Covid Secure Building Energy Management

According to CIBSE’s ‘emerging from lockdown’ guidance, being Covid-secure means a change to the building systems operations to ensure that they are managed and maintained to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

With a focus on ventilation and the HVAC systems within the building, the new-normal requires for HVAC to run throughout the evening when the building is closed, which is in stark contrast to ensuring everything is off out of hours. There is also a requirement to ensure for constant fresh air flow and therefore no more re-circ on the AC units; not an issue for some, but not all AC systems have fresh air flow.  Added to this is the need for AC systems to work harder in winter and summer months as the fresh air drawn in needs to be heated or cooled constantly to ensure the internal conditions stay at 18c and 21c respectively.

However, it’s not just the change in the HVAC use that can impact on energy consumption, it’s also the use of lifts in larger properties.  With reduced occupancy to aid in social distancing, will the lifts be in more constant use and what impact would this have on energy consumption?

The energy impact…

Let’s take the HVAC or specifically the AC alone. Most energy mangers will stand behind the fact that if they ensure all items such as lighting and AC are off out of hours then circa 10% of energy savings could be made. Assuming lights are off, but AC is now on a trickle mode (according to the new guidelines), that previous 10% cost savings could be reduced to a mere 5% cost saving; meaning the covid-secure guidelines to the change in AC operation out of hours could increase out of hours consumption cost by 5%.

Now add to this the changes to AC operations in-hours. Most energy managers would expect to see a 10-15% reduction in energy costs if their AC is correctly managed and maintained and operated to ideal standards. However, the new guidelines on AC operation requiring fresh air flow as well as ventilation and other activities to manage indoor air quality this previous energy reduction benefit may become null and void.

Finally, as lifts in larger properties are used more often to accommodate fewer users due to social distancing measures and as a staggered workforce setup could mean an extension to business operating hours there are many factors that will not only mitigate a previously experienced energy cost reduction due to energy efficiency measures but actually increase building energy use moving forward.

The cost impact

Not much is being said about the return to the office and its potential impact on energy bills and costs to operate moving forward.

• Do the procurement teams and FDs know about the potential impact a change in building systems operations to be covid-secure will have on the energy bills and the energy costs moving forward?
• As we move into October renewals for energy contracts, has this impact been factored into the forecast? Has it been accounted and budgeted for?

Having ‘sight’ of energy costs is more important than ever before. A changing office environment, building use and operations, and staggering the workforce to allow for social distancing or letting people work from home, will all impact a business energy spend in the new normal.

Digital platforms like EaaSi can immediately assist with the issue facing FMs, energy procurement teams and Finance Directors.

For FMs challenged with ensuring energy costs are reduced year on year in their maintenance contract, this change to equipment operation as well as increased business operational hours will have an immediate impact on their target and could result in a fine on the FM in question. Having sight on the immediate impact through digital platforms and validation through cost management will help them to see instantly the cost impact and identify the potential cost to their business.

For FDs the visibility of energy spend in real-time will allow them to see the implications of these building operation changes and the potential impact to cash flow and budgeting.

For procurement teams the visibility of the change Covid-secure operations can have on the energy consumption will allow them to better manage and forecast energy spend for their business and secure alternate energy contracts that better suit their new energy profile and their new normal post covid.

EaaSi is the UK’s only cloud based integrated digital platform to fully automate and validate your energy spend management across all departments, locations and energy output feeds.  EaaSi uses RPA to provide a fully automated energy spend management platform delivering insights to businesses on utility bills and the data associated to your meter end points instantaneously.