficient
air conditioned central London office block required a Display Energy Certificate (DEC). The occupiers and the owners of a building they felt to be ‘pretty green’
f you were offered the chance to save £32,000 in a single building, every year, for a one-off cost of £8,000 you would have to take it. An unlikely scenario? Not if you know how much money you are throwing
With a compelling case study, Jacqueline Balian director of information at the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers shows how to save some serious money.
were horrified at the result, which was a much worse grade than they had been expecting. The building also needed an air conditioning report as it had an AC system over 250kW rated output (from January 2011 every A/C system above 12kW must have been inspected.) Now the organisation occupying this building had some canny managers. They recognised that there is a huge variety of people out there offering energy assessment and air conditioning inspection services, they come from a wide range of backgrounds and have equally widely varying levels of competence. So they went for an inspector accredited by CIBSE (The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) which admits only those with real competence and experience to its register. You can access the CIBSE ‘Find an energy assessor’ site at:
www.cibseenergycentre.co.uk / assessors /
find-an-energy-assessor.html This offers access to air conditioning
inspectors and low carbon energy assessors who can provide the air conditioning inspections, DECs and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) required under the Energy Performance in Buildings Regulations, as well as to low carbon consultants who provide a wide range of energy advisory services, including help with meeting the British Standard for Energy Management.
Appropriate and effective The air conditioning assessor they used subsequently won an award for the quality of his work at the ‘Low Carbon Performance Awards’ not because what he did was fearfully complicated, but because it was simple, appropriate and
58 l Property Management Select l September 2010 l
www.pm-select.co.uk
effective. So what did he do? He reviewed the building’s
“The way to minimise your energy use is often nothing to do with new kit or fancy designs, it’s about identifying simple problems with what you’ve got now – and putting them right – it’s that simple!” Jacqueline Balian, director of information at the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers.
maintenance. He pointed out missing or defective control valves, dampers, lagging etc. He reviewed the Building Management System set points (ie made sure the heating and cooling weren’t on at the same time as they are in a large majority of buildings). He made the building occupants happier by turning down the air flow volumes and stopping the system dumping large quantities of cold air on certain unfortunate members of staff. And he went on doing that all around the building and found the following savings: - 549,881kW hours energy per year; - 238 tonnes carbon dioxide per year; - £32,642 in energy cost over a year; All for a spend of just £8,200. The
adoption of these modifications would result in a 9.9% reduction of this building’s energy load and had a major impact on its DEC rating.
Not rocket science It is not rocket science and it doesn’t cost much but if you are likely to be caught by the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, The EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the Energy Performance in Buildings Regulations (shortly to be updated and tightened up a notch) or Part L of the Building Regulation (also due to ratchet up a few points in October) or by carbon budgets or even if you just need to save money, then don’t let the easy wins pass you by. Go out and commission an Air
Conditioning Inspection today. Web:
www.cibseenergycentre.co.uk
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