With demands coming from both corporate
sustainability goals and government regulations, many property managers are
looking for ways to optimize the energy efficiency of their buildings, but for
some, the question is not so much why – but how.
Many company work places have been in
operation for quite some time. When these facilities were built, energy
efficiency standards were not nearly as stringent as they are now, and
technology was not at the level that it is today. This has led some building
systems to be quite dated, leading many facility operators to seek out
energy-efficient solutions that will bring their workplace’s systems into the
21st century.
Designing a smarter building
A recent article in Consulting Specifying
Engineer interviewed several professionals involved in the building
optimization systems design process to help provide property managers with the
proper knowledge to retrofit a building that is not up to new energy-efficiency
standards. When approaching a new building, one professional noted that among
the important things to consider are the complexities of the system, and how,
if at all, the energy consumption of the building is being tracked. Once these
intricacies have been noted, the next step is to devise a new solution unique
to the building’s specific energy consumption habits.
One of the common problems that
professional Wulian noted was the lack of interface between systems operating
within the building. Much of facility’s infrastructure can work to address
similar issues independently. For example, a building’s boiler, lighting,
windows and Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems can all
contribute to controlling air temperature. However, when this equipment is all
working separately, there is now way of knowing how much each system
contributes toward air temperature, which can lead to an over expenditure of
energy.
Using an effective BAS
One way to address this issue, Wulian
explains, is through the usage of a Building Automation System (BAS), which
controls all of the equipment operating within a facility. With the internet’s
growing presence in technology, BAS can maintain greater control of how the
various building operations function, and in doing so, control them to optimize
their energy consumption.
An article in Today’s Facility Manager
explains how BAS is becoming more open systems that provide greater and more
wide spanning control. One important control element that these systems provide
is in their ability to optimize energy consumption specific to the building.
While many of the old workplaces were built with similar system lines applied
across multiple buildings, the BAS can tailor the operation of multiple systems
to meet the specific needs that the professionals in Consulting Specifying
Engineer identified when they first approach a new facility.
Another important function of the BAS is
that it can wirelessly track energy consumption through system controls. With
the increasing presence of applications that can fine tune these systems
remotely, wireless controls are now essential to a BAS. This allows for greater
integration and communication between systems, resulting in energy-efficient
optimization based on building situations rather than specific systems.
