3 Energy-Saving Trends To Consider For Your Facility Today
It is safe to say that all facilities managers today are well-versed in the simple ways that help make their buildings more energy-efficient, like choosing Energy Star appliances, routinely changing HVAC air filters, and upgrading old light bulbs with LEDs, for example. Although these steps are undoubtedly a terrific way to start when attempting to save energy, it is important to note that energy usage will always be a dynamic variable in facilities management. There is constantly a new trend and technological innovation right around the corner, bringing new opportunities for energy efficiency. And speaking about trends, here are three up-and-coming energy-saving strategies to consider adopting next for your buildings.
1. Leveraging Big Data for Energy Efficiency
Energy data and information can help facilities managers better understand their buildings’ performance. Using big data to improve energy efficiency is becoming more common nowadays since, if you think about it, you can hardly manage something that you cannot measure.
Extracting useful information from big data necessitates investing big in an energy management information system, but it sure to pay for itself further down the line. To demonstrate, let us say, for instance, that a heating valve within the facility was detected to be stuck open by the monitoring software. This caused the HVAC system to heat the air up only to cool it back down again, wasting plenty of energy and money. Thanks to the quick identification of the problem, a facilities manager can then respond with a fix, saving hundreds of thousands on the energy bill per year.
2. Employee-controlled Lighting
For decades now, offices have used outdated fluorescent lights that are expensive to run and difficult to dim and thus hard on the eyes. Nowadays, LED fixtures equipped with IoT can easily be adjusted per an employee’s needs via proprietary software on their desktops, improving their working conditions as well as saving energy.
Since all employees now work in front of a screen, they typically no longer need much of the overhead light found in the typical office space. Giving employees some access to the lighting system saves more energy since they can lower it further than a predetermined setting as well as promote their productivity.
3. Retro-commissioning
Commissioning is defined as the process of ensuring that energy-reliant systems in a building are installed and working properly and operating at maximum efficiency. In retro-commissioning, experts analyze a given building’s performance and offer recommendations on how it can further reduce operating costs and simultaneously increase functionality. This can be considered a tune-up in the context of an HVAC system.
Firms that offer energy management services and are experts in retro-commissioning can advise facilities managers on better optimizing their HVAC systems and controlling them more effectively. This is especially important since the controls on an HVAC system are more often set and then forgotten, despite changes in the office configuration. Or it could be that the controls get overridden in response to a complaint and never reverted once it is resolved. Either way, both situations can waste plenty of energy. In most cases, retro-commissioning studies are likely to suggest slight changes to the controls. Still, they yield a major impact in the way of better occupant comfort, improved system reliability, and lower energy bills.
Conclusion
Energy consumption is one of the areas in running a business wherein there will always be room for improvement to get more from less. With innovative technologies and strategies that promote energy efficiency emerging day by day, it pays to stay knowledgeable about current trends that facilities managers could adopt for their buildings.
Here at KJTS Group, with a belief in performance-based solutions supported by innovative technology, we are the one-stop service provider for all your property management and maintenance needs. With many years of experience in the industry, our expert and dedicated engineers can give your facilities the highest efficiency to make them convenient and exceptionally suitable for learning.
To learn more about any of the solutions KJTS Group offers, please call us at +603-2716 6866 or email us at [email protected]. Let us elevate your energy management process with our innovative technology today.
