Most buildings can achieve a four star NABERS energy rating without a major retrofit – they just need to be maintained and fine tuned.
There are a number of ways that building owners and tenants can significantly reduce a building’s energy consumption.
Remember that every building is different and some of these items may not be applicable to every project – seek advice from a qualified building practitioner before making any system changes.
General
- Track the building’s energy consumption by putting bill data into a spreadsheet. This will allow tracking of overall usage and the effectiveness of energy efficiency measures.
- Inform service providers that energy efficiency is being actively pursued in the building. They can often give suggestions for improvements or change their practices to improve efficiency. Consider incentives or penalties based on the way they affect energy consumption in the building.
- Review the building management system and correct any anomalies. Are there times when boilers and chillers are providing heating and cooling simultaneously, for example? Additional monitoring equipment or smart meters may be required for a full analysis.
- Consider a full retro-commissioning of the building’s systems. Systems can drift away from their design intent over time, and retro-commissioning can find and fix many inefficiencies.
- Consider painting the roof white to off-set the heat-island effect. See how New York is making this work.
Air conditioning
- Consider raising or lowering air conditioning set points, depending on the season. Many buildings try to maintain 22.5°C all year round. Allowing 24°C in summer and 21°C in winter can result in significant energy savings as the air conditioning system won’t have to work as hard.
- Review the air conditioning requirements of server and communications rooms. Many are maintained at 20°C around the clock when they may not need to be – check with the building’s facility manager, IT staff or equipment suppliers to see if higher temperatures are acceptable.
- Check plant running schedules to ensure things aren’t running longer than they need to. Does air conditioning need to start at 6am or can it start later? Is it running on weekends or holidays when the building isn’t occupied?
- Where possible, make it standard practice to replace items of plant with higher-efficiency models rather than like for like when they burn out. Like for like is often the default option, even though a more efficient alternative may be available.
Lighting and IT
- Replace standard incandescent light globes with compact fluorescent bulbs.
- Ensure lights are turned off at night and consider timers or other automated systems to do this.
- Turn computers off at night.
- Introduce green measures into the tenancy fitout procedures for the base building so that new tenants consider energy efficiency immediately when they move into the building.
Management
- Ensure tenants are included in energy efficiency upgrades and keep them informed of changes and performance. Consider disclosing the building’s NABERS ratings to them – research suggests this can inspire them to reduce their energy and water consumption.
- Ensure the building managers and tenants are trained in energy efficient building operation. Changes are often ineffective if the building users don’t know how to operate or maintain them.
- If it’s not already, consider at least partially in-sourcing building management to allow for closer monitoring and greater input.