Norway shuts down – but why do our buildings run as normal?

Working from home has become dominant these days. Schools, kindergartens, gyms, physiotherapy centres – the list of shut-down sectors is long, which in turn means empty buildings. In times like these many industries have to count every krone and consider lay-offs. Many also experience uncertainty about the survival of some companies when we eventually reopen.

A commercial building from 2010 with 10,000 square metres can easily have energy costs of over 200,000 kroner per month. At this time of year, technical systems and heating account for the largest share. When large buildings are shut down in this way, it is especially important that the technology, the people and the measures are aligned. This means we actually have the opportunity to take some energy-saving measures during this period. As mentioned in TU previously, we have not seen the major change one might have expected.

Electricity consumption in Norway remains stable, even though a large number of companies are shut down due to coronavirus.

The BMS is the budget – sensor technology is the reality

The main message is that the control systems don't always do what we want. With sensor technology and other property technology, we can perhaps get a true picture. In 2019, I was involved in over a hundred buildings where we set up sensor technology to do exactly this. Unfortunately I must agree with other key people in the construction industry:

In 10 out of 10 buildings, major faults are found in the control systems. Even though it says something is off or on, it doesn't always correspond to reality.

If we could lower the temperature by 4–5 degrees in these empty buildings, we could save up to 25% energy.

During this period I have also reviewed many buildings and received a number of concerns from landlords and FM players seeking assistance. To share some experiences from this, it is said today that only 20 percent of our buildings have an overarching control system at all. This means we have no control over 80 percent of our buildings. In other words, 8 out of 10 commercial buildings only have adjustments that can be made locally. We can try to break this down.

Buildings lacking overarching control, or with outdated technology

In the short term this is about local adjustments. Technical operations is about risk assessment, and we need to keep this in mind. If we switch off the ventilation system and turn down the heat these days – how does this affect our building? If we have a risk, we may not be able to do much, since the damage could be enormous. If you find yourself in this category, it's about what insight you can add so that you can make manual adjustments. In addition, some assistance may be required to understand how to handle the technical systems.

Through building technology solutions (proptech) we find everything from affordable, consumer-grade equipment to more professional solutions. What the various solutions have in common is that the costs compared to potential savings are typically under 1 year payback. This means it is only a liquidity cost, not a direct cost, since you earn it back – often within the same financial year. As things stand, we have the opportunity to save large sums in just a matter of weeks.

Where should you actually start? How to get insight?

All new electricity meters have an output for all energy data that can be retrieved every other second. This means we have a lot of data available that can give us unique insight into the very heart of the building – the main electrical inputs.

Energy monitoring

Using data, a building owner can easily see when ventilation, heating, EV charging stations and other major loads switch on and off. In addition, you can calculate how much energy is used per square metre and what the base load is – this provides good insight for starting to take action.

Example from Proptech Bergen, which is not shut down. We have also seen a similar pattern in other buildings that we know are closed.

Sensor technology is the key

In addition, a multi-sensor in a building can give you unique insight. What we see are very clear patterns showing that schools and other buildings are shut down. In the image we can see that the temperature has not been lowered at night, or reduced.

Enova says that the potential to reduce temperature by 1 degree can give five percent energy savings. This means that if we could lower the temperature by 4–5 degrees in these empty buildings, we could save up to 25 percent energy.

The key to achieving this is sensor technology, which can tell us a great deal. If, for example, we have radon in a building, you can see whether the ventilation system starts and stops. CO2 levels give a good indication of when people come and go, and what constitutes a normal or abnormal usage pattern.

If a building owner takes these measures, this can serve as infrastructure for a future control system. It also provides good insight to tenants in the form of air quality, usage patterns and graphical monitoring of which meeting rooms are most and least used.

Buildings with overarching control

We also see that many buildings that have control systems and traditional systems are not entering this mode now. The feedback on the reasons from the various professional fields has been striking. Reasons cited include cumbersome systems that are not fully understood, lack of trust in the system, or cumbersome solutions with up to 200 calendar entries. This stems from heavy specification requirements from consultants where we have forgotten the building's users. It is also noted that the BMS is not working – and this is now especially visible.

We are using an enormous amount of unnecessary energy during this period, and we have a clear opportunity to save costs and benefit the environment. Let us try to seize that opportunity.

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