SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE
Integration, control and monitoring
The energy requirements of buildings in the EU account for around 40% of total energy use, and of this, the most significant portion is attributable to air conditioning and climate control. As a result, any improvements in this area represent the primary source of energy savings and consequently a reduction in running costs of buildings, increasing their value as application manager Andrea Pagan of Carel explains.
L
aws have already been introduced to incentivise building renovations, however too often these favour passive energy efficiency actions,
involving for example the exterior envelope and the windows, or the use of more efficient equipment. Unfortunately, there are still too few active
energy efficiency measures, such as the introduction of solutions for system integration, control and monitoring. Optimising the overall operation of the entire system, from production and distribution right up to the terminal units, is the main way that energy savings can be increased in a building. The latest revisions to the EPBD by the European Commission are also clearly aimed at considering automation and control systems as key technologies for achieving an effective reduction in building energy consumption. Not only is it important to lower the need for thermal energy, but it is also essential to identify the building’s profiles of use, in order to match the requirements of the building to those of the systems. This applies to new buildings, where there is a very low or almost zero energy requirement, and the designer has neither any margin nor reasons to improve the building’s energy performance beyond the values defined by regulations. The attention therefore shifts from the design to the operation of the building-system, with the dual purpose of limiting the deviation in the building’s energy performance from the optimal values defined in the
24 May 2020
design stage, and reducing the expected operating costs, taking advantage of renewable energy sources as much as possible. This applies even more so to existing buildings, which, in Italy for example, account for the majority of all properties. Indeed, 2/3 of these will still be in use after 2050. In these cases, energy redevelopment of existing
buildings is required to achieve the results in relation to the climate-neutral objectives envisaged by European directives.
So just how cost-effective is the installation of
solutions for system integration and monitoring? According to a study by the DECARB EUROPE Initiative (
www.decarbeurope.org), in Europe the adoption of appropriate systems for automation, control and supervision of existing buildings can bring a reduction in energy consumption of between 22% and 30%, for an investment ranging from €
12/m2 in residential buildings to € 30/m2 in the tertiary sector, in any case corresponding to return on investment of no longer than five years. A low- cost solution, which is easy to implement yet has a significant great impact.
What are the reference regulations? The reference standard in this area is EN15232- 1:2017, which is the main set of guidelines for correctly assessing the effects of automation: Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS), whether these operate alone, controlling individual systems, or interact with each other in the context of a Building Energy Management System (BEMS), can ensure the desired thermal comfort and air quality conditions, while at the same time consuming less energy and therefore reducing energy bills. They in fact guarantee the operating conditions and expected energy consumption and comfort
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