Building a future on HVAC in energy management

The role of HVAC in energy management – today and in the years ahead

There are huge environmental and economic benefits to be gained from a focus on high performing buildings — both new build and upgrading the existing stock — argue Trane’s John Burton and Jose Laloggia.

While the efficiency of commercial buildings has improved significantly in recent decades, the building industry has only begun to tap the energy reserves trapped in underperforming facilities. Our company, Trane, foresees a wide range of groundbreaking innovations in high-performance building technologies, operating practices and intelligent building services that will create better, healthier, more comfortable and more productive indoor environments in the years to come.

Building owners and operators can realise a wide range of benefits by adopting high-performance building technologies and operating principles that are widely available today. New technologies and improved energy-efficiency practices enable commercial buildings to achieve higher levels of energy efficiency, better overall performance, lower lifecycle costs and a smaller environmental footprint.

Numerous sources, including the GreenBuilding Programme of the European Commission Joint Research Centre and US Green Building Council (USGBC) say that high performance buildings can use 20 to 30% less energy and cost as much as 50% less to operate over their full occupied life, compared to conventionally equipped and operated buildings.

More energy-efficient building systems and the use of a wide range of energy conservation measures have helped drive down the energy intensity of commercial buildings, but the inventory of existing buildings has just scratched the surface when it comes to realising the full potential of energy efficiency to help reduce global energy consumption and our environmental impact.

Building owners and operators are starting to recognise that better-performing buildings are assets that help organisations accomplish their missions and, most importantly, financial and operational goals. Better-performing create better, healthier, more productive places for people to work, learn, teach, live, heal, shop, stay and visit.

While many new buildings are designed to achieve world-class levels of energy efficiency and environmental performance, the greatest opportunity lies in improving the performance of Europe’s large existing building stock.

Significant opportunities for improving energy, operation and service performance can be found in the world’s inventory of existing buildings. London, Paris and Frankfurt are just some examples in Europe.

For the foreseeable future, the greatest opportunities for improving energy, operating and service performance can be found in the world’s inventory of existing buildings. These buildings represent an attractive target for efficiency.

Energy retrofitting of the existing European building stock is one of the fastest ways to pave the road for sustainable growth in Europe. It could yield annual energy savings of nearly 50%, reduce CO2 emissions by more than 50% and create around 700 000 jobs, according to the ‘Europe’s buildings under the microscope’ report, prepared by the Buildings Performance Institute of Europe.

The evolution of the high-performance building movement is facing a turning point as technologies and practices mature and the body of evidence supporting adoption of these principles continues to grow. Four of the key factors driving adoption are considered below.

1. While energy prices have not been as volatile at the electricity meter as at the gasoline pump, commercial and industrial utility rates have grown. Technology advances enable organisations to mitigate the impact of rising energy costs and increased consumption.

2. Organisations of all kinds are under extreme pressure to do more with less — less budget, fewer resources and a smaller staff. Building-automation systems are key enablers of optimal building performance. They can automatically perform tasks that used to require human intervention and have the intelligence to optimise results. Wireless communications technology, applied in these systems with open communications standards, will prove to be a breakthrough in improving controls and energy optimisation in the existing commercial building market.

About the authors

John Burton is country leader for Trane UK & Ireland, and

Jose Laloggia currently holds the position of vice president of the controls, turnkey solutions, services and parts, and aftermarket business for Thermo King and Trane in Europe, Middle East India and Africa.  

3. Sensors embedded in mechanical systems will provide critical data used by intelligent service programs to analyse, predict problems and take corrective actions with building HVAC equipment — leading to improve reliability, extend equipment life and efficient operation.

4. Environmental performance goes hand-in-hand with energy efficiency. More-robust regulations concerning energy efficiency and emissions are set to take shape in the near future. However, it is a sure bet that organisations of all types will be compelled to comply not just with more stringent regulations but also with higher expectations from customers, shareowners, employees and the community.

The demand for energy in the developed and developing world continues to grow exponentially, with no end in sight. It is impossible to overstate the importance of energy efficiency in the equation. Tapping into the energy reserves trapped in underperforming buildings can take us a long way toward ensuring that the needs of an energy-intensive world are met.

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