Finding engaging ways to communicate electricity consumption is a crucial part of the solution when it comes to reducing energy use in buildings. Ian Shellard, senior associate at carbon reduction company Sustain, shows how technology, combined with expert advice, can help achieve this.
Increasing legislative pressure on organisations to cut carbon is here to stay. As the coalition Government formalises its plans and fuel costs look set to rise, it's clear that organisations will need to build better carbon management into their operations. Many larger businesses are now responding to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) early action metric by installing improved automatic meter reading. The early action metric rewards organisations that voluntarily take steps to improve their energy management before they join the scheme. While this is a big step forward, it's equally important to ensure that investments in energy monitoring technology deliver information of sufficient quality and clarity so they can be of real value to the building manager.
One of the biggest challenges faced by any building manager is that they have to work within the constraints of occupying an existing building rather than having the luxury of designing a new building featuring low carbon technologies. Ways to influence the energy consumption of an existing building are limited to how the physical systems perform and how users interact with these systems.
Technological improvements can increase the efficiency of systems, but influencing user behaviour over the long term is trickier. If occupiers are to be inspired to do things differently, they need to understand the effects of their current behaviour. Building managers must gather good quality evidence so they have this information at their fingertips and can easily demonstrate the cost and carbon impact of maintaining optimal levels of building performance.
This is where detailed automatic monitoring comes into play. Internet based monitoring systems provide comprehensive information to help better manage buildings and ensure they are performing efficiently. They can do this by identifying and recording energy used in every aspect of a building's daily function, such as heating, air conditioning, lighting and IT systems.
However, installing this monitoring equipment is just the first step. Having the ability to analyse the information to identify trends in energy use is as important. At Sustain, our Building Optimisation service does just that. Our support team works alongside building managers to interpret and analyse on-going building performance and help develop the best approach to begin tackling both system improvement and communication with users of the building.
This advice is built on detailed information gathered from unobtrusive sensors throughout the building which are connected to an operations centre via a wired or wireless internet connection. These sensors monitor utility use on a continuous and real-time basis. Importantly, they do so at a high level of granularity - every 6 seconds if required - which produces more detailed information than relying on standard half hourly meter readings. Every organisation will have different needs in terms of how the information is presented. Some users need to see detailed engineering information while others simply need to know if the building is performing well or not. The presentation of this material can be customised according to individual requirements.
Once it's clear where energy is being used within the building, it's crucial that a strategy is introduced that meets the needs and reflects the behaviour of its occupants. This should be an ongoing process rather than a quick fix - there will always be peaks and troughs in energy use, depending in part on the seasons, and these trends need to be monitored closely. Ongoing analysis of data is also important if an organisation is to establish the behaviour patterns of occupants and whether incentives designed to change behaviour are working.
In our experience, sharing the information from the monitoring system with employees can be hugely empowering. Once people can see the hard facts and figures showing energy used and wasted, they are much more likely to engage with efficiency incentives. Making sure this information remains relevant to the user is of equal importance.
In tandem with behaviour change mechanisms, there are of course a raft of other physical measures to be considered such as improved lighting, insulation or controls, all the way through to installing renewable energy measures, such as solar photovoltaic panels. Having access to advice from our experts helps managers judge each solution on its unique merits, for example the age of a building, its size, design and usage will determine which technologies are most suitable. Being able to accurately assess the impact of improvement measures in real time is also a great help in proving technological merit and building confidence in a solution, for example, through a closely monitored pilot scheme.
Bringing together ongoing analysis with a detailed automatic monitoring system means operational issues or faults can be identified quickly. For example, if a thermostat is reporting an incorrect temperature, even by one or two degrees, this could have a big impact on the heating system's efficiency, which could increase heating fuel consumption by as much as 10 per cent. Setting up an exception monitoring regime, which flags up unusual conditions for immediate action, will also safeguard against undetected issues causing long term problems.
It's easy to focus on legislation as the key driver in reducing energy use in buildings. While this is clearly an important factor, improving how a building is monitored and controlled will benefit productivity as well. Providing employees with a comfortable environment is a priority for any responsible manager, and surveys of office workers show that office conditions, including heating and lighting, have an effect on performance and enjoyment of the working day.
Optimising building performance will continue to move up the agenda for many organisations. Accurate and detailed monitoring is an essential tool in equipping managers with information so they can get a full understanding of how the building works. But this is only part of the solution. Analysis of the data and expert advice is a crucial part of the process as that will ensure the right decisions on new policies and technologies are made. The end result is an energy efficient and productive working environment - and that has to be a win/win situation.
