REDUCING CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS.

Julian Miller, Director of AEC highlights how increased energy efficiency should have a net benefit on a business’ bottom line.

Greater efficiency by definition is only achieved if a process is being delivered at a lower input (cost), or more is being produced for the same input. In other words a way has been found to get more for less, business utopia?

This is just how the approach to “energy efficiency” and reducing C02 emissions should be viewed, how is it possible to achieve the same net result for less energy input? The answer is often much simpler than you may think.

Take the heating or chilling of commercial buildings for example and think about how much energy is wasted in this process, and how it may be possible to improve the efficiency of this daily process? What we need to achieve is delivery the same heating or chilling effect for less energy input and ensure that the cost for delivering the improvement is lower than the energy saving benefit.

Most large commercial buildings have a building energy management system (BEMS) of some type that is controlling the main heating and chilling plant. The question that needs answering is this; is the BEMS controlling the plant efficiently and not wasting energy? Even without a BEMS improvements in energy efficiency are often easily achieved.

It may come as a surprise that to find out that virtually every commercial building is wasting at least 20% of its heating and cooling energy, and in some cases considerably more.

The answer is almost always yes, however it really depends on what is deemed to be a reasonable pay back period to recoup any energy saving investment. The longer the acceptable time the greater the opportunity, however a target of between one and two years is very reasonable.

The cost of delivering the savings need not be high, just by scrutinising the control strategy of a BEMS it is normally possible to identify considerable opportunities for savings without the need for any costly or complex works.

At a very simplistic level ensure that the systems are not operating needlessly when no one is in the building, at nights or the weekend for example, by checking the time settings. It shouldn’t cost you anything and think of the potential savings if your boilers have been running all weekend for the past year!

At a more complex level there are many ways of improving efficiency by ensuring that sequencers and compensators are set up correctly. Certainly it may cost a bit to identify and deliver these improvements in efficiency of the system, but these costs should pay back quickly in reduced fuel bills.