The Building Advisor

A month ago,Chris H., Assistant Global Energy Solutions Manager at Solutia Inc., posted “Five Overlooked Building Improvements with Quick ROI that Increase Energy Efficiency” to myfacilities.net.

In it, he touches on a variety of utility-saving solutions, the most pertinent to The Building Advisor being number 3, Energy Management Systems.

He writes,

Greg Galusha of MacDonald Miller in Bellevue, WA

“An energy management system consists of a combination of building management systems and advanced software solutions that work together to control a building’s HVAC operations…The system ensures optimal energy usage, resulting in greater efficiency and lower utility costs.”

He then posted the post to the Building Owners and Managers (BOMA) International LinkedIn Group under the question header, “How can you increase energy efficiency and reduce utilities?”

To date, there have been 56 comments.

Some of them have been from blog spotlightees before, like Greg Galusha of MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions (“MacDonald-Miller Finds BuildingAdvice Perfect Fit for Energy Efficiency in Small to Midsize Buildings“) and Zack Buquet, one of our own here at AirAdvice and a Building Advisor contributor.

The long and the short of it is this: talk of replacing HVAC units, building envelopes, window film, demand response, lighting, and reflective insulators, elevator motor “soft starters.” From the short and sweet to vociferously verbose, there is no shortage of ideas out there on how to save dough on energy. We just need to DO it.

Great comments from Gary Markowitz, President, Kilojolts Consulting Group, Inc. & KCG Energy LLC. Gary touches on culture – shifting the mindset of a company toward energy efficiency as a priority. Julius Walcyznski at Canada’s Pulse Energy has some great things to say as well regarding occupant engagement.

Zack Buquet, Energy Services Business Consultant at AirAdvice

But here at AirAdvice, we’re looking at the causes of energy waste in buildings, and work with HVAC contractors to attack the problem. Those contractors in turn work directly with the building owners and managers BOMA serves, the decisionmakers behind energy efficiency decisions. Until those owners and managers recognize that they are throwing money away unnecessarily, the building’s occupant engagement can’t happen.

BOMA’s LinkedIn discussion also contains quite a bit of chatter around energy benchmarking, assessments and audits; it’s great to hear these words being used with knowledge, even if it is within a fairly specific community.

Mike Zimmerman, CEO of BuildingIQ in Sydney, Australia, wrote:

Mike Zimmerman, CEO of BuildingIQ

“…Energy Reporting systems such as Lucid Designs provides energy-use metrics from meters and the BMS [Building Management System?]. There are also now Energy Optimization technologies that supervise how the BMS runs and and make the building much more intelligent. Our system, called BuildingIQ…is a Predictive Energy Optimization system that incorporates energy prices, weather forecasts and ASHRAE comfort models to optimize energy use, cost and comfort. This type of proactive system that interacts with the BMS can save 10-20% of total building energy and is paid for on a subscription basis…”

Throughout the conversation, claims of savings between 10-30% on utility bills are made.

Where do you think a realistic savings percentage average from the use of energy management systems looks like?

And is this savings driven more by occupants or building systems?

Drop us a comment!

The youngest SF Mayor in we can't remember how long.

San Francisco pulled into the lead for most progressive energy policy last week when Mayor Gavin Newsom (at 42, the youngest San Francisco mayor in over a century) submitted his nine-months-in-the-making proposed legislation on existing commercial buildings to the city’s Board of Supervisors.

The proposed legislation would require the owners of commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet to conduct an energy-efficiency audit every five years, and to supply annual updates – all of which would be available in a public database, according to the SF Gate.

And guess what? These required audits would come back with helpful suggestions on how to increase the property’s energy efficiency, say by sealing windows, or upgrading the HVAC system. Kind of like what BuildingAdvice does. Tenants would also have access to an estimate of resulting energy savings from taking those steps, the cost of implementing them, and their economic value.

Kind of like what BuildingAdvice does.

In a post on City Insider, an SF Gate blog on “the people, politics and places of San Francisco,” John Coté wrote that Newsom likened the commercial building audits to fuel efficiency ratings listed on car windows at an auto dealership.

Is your building a Lex? Or a hum-v?

The local branch of the Building Owners and Managers Association (part of nationwide BOMA), the commercial real estate industry’s heavy-hitting advocacy group, supports the legislation, although there are still skeptics in the business community, the mayor said. Berkeley, Sonoma County, Palm Desert and Boulder, Colo. have similar programs going.

Once approved, the legislation sets a staggered, three-year schedule for compliance, starting in April.

Images courtesy Car and Driver and http://obrag.org.

Superstar giant Octus Energy got our attention with their Smartenergyworks blog post on the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA)’s announcement to start the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP) in San Francisco. We are already BEEPing quite a bit in Portland, Ore.

BOMA’s press release on the San Francisco program cunningly points out:

“Nationwide, the commercial real estate industry spends approximately $24 billion annually on energy. Yet energy consumption represents the single, largest controllable operating expense for office buildings. BOMA anticipates BEEP will reduce energy consumption by as much as 30 percent in participating commercial properties.”

So here’s the question: if BEEP’s “innovative series… teaches commercial real estate professionals how to reduce energy consumption — and related costs — with proven, no- and low-cost strategies for optimizing equipment, people and practices,” is there a need for products like BuildingAdvice?

The Building Advisor is going to go with “Yes, and…” on this one, and we’ll tell you why.

There are always going to be people who don’t want to, or aren’t able to, “do it themselves.” BuildingAdvice is designed to be used by commercial HVAC professionals, energy consultants, and engineers – a different group than real estate professionals such as brokers, property managers, and owners who tend to be associated with BOMA.

Building contractors are trusted professionals who can go to their clients and initiate discussions about energy management. If the clients are educated in advance by a BEEP seminar beforehand, that conversation can be even more productive.

In other words, the energy efficiency candle can be burned from both ends for greatest all-around benefit to the built environment and those who manage it.

Images courtesy Binary Studio, smartenergyworks and gfpeck’s photostream on Flickr.

With headlines cropping up every day on new state incentive programs to help businesses finance energy efficiency upgrades, it can be hard to keep up. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy has taken on the copious task of cataloging all of the energy efficiency tax rebates and other financial incentives available across America with a web site, the (free) Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE) at www.dsireusa.org. The database is maintained as an ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. The comprehensive list of incentives include programs from the federal government, state and local governments, utilities and non-profit organizations. Maps, tables, and a library help to further cross index the information, which is based on DSIRE’s analysis of statutes, enacted legislation, administrative rules, public utilities commission orders, executive orders and program guidelines. The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) is helping to put the word out on DSIRE.

In other news, Daniel Gross’ article “Fracking, Oil Sands, and Deep-Water Drilling” on Slate stirred up some sludge over the weekend. 64 comments have cropped up as of this writing, many of them intelligent, long and impassioned. Some crazy. Some snarky.  Many respectful. What astounds The Building Advisor is the length and breadth of the conversation Daniel started – which discusses the idea of “extreme energy,” or how far (and deep) into the ocean we’re willing to go for oil – and the plethora of ideas and energies that popped out as a result. Slate and Gross are truly making journalism into a town hall with stories like these. Kudos!

According to the recently published RICS-CPE Global Commercial Property Sustainability Survey, despite a global economic downturn, real estate owners are increasing their investments in sustainability.  Cutting energy costs was cited as the primary driver for these investments.

“The most important sustainability issue for clients is energy efficiency,” Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, told CPE. “More people are more focused on sustainability since the economic crisis, and energy has become the main driver; it has to do with the bottom line.”

It makes a lot of sense when you think about it.  We continue to see buildings that consistently could cut 15% off their energy utility bills just by implementing low cost/no cost energy conservation measures.  With ROIs of less than 6 months its kind of a no-brainer for owners.  Considering energy spending, on average, constitutes approximately 35% of building operating costs, this is significant.

From a sustainability stand point, not only are they able to cut energy consumption, but they are also able to reduce their carbon footprint.  With a climate bill winding its way through the Senate, many believe substantial financial incentives for carbon reduction in commercial buildings could make energy conservation even more financially appealing.

BOMA has been attempting to educate owners regarding these opportunities and it looks these ideas are being adopted.  When I talk with owners and managers most of them get it.  Often the main question is how to go about uncovering these opportunities in a cost effective manner.  Many of them just don’t know where to start.  I will outline how we’re suggesting owners proceed in a separate post.

In the meantime, its nice to see that sustainability is seen as a strategic initiative for most owners based on its ability to lower operating costs.  It’s not just good for the planet, it’s good for the bottom line.

View the article at Commercial Property News here.

Here is a great article written by Lindsay Audin, President at EnergyWiz and published in Building Operating Management entitled, Selling The CEO on HVAC Uprades.

While directed at facility and building managers, it delivers just as much value to HVAC sales organizations who need to be able to translate retrofit projects into specific benefits with an emphasis on financial pay back.  Lindsay does a great job of outlining practical steps one should take to justify HVAC upgrades to senior decision makers, not a trivial pursuit in today’s economic environment.

In my conversations with mechanical HVAC owners, I find it is rare that their sales teams are calling on the final decision makers in retrofit projects.  More often than not, most sales teams are calling on facility managers, building engineers and/or property managers.  Getting around these gatekeepers will be the subject of a future blog.  In the meantime, ensure that if you are working through one of these types that they are well prepared to cover the areas in Lindsay’s article.  You, and they, will be more likely to get approval from the decision maker.

One other note, given the current economic situation, I would strongly recommend taking the “long view” with your customers.  That is, focus your preventive maintenance efforts on “low cost, no cost” opportunities to lower your customers’ operating costs.  Most of your customers are becoming aware of these types of energy savings available to them through BOMA’s BEEP program.   By focusing on these types of savings, you will earn trust and credibility with your customers, setting yourself up for future retrofit opportunities, hence the “long view”.   Everything I hear is that, depending on the customer, retrofit payback periods are compressing from 5 years down to as low as 1-2 years given the credit cycle we are in.  So, why not beef up your service business by incorporating energy services into your preventive maintenance business and get paid to uncover retrofit opportunities that may take some time to justify.