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  Energy efficiency in new builds
  (7 posts)

• EnergyHero said 5 months, 2 weeks ago:

  Hi all

  I am looking to find out what extent new builds are taking energy efficiency into account during the early planning stages? It seems that new builds are typically insulated and double glazed, solar energy is utilised and efficient lighting is installed. However, one area that is often overlooked is the amount of energy consumed by the electronic equipment used in new buildings. Does anyone know of any new builds that have taken energy consumption of electronic equipment into account?

• Graeme Robertson said 5 months, 1 week ago:

  Hi
  It very much depends on the industry sector. We have knowledge of new builds in the hospitality sector and manufacturing, and performance is usually the key driver, although not always.

  Most new equipment is inherantly more efficient than old equipment, and the business case on a new build usually stacks up. Business cases for a retro fit, more often than not, can be lengthy, so usually it is a case of replace as equipment breaks.

  Most organisations will look at performance first, and then efficiency. If a more efficient piece of equipment takes longer to do what it is meant to do, they will nearly always go with the less efficient equipment.

  PV installations are going to becom less prevalant, as the FITS are reduced, and I suspect you will only see installations as part of planning demands on new builds, which will see the very minimum PV array installed.

• EnergyHero said 5 months, 1 week ago:

  That’s interesting to know, thanks Graeme. Voltage optimisation and cutting energy costs within new builds is the sector of the market we are looking to expand into, so I am therefore eager to know whether energy efficient measures are considered in the planning stages of new builds. Like you say, new equipment is inherently more efficient than old, but in fact, voltage optimisation works particularly well with older equipment as it lowers the operating voltage to more accordingly match the electrical start up of equipment, and on the plus side it also reduces maintenance costs.

• Graeme Robertson said 5 months ago:

  Most new builds will look to energy efficiency at design time, however as I said it will depend on the type of operation as to how far they push this.

  We have numerous examples of energy efficient equipment, that costs 4 times as much as standard, so it will depend on how deep the organisations pockets are, and how much they really care about emmissions etc.

  Voltage Optimisation has its place, and there are lengthy arguments on this forum about the effectiveness, however on a new build, it will be difficult to build a case for it, because of the reason you state, and also, because you do not know the site voltage, and voltage drop across the site at design time.

  I would say that if you are getting involved at design time, you need to look at tailoring a check list according to industry sector. There are other technologies out there with better paybacks than VO, but will only work under certain load conditions, but design time is the ideal time to look at them. Different industries will be suited to different solutions, and some are suited to more than one, so it really depends on where you see your core market sector.

• EnergyHero said 4 months, 1 week ago:

  With a growing client list whom have achieved significant energy and carbon savings, there is no doubt that voltage optimisation is an effective energy management tool.

  As for gathering site voltage information, looking at the amount of energy consumed by the electronic equipment likely to be used in new buildings is one way in which we will determine expected savings. This way we will be able to specifically highlight the contribution that voltage optimisation can make to cutting energy costs within new builds. Our manufacturing process involves analysing site specification and characteristics and then building on this.

  With case studies across a variety of industries, we will indeed be tailoring a check list according to industry sector. We believe one major selling point for new builds is the high accreditation ratings in the ever important LEED and BREEAM sustainable measurement systems that VO will bring, hence making VO a vital solution for new builds.

• David W said 3 months, 2 weeks ago:

  If I may add my twopenny worth. We are running two developments at the moment here, one commercial and one residential. You are right Graeme, each has a different requirement.Yes all the houses are insulated / glazed to conform to level 3 and some (particularly the apartments) have PV as a stipulation by the local authority. However beyond that is pure speculation. We have no idea as to what loadings our residents might impose. The thought of installing any form of energy efficiency kit would find us out of pocket because this sort of thing just doesn’t make the average punter salivate!

  On the commercial side we are about to run a pilot for VO on our old building. If the results are favourable we will possibly make provision for it in the new build. The problem here is that though the new building is far more energy efficient and attains BREEAM ’Very Good’, our board has it fixed in their minds that that means cheaper to run! With chilled beams and all the chillers on the roof they could be in for a disappointment. I had toyed with installing 49kWh of PV to get in under the 50kWh cut off, but now I am not so sure. We are probably about a year too late for that one! Being in a conservation area the local authority were unwilling for us to erect a wind turbine – even if we had wanted to, so they moderated their 20% renewables by a vast margin! Interestingly while they wanted PV on the residential, there was no suggestion we should push the PV side on the commercial.

  One further area I have been researching on the commercial build is smart switching to cut power to peripherals over night. The issue here is that while people might power down their PC’s, they never switch off the monitor or any of the printers / photocopiers – that it appears is somebody else’s job.

• Robin Hale said 1 month, 4 weeks ago:

  Are there any views on the new buildings regulations consultation (click here) particularly around part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power), seeing that extensions to non-domestic buildings will trigger consequential improvements?

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