Whether your organisation’s energy estate is large or small, there is one thing that is certain, the types of buildings you occupy will influence the way you should manage its energy.
A building’s design and construction will affect its energy consumption performance. There are several varying characteristics to consider when looking at maximising the efficiency of energy use, these include:
In this blog our Energy Consultant, Juan Garcia, focuses on four building types that are predominantly impacted by these characteristics, giving an overview of each, and offer a few opportunities for maximising their energy efficiency.
Overview
If your business has listed or period buildings, they will usually have solid walls and a pitched roof. Typically, these types of buildings have a high thermal mass, low levels of insulation, single or double glazing, natural ventilation and high ceilings.
Opportunities for improvement
It is worth remembering if the building is listed, there will be restrictions on any alterations that affect the external appearance, internal fabric, character, or special interest of the building. Your local planning department or conservation officer will be able to advise you.
Overview
Like period properties, most of these buildings are of brick construction, either cavity or solid wall. There is a lot of variation, but they tend to have low levels of wall and roof insulation.
Opportunities for improvement
Due to their solid design and construction, properties from this period tend to be more efficient so there are fewer opportunities to improve their efficiency. However, there are a few changes we recommend investigating:
Overview
Buildings constructed from the 1990s onwards benefited from the updated Building Regulations standards, meaning they were built with a certain level of insulation. Many will be cavity wall construction, or have curtain walling, and double glazing.
Depending on the layout or design, some properties will have an atrium where stratification of the heat may occur. Unless the property has been built or significantly refurbished in the last 5 years, the lighting will most likely be fluorescent.
Opportunities for improvement
Overview
High rise buildings usually have large areas of glazing. Whilst they look impressive from the outside, these buildings can perform quite poorly in energy efficiency terms. Glass has a much higher rate of heat loss than an insulated wall (up to 10 times higher).
Most buildings have a deep plan layout which limits natural ventilation; meaning more energy is used for mechanical ventilation. Cooling systems are then relied upon to maintain internal temperature during the hotter months. Buildings like these also tend to have high solar heat gains due to the large proportion of windows.
Opportunities for improvement
As you can see there is no one solution for improving a building’s energy efficiency. Every building type will have different efficiency issues and will need to be assessed individually to find the most cost-effective solutions for improvement.
Some simple ways to start are by reducing your energy use through air conditioning by replacing it with natural or mechanical ventilation and the use of night and free cooling. Additionally, investing in LED lighting and looking to adopt readily accessible renewable solutions such as PV or ground cooling. Finally, accepting a wider range of temperatures in your buildings will really help to reduce your consumption, and bring down your costs.
If you would like to make energy efficiency improvements to your organisation’s property portfolio, our experienced energy consultants can carry out a comprehensive survey, provide valuable insights and propose a number of recommendations to suit your business. Interested? Contact us or call us now on 01908 690018.