How to reduce energy consumption?
Experts estimate that businesses waste about 30 % of the energy used in commercial buildings. As companies look for ways to reduce energy waste and costs, they are looking to facility managers to improve the energy efficiency of their building systems. Using energy more efficiently is one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to save money.
Whether they pursue energy efficiency as a part of their corporate sustainability program, or simply to cut down on maintnace expenditures there are multiple ways how to improve the energy efficiency of their building systems.
Good facility management system
Many companies overlook the maintnace of their equipment in favor of other more pressing issues. Ignoring equpiment maintnace for a longer period of time might lead to reduction of its efficiency. Regular meintnace can help identify leaks, necessary repairs or replacements.
Facility management systems can be used to collect and monitor data which offer insight into equipment performance and can help further improve energy efficiency.
Lighting and HVAC systems
Energy waste can be reduced significantly by improving efficiency of lighting and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems. No matter what type of lighting is being used, whenever it is on in unoccupied areas or naturally lit areas, energy is being wasted. Most common solution to this problem is installing a motion sensor, which turns lights on when it detects motion and turns them off again when the area is vacated. Timers are another way how to make sure that lighting is turned off whenever it isn’t necessary.
Same can be done to HVAC systems by installing programmable thermostats which alow to set time clocks. This feature enables the facility manager to set different temperatures based on the time of the day.
Using building automation to reduce energy consumption
Building automation systems posses the advantage of remote control. Bringing all of a building’s systems together into one platform enables greater control over individual systems that impact the overall efficiency of the building.
A facility manager can also monitor systems remotely or receive notiffications based on pre-set parameters. This allows facility manager to deal with issues in real time and reduce repair costs or prevent downtime.