Yesterday, 28th June 2018, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) released its report on how the UK is reducing emissions. Despite an overall 3% reduction, the results are said to be ‘propped up’ by the power sector which is ‘masking a worrying trend in other sectors’. Lord Debden says, “In this report, we refer to the ‘uneven’ balance of emissions reduction, a polite way of drawing attention to Government inaction in a host of areas. This can’t go on.”
Attention is given to a number of other sectors beyond the power industry, notably buildings. Obviously, due to data availability and knowledge, residential buildings account for the majority of content in this report. However, it states ‘progress is harder to track in public and commercial buildings, due to the huge variation in building type and lack of consistent datasets covering all buildings’.
The finding that not much progress is being made in commercial property is not a surprise. This is consistent with the InnovateUK findings two years ago which showed that even in a sample of 50 new buildings they emitted, on average, 3.8x more carbon than the design estimates used for Building Regulations. For us, at Demand Logic, we understand this all too well. Perhaps it is because buildings are stationary, non-moving entities mean we don’t connect with or ‘see’ the emissions that they release. They are said to be ‘hidden factories’ with equally hidden systems and environmental data, with most of us using them without being aware of their ‘polluting’ habits.
The statement about variations in datasets is also unsurprising. It is possible with new Building Systems Analytics to benchmark operational performance on a normalised basis. Getting data from ‘behind’ the energy meter provides more useful insight for the property manager. The League Table below shows comparable KPIs for energy, comfort and maintenance effectiveness across a range of commercial properties. There are a number of industry efforts to gain a consistent and clear reporting framework. This hunt for transparency should take advantage of the latest data technology, which can now connect live portfolio performance reporting with the ability to track the impact of specific actions to reduce energy consumption, using the same data set. The reporting and standards debate must be broadened to incorporate other available data in addition to energy meters, as this will make it more relevant to overall property management.
Equally, benchmarking against a standard or comparator buildings provides targets to aim for, and motivates the marketplace to achieve. There is so much existing data hidden in buildings that could be used to reduce carbon emissions. Energy meter data is a starting point, but the Internet of Things now makes it possible to easily gather data from the equipment, which is actually using the energy, and other sensors, which tell you whether the equipment is operating successfully or not. A meter will tell you that you had high consumption half-an-hour ago or last month. Building Systems Analytics will tell you right now whether a commercial boiler is operating out-of-hours or a fan coil units (FCU) is over-cooling an office and causing a commercial chiller, air-handling unit and several pumps to operate much harder than needed. A building manager can act on that information today to avoid energy waste and high carbon emissions. The monthly energy meter report can then confirm that savings have been made and use this evidence for transparent reporting.
In a sample of 100 properties, which we monitored live, we found that approximately one quarter of these properties had at least 40% of their major energy consuming equipment (i.e. massive boilers chillers, etc.) running out-of-hours and overnight wasting energy and contributing to emissions unnecessarily. A year ago, for a similar sample, this figure was 50%.
There are a number of sustainability leaders in the property sector who are using Building Systems Analytics to improve the performance of their portfolio. Incorporating this data intelligence into the day-to-day operation of their properties. The results are significant, with energy reductions of at least 10% in their properties who were already top performers. These energy reductions have gone hand-in-hand with improved comfort for the people in the building, measured by a significant reduction (>50%) in the number of complaints about being too hot/cold.
There is plenty that facilities and property managers can do to cut emissions quickly before resorting to renewable energy sources (although this should be considered). Automation in terms of data collection, monitoring and analysis simplify the process allowing direct access and insight into any building’s energy use and wastage. If the leading property company, who set the standard for sustainability, can reduce at least 10% of their energy consumption, then how much more can the majority of property managers achieve? We know that 30% is possible.
The UK Government has invested heavily in residential smart meters. Demand Logic would call on the CCC and Government to look more closely at the technology now available for Building System Analytics, which is essentially super-smart meter software for commercial property. The technology is as easy to install as a domestic smart meter and the savings are equivalent to hundreds of homes and doesn’t care if you change suppliers, so worthy of consideration alongside the domestic smart meter programme.
