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Engineering Energy Efficiency
Issue 32 - Jul 07
With commercial buildings responsible for up to 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, RFP asks the experts about the role of building energy ratings.
The UK government have decided that the best way to confront the issue of building energy usage is leglislate that all buildings will have a Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) that assesses the capability of the building to be energy efficient. But questions have been raised about this move, with many asking if a mandated approach is best and if the rating system chosen is suitable. With Asian governments also tackling environmental issues, will the UK set a precedent to be followed?
emerging concept
In the words of John Seller, General Manager, Optegy,“I’ve been around this business since 1979. I’ve been highly focused on energy since then, and it’s just gotten sexy.” Having been around that long, Seller views the rising awareness of energy issues and reactions by governments such as the UK with some reservations, saying he’s not convinced that when knee-jerk reactions happen, the right things get done. “It’s a little bit over the top”, he says, adding that “Processes that are market driven gain acceptance at a greater rate than process that are mandated”.
However, Seller does believe that energy rating systems are needed across Asian markets. “One of the things is as building owner you might not know if you have an efficient building or not.” he says. Environmental certifications such as LEED or HK-BEAM can help tenants to identify a building’s capabilities, but the difficulty is that “There’s not a pure indicator of efficiency because some buildings have high security requirements, some have an extraordinarily high upkeep, or run 24/7.”
energy culture
One thing that is vital for success of any rating system, says Seller, is to take account of cultural sensitivities in Asia. He draws the example of reporting standards, noting that in some countries, these will be meticulous where in others “People won’t realise what they need to report, which will skew the numbers.” Another issue is acceptable levels of lighting, for many countries
mandated lighting is 320 lux, whereas finding any levels below 500 lux in Hong Kong, for example, is unlikely.
This issue of personal choices, and the power of the consumer, is also central for SK Ho, Assistant Director, Energy Efficiency, Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, Hong Kong Government. In his mind, for a rating system to work “You really need to have a clear system for people to understand, because the main driver is still whether the consumer regards that energy usage important.” Ho states, that even if corporations have their heart in the right place “Energy may not be the most important factor for consideration when choosing a location.”
a community decision
For serious breakthrough in efficiency, Ho believes that public demand and cost have a role to play. “It becomes a decision for the industry as a whole. If everybody in the community is still very much looking at the cost of business the right decision in terms of energy efficiency may not be made.” The EMSD has implemented a number of programmes in this area, issuing voluntary codes for building designers and offering a number of programmes such as the Water-cooled Air Conditioning Scheme, allowing building owners to switch to water chillers for their air-conditioning, allowing a 20 to 30 percent overall energy reduction.
While these projects for businesses do involve an initial capital investment, Ho says,“Many of these types of projects have a five year payback. Provided that there are clear procedures for the programmes set up by the government and they do not have too many hurdles to enter, people will do it.”
real ratings
A crucial differentiation must be made between performance based and design based ratings, according to Dr Paul Bannister, Managing Director, Exergy, and lead technical developer of the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating ABGR scheme. Design based systems such as LEED or Green Star look at only the features a building has that could, theoretically, save energy. As Bannister says,“Ultimately, if you’re going to reduce the total amount of greenhouse production coming from the building sector, we have to reduce the total amount of greenhouse produced by the buildings sector, rather than reducing the
potential for it to occur.”
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Ultimately, if
you’re going
to reduce the
total amount
of greenhouse
production
coming from
the building
sector, we have
to reduce the
total amount
of greenhouse
produced by
the buildings
sector, rather
than reducing
the potential for
it to occur.
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The ABGR system measures the actual amount of emissions for an entire building or even a single tenancy. This system may soon be transplanted to Asian markets, with the Business Environment Council currently examining the possibility of adapting it for the Hong Kong market. The reason performance based systems are better, in Bannister’s opinion, is that “Real buildings are always to some extent broken, and it’s the extent of this, and how it is being responded to that determines what energy performance is.”
rating efficiency
The benefit of a genuine, workable rating system “Is that suddenly performance becomes a tradable object in the market, people are saying, “Your building is doing really badly, why?” says Bannister. Often you have a blame game between tenants and owners in this situation, but it is one way of getting the two parties to communicate on energy matters.
This has been one of the main benefits of the ABGR scheme in Australia, where around 40 percent of national office floor area is now rated, which, given it’s voluntary scheme, is remarkable. Bannister says that, far from driving the process, “Initially the federal government was fairly cautious about the scheme. It was not universally well received to begin with.” However, attitudes have
changed, so much so that, “Now the federal government have come on board, they have a really strong ABGR requirement for when they rent offices which is driving real activity in the marketplace. But none of this is heavy handed regulation, it’s just the exercise of market power.” he says.
cause and effect
For Bannister, the crux of the issue in terms of rectifying the problem lies in the human aspects, “The reason that problems exist is because the designers and operators of buildings don’t have the skills to recognise what they are doing wrong” he says. He appreciates that the skill base available in the area is quite small, but is hopeful that this will develop in time.
One issue that needs to be sorted out is the creation stage for buildings, as Bannister says “The design engineering profession tends to train people into doing the things that design engineers get wrong that we have to fix.” This is a product of the different motivations and constraints in the design stage of buildings. Bannister compares this to creating a race car, saying that while
you need an engineer to design the vehicle, you would probably want a physicist to tune it. With buildings it is the same, the engineers designing them are faced with the constraints of budget and time, meaning that their focus is on getting is out on time, not on creating the most efficient operational platform.
the future is green?
Bannister describes how, in Australia, the average new building is coming out with 2.5 star ABGR rating. However, new buildings that are committing to improving their performance are achieving four stars and higher. For him this proves that, “without departing form the model of a building which is suitable for being built it is possible to more than halve the energy consumption due to energy delivery.”
While all can see the benefits of a fair and transparent energy rating scheme for commercial buildings, the question of mandated versus voluntary change is more contentious. ABGR does, to an extent, prove that a voluntary rating system does have a valuable role to play. It would seem that the success or failure of the UK’s initiative will demonstrate if the mandated approach is the best way forward. RFP
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ISSN 1994-9464
Key title: RFP magazine
Abbreviated key title: RFP mag.
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