ENERGY SAVING
Energy efficiency of UK offices
Michael Ainley, managing director of Frenger looks at how the Australian NABERS can be applied tp commercial projects in the UK.
C
ommercial buildings typically undergo many changes over the course of their lives. Tenants will come and go, and every
new occupant will have their own ideas on the setup and working environment. The building owner or operator will need an HVAC system that can offer long term flexibility on top of long-term energy savings. However, the way we approach building design in the UK makes it difficult to achieve optimum energy efficiency during a building’s lifetime. This is due to our Building Regulations focus primarily on the design and technology that improves predicted building performance, instead of achieving directly measurable improvements in the buildings performance – measuring the actual energy usage, not a predicted/estimated usage.
However, when it comes to energy efficiency in
buildings, our Australian counter parts have been a step ahead of us for some time. The ‘NABERS’
18 February 2021
(National Australian Built Environment Rating System) introduced and implemented since the turn of the 21st century, is a performance-based rating system for buildings. A NABERS rating for a building is based on a methodical assessment of the actual environmental impact of operating it and has allowed buildings and workplaces in Australia to achieve impressive environmental savings. In particular, Australia’s method of
incorporating the simulation of HVAC systems and controls at the design stage of a building is something that really helps the drive towards lower building emissions. Frenger has already supplied a number of projects in Australia with its chilled beam solutions such as Daramu House, Barangaroo which is one of the most sustainable buildings to date (5-Star plus NABERS energy rating and a 6 Green Star – As Design and Built rating from the Green Building Council of Australia).
Therefore, Frenger amongst other energy
efficient HVAC solutions manufacturers should welcome the recent launch in the UK of NABERS as a new scheme for measuring the energy efficiency of UK offices to create better transparency in the market as it will help to tackle the performance gap between theoretical design and verified performance when the building is occupied, based on measurable performance outcomes, to ensure new office developments deliver on their design intent. Daramu House is a timber commercial office which is within Australia’s first carbon neutral precinct which includes many low energy and sustainable features including our Radiant Passive chilled beams. This new rating system can be used to
demonstrate whether offices are on a Net Zero Carbon trajectory and provide investors and occupiers with the confidence that the buildings they own and occupy are aligned with their
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