"Green" is often all about design, choice of material, equipment and systems, construction... usually in view of obtaining a green certification for your building (LEED or the local "3-star" label). In China even more than anywhere else, buyers love technology-based solutions, which seem to solve all problems by simply getting the right piece of equipment. In terms of actual savings in operation, the effect has however been less than satisfactory.
Experience shows that the best green technology and a green label are no guarantee of efficiency. Surveys conducted in the West show that 30% of LEED-certified buildings consume more energy than the average buildings... Although no survey has been done in China, the situation is likely to be even worse in a market, where maintenance is particularly lacking.
Actual performance often differs from the initial design projections. Let's take a look at a few examples of buildings in China.
- A facility assessment conducted on retrofitted residential buildings revealed sizing problems of the HVAC (a very common problem), compounded by obvious lack of maintenance and cleaning, which going up to the roof for a visual inspection was enough to uncover. The poor condition of the heat pump, adding up to the insufficient air side cooling capacity, resulted in low efficiency and lack of capacity: for the building users it meant comfort issues (29°C in summer, 15°C in winter) and high electricity bills.
- Building Management Systems (BMS) have become a typical feature of green buildings. Audit of a commercial facility showed that the system was installed and working, but was not used by the management team to take corrective actions. This was simply due to lack of skills and lack of building operation procedures in that regards. The building itself was modern, not the management team.
- A large property operator has equipped all its sites with a very advanced centralized Building Management System. When the project was launched, the operator and its advisors (who should have known better...) were clearly enthralled by the Sci-Fi technology proposed and the huge benefits announced. Audits performed a few years down the line show the full-scope of the BMS was never delivered: instead the system only performed the usual building automation functions, appears to be disconnected at most times and cannot produce any useful energy consumption reports.
- A state-of-the-art R&D center was designed by internationally-renowned architects to showcase the deep concern of a multinational for the environment. A picture-perfect facility the day of its opening, the audit two years later revealed the very fast aging of the building and its inefficient HVAC operation. Apart from construction issues the foreign architect did not foresee, the maintenance schedule of the facility had to be totally redesigned.
This is where operation and maintenance come into play, in order to keep the designed performance of a building "alive" during operation. Ideally, operation and maintenance should be prepared from the construction stage. The Chinese green label (3-star) is in this regard much better designed that its more prestigious US counterpart LEED, as it includes operational aspects and is awarded only one year after opening. Whether maintenance is performed in-house or outsourced, the owner should define maintenance programs (international standards can be very useful) and keep track of their execution, preferably using a computerized maintenance/facility management system, very useful in China to give a concrete aspect to otherwise theoretical concepts like "preventive maintenance". Experience shows that great ROI can be obtained from seemingly simple maintenance actions, not only in terms of direct operational savings (energy bill) but also by extending the lifetime of equipment and buildings.
About the author:
Bruno Lhopiteau is the General Manager of Siveco, the largest maintenance consultancy in China
