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The facilities manager’s energy primer Stephen Platt

Reference:

Platt S (1996) Facilities managers’ energy primer, Construction Research Communications Ltd.

THE FACILITIES MANAGER’S ENERGY PRIMER

Stephen Platt

SOME BUILDINGS ONLY DRAW A PROFILE OF YOUR INCREASINGLY ASKED TO

FIDDLING WITH THE CONTROLS

AMBITIOUS FIRST ACTIONCHEAP BUILDINGS MAY NOT

GIVE THE BEST VALUE

NOT JUST TECHNICAL ISSUES HIGHER ELECTRIC CONSUMPTION

PRELIMINARY SURVEY

DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT

FOREWORD

We welcome the opportunity to introduce this publicationwhich is the result of collaboration between the British Instituteof Facilities Management, the Department of the Environmentand the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and resultsfrom a project managed by the Building Research EnergyConservation Support Unit (BRECSU) as part of the DOE'sEnergy Efficiency Best Practice programme.The impact on theenvironment of human activity is significant. It is estimated that15% of the UK’s total energy expenditure comes from non-domestic buildings. With all organisations seeking ways in whichthey can improve their cost control and enhance theirprofitability, attention to the organisation’s energy use will aidthe balance sheet and contribute towards improving theenvironment.

Deciding where to start, an ad-hoc or systematic approach, whatenergy conservation may include and how to measure thebenefits may be some of the questions which you are facing.This guide will assist managers from non-technical backgrounds,by providing a general overview or stimulate interest in energyefficiency from other key stakeholders helping the moreexperienced facilities manager. In easy stages you will learn howto reduce running costs, gain ideas for actions and where to findfurther sources of information.

Applications of the ideas and techniques in this guide shouldlead to benefits for business and the environment.

Jeremy Bayliss Derek Paxman

President ChairmanThe Royal Institution The British Instituteof Chartered Surveyors of Facilities Management

THE FACILITIES MANAGER’SENERGY PRIMER

Endorsed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the British Institute of Facilities Management

THE ROYALINSTITUTIONOF CHARTEREDSURVEYORS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The contribution of the members of the Advisory Panel isgratefully acknowledged: Charmaine Shakespeare, Symonds FM plc; John Fessey,Longman Group (UK); Mike Ellerker, Ernst & Young; EddieMurphy, Ernst & Young; Robert Pinson, Bennet Pinson; FrankHennessy, Nuffield Hospitals; Chris Engert, Procord; StephenAldridge, Trinder Aldridge.

A development workshop was supported by the followingorganisations:Bank of Ireland Mortgages Bennet Pinson British Institute of Facilities Managers Building Research Energy Conservation Support Unit Cambridge City Council Cambridgeshire County Council Edwin Watson & Son Ernst & Young Halifax Building Society J Sainsbury plc Land Rover Group Longman Group (UK) Ltd Milton Keynes NHS Trust National Westminster Bank Nuffield Hospitals Procord plc Prudential Property Division Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Royal Mail Symonds FM plc Trinder Aldridge Trust House Forte Hotels Turner & Townsend University of Edinburgh William H Brown

This publication was prepared for the Department of theEnvironment by Dr Stephen Platt ofCambridge Architectural Research Ltd. © Crown copyright October 1996

THE FACILITIES MANAGER'S ENERGY PRIMER

CONTENTS

PART 1 OPPORTUNITIES 1

Managing energy efficiently 2You have a hundred and one things on your plate. Energy management may only be yourconcern for a small proportion of your time – if it is formally a part of your job at all. Sowhy should you bother about it?

Needs and opportunities 5A facilities manager who can deal with the other parts of the job should have no difficultywith energy management. A key to success is understanding the organisational framework.Organisations are not static and processes of change throw up opportunities that can beexploited to gain energy efficiency improvements.

Environmental impact 13Organisations need to pay increasing attention to the environmental impact of theiroperations. The principles of the green agenda have gained widespread acceptance – buthow can good intentions be turned into action? There are many established techniques thatthe facilities manager can make use of.

Building projects 19Involvement in major building projects is the exception rather than the rule for facilitiesmanagers. But these projects – whether new build or refurbishment – give a specialopportunity for higher standards of energy efficiency. This chapter explains how to keepenergy efficiency high on the agenda.

Buildings in use 27The broad principles of energy efficiency are relevant to all organisations, but the waysthey are applied in practice vary widely. Key features of an organisation’s building stockcan tell the facilities manager what approaches to energy efficiency are likely to besuccessful.

PART 2 PRACTICAL STEPS 33Eight steps that the facilities manager can take to upgrade energy management.

PART 3 FURTHER INFORMATION 56Performance indicators, useful tables, where to turn for help, and bibliography.



HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This guide to managing energy efficiently gives an overviewrather than detailed guidance. It will be particularly relevant tosomeone from a non-technical background for whom energymanagement is only one aspect of the job.

Parts of the guide will also be of interest to more experiencedfacilities managers, for example those who have recently takenup a new post or see an opportunity to reactivate interest inenergy efficiency in their existing organisation.

We have used the term ‘facilities manager’ to refer to anyoneconcerned with the interaction between buildings and theiroccupants. You may have a background in engineering ormaintenance, or perhaps have experience in personnelmanagement or accountancy. You may operate within anorganisation’s structure, or in a specialised facilities managementconsultancy.

The purpose of the guide is to help you think about how tointegrate energy efficiency into all aspects of your role in themanagement of facilities. In this respect its main objectives are:

! to help you to reduce energy consumption and running costsof your building

! to improve your own understanding! to give ideas for action! to help you enhance your influence with other people in your

organisation, especially with senior managers! to give pointers to further sources of information.The chapters can be read in any order – not necessarily in onesitting. Most of the detailed guidance is in Part 2 of the guidewhich can be dipped into at will. What we would suggest is thatyou get an overview of what the book contains so you can referback to it when you want particular help.

PART 1 OPPORTUNITIES

1


MANAGING ENERGY EFFICIENTLY

You have a hundred and one things on your plate. Energy management mayonly be your concern for a small proportion of your time – if it is formally apart of your job at all. So why should you bother about it?

The case for energy efficiencyEnergy efficiency can save money. Saving energycould release funds for other activities within yourorganisation – improving patient care in a hospital,for example, or developing new businessopportunities in the retail sector. Energy may beone of the largest controllable costs for yourorganisation, and thus a handy source ofimprovements to profitability.

Environmental issues have also come to theforefront, both as a motivator for individuals tocooperate in energy-saving initiatives and as animportant aspect in client relations.

Energy efficiency means providing the required

environmental conditions for building users atminimum cost – in other words, increasingvalue for money.

Staff costs immensely outweigh expenditure on thebuildings that house them. This means thatimproving working conditions can bring savings instaff effectiveness that greatly multiply cash savingson fuel bills.

Energy efficiency is an indicator of all round

management effectiveness. You can demonstratethe impact you are having in this area, improvingyour department’s profile within your organisationand advertising your own talents. Even if yourorganisation as yet places no special emphasis onenergy efficiency, your competitors may.

2


What impact can you have?Your role as a facilities manager may involvemaking strategic decisions with wide-rangingimplications for energy use.

Some of these have immediate energy useimplications, for example fuel budgeting. However,many others have indirect energy implications; forexample, decisions about space standards couldinfluence how much heating is required. Selectionof furniture systems can have an impact on howefficiently the heating and air-handling systemswork. Even activities unrelated to energy – forexample specification of a security system – couldbe linked with monitoring energy use, through anautomated building management system (BMS).

The diversity of the facilities manager’s activitiescan be broadly categorised as:

1 Providing accommodation and services whichallow your organisation to meet its coreobjectives.

2 Providing a comfortable and satisfying workingenvironment for people in your organisation.

3 Using resources efficiently and reducing costs inthe provision of this accommodation.

Trying to improve the energy efficiency of thebuildings you occupy needs to be set in the contextof these overriding objectives. So energymanagement is but one aspect of good facilitiesmanagement and efficient resource utilisation.

Buildings and energy useThe interaction between buildings and the peoplewho use them is complex. Three factors contributeto the energy efficiency of your building:

! fabric (building design and materials used in itsconstruction)

! services (environmental systems, includingmechanical and electrical plant)

! operation (occupants’ use of the building andtheir awareness of energy efficiency issues).

3


Interaction of the three factorsFabric, services and use can account for a ten-foldvariation in energy operation between similar buildings.Plan depth, orientation and façade design can account fora variation of about 2.5 times. Differences in buildingservices extend the range to about 5 times and variationin building operation extends this to 10 times.

Any of these three areas could offer scope forimprovements in energy efficiency, and there is amultiplier effect if you make progress in more thanone area. The first imperative is to get a feel forhow your building is performing now, and howmuch potential there is for improvement. Thisbenchmarking process is described on pages 35-36.

Systematic or ad hoc approach?

4


There are two basic approaches to improving energyefficiency. Either you adopt a systematic approach andbegin by confirming who is responsible for energymanagement and securing top management support oryou adopt an ad hoc approach and start anywhere youbelieve you can make progress and demonstrate the valueof energy efficiency.

The approaches are not entirely different – manyorganisations begin in an ad hoc way and then adopt asystematic approach later. Also the ad hoc diagramsuggests a logical order to the steps you need to take togain control of your energy consumption. But moreimportant than following this slavishly is to choose as yourfirst step something that is clearly achievable and then tofollow up on this success. Your choice of approach willdepend on your own circumstances, particularly on thesize of your organisation and its corporate culture, butalso, to some extent, on your personal style.

Systematic Approach

Ad Hoc Approach

NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES

A facilities manager who can deal with the other parts of the job should have nodifficulty with energy management. A key to success is understanding yourorganisation. Organisations are not static and processes of change createopportunities that can be exploited to gain energy efficiency improvements.

Organisational culturesEvery organisation has a different set of prioritiesand operating conditions so that no two will evergo about the same task in exactly the same way,even if they are in the same business. Howpriorities are expressed to some extent defines therespective cultures, perhaps influenced by thedominant personality of a single charismaticindividual or a particularly strong mission. Someorganisations care for the environment and turnthis into a unique aspect of the culture, helping toset the organisation and its products apart fromcompetitors. Others believe in keeping costs downabove all else; or in service to the customer.

Many facilities staff are experienced at ‘reading’ theculture and some can intuitively understand whatwill work and what will fail in a given situation. Inorder to be effective, it is essential to work in

sympathy with your organisation – but also to

take opportunities which present themselves.

Your starting point will depend on the existingskills, interests and objectives of your organisation’sstaff. A technologically-oriented company maynaturally gravitate towards excellence in buildingservices or information services, and naturallyrecruit more people with these skills. A companywhich has a strong personnel department mayappoint its facilities staff from its ranks, and theymay then naturally focus on health and safety,

5


Corporate CultureA simple model of corporate culture based on theformality of an organisation's management structureand the timescale over which it plans. Although one ofthese cultures may predominate, most organisationscontain a mix of cultural types

housekeeping, personnel and other non-technological matters.

Needs and prioritiesIn most organisations core objectives come first.Unless there are very well argued reasons forintroducing green initiatives like energy efficiency,they will not be given priority.

Energy efficiency is just another form of goodmanagement practice which happens to haveindividual, organisational and environmental aswell as cost payoffs. There are several similar areaswhich can also fall within the responsibility area ofthe facilities manager – building maintenance, forinstance, cleaning, personnel programmes orhealth and safety initiatives.

All of these share common management featureswhich may include:

! Regular auditing or monitoring of performance,whether for space occupancy, energy, routinemaintenance, risk (insurance) or health andsafety reasons.

! Checking performance against pre-definedobjectives, standards, indicators and industrynorms.

! Dealing rapidly with problems when they occur,especially those which directly affect the work,comfort and health of staff, and being able todeal with situations which may be risky ordangerous.

! Clear communication of changes in procedures,design changes or changes in customary policieswhich affect staff and/or users, and the ability todeal with users’ problems when they arise.

Because facilities tasks have a common basis,involving similar techniques and methods,excellence in any one of them can contribute toexcellence in most or all of them. The very

activity of monitoring performance and acting

on the findings helps to ensure that the total

environment is being properly looked after.

6


People sometimes say that plants grow better ifyou talk to them every day. It may be true, but itcertainly is not the talking, it is the constant‘performance monitoring’ which is critical.

A virtuous circle?Experience shows that organisations which excel atany one of these tasks – planned maintenance, forinstance – will eventually find that they excel at theothers. For example, research evidence shows thatoffice buildings which have comfortable andhealthy staff are also likely to be more energyefficient than the norm. There is no directconnection – energy efficiency does not causecomfort or satisfaction by itself but there is anindirect relationship via good managementpractice. As comfort is also linked to staffproductivity, there is convincing evidence insupport of what can be referred to as a ‘virtuouscircle’ where health, comfort, satisfaction,cleanliness, staff productivity and energy efficiencyare all linked together and tend to reinforce eachother, underpinned by a common body of effectivemanagement procedures.

The offices at One Bridewell Street, Bristolillustrate that high performance standards can beachieved through good management practicethroughout the briefing, design, fit-out andoccupancy stages. High performance is the resultof expertise and attention to detail rather thanhigh-tech design solutions.

Office energy costs usually account for only 1-2%of total occupancy costs including salaries and itoften seems a wasted effort to reduce these further.But if effort spent on energy efficiency alsocascades through the organisation so that otherinvisible benefits are gained in health, comfort andproductivity then this gearing effect will quicklypay for the extra cost.

7


Strategic planningForte plc (formerly Trust House Forte), the internationalhotel and restaurant group, has had an energy-efficiency policy since the mid 1970s, when the oil crisisfirst made clear the likely social consequences of finiteenvironmental resources. The policy and itsimplementation has now become a part of thecompany’s normal operation, so that energy mattersalways have a place in the group’s strategic planning.In this way, environmental thinking has becomeinternalised in the company culture, and is no longerperceived by staff as a costly extravagance. A clear linkhas been demonstrated between costs and benefits,and interest engaged at board level. Energy efficiency isnow the norm for facilities managers.

One Bridewell Street

One Bridewell Street Bristol, pre-let by the developerMEPC to Arthur Young (now Ernst and Young), is farmore energy efficient than most air-conditioned offices.

Because well-developed management and qualitycontrol procedures are in place and the building usedsimple and robust designs with good user controlinterfaces, efficient energy performance figures areachieved. The building is also extremely comfortable forits occupants.

Keeping complexity under controlAll buildings impose some kind of managementcost, as they all need cleaning and maintaining tosome extent. However, as buildings become morecomplicated, especially as lighting, heating, coolingand control systems are introduced to servicedeeper plan forms – or to satisfy notions ofcorporate ‘prestige’ – so the management costsincrease more rapidly. Facilities managers are oftenaware of the inefficiencies and costs of buildingswhose complexity outruns the capability ofmanagement resources to cope.

Part of your job may involve coping with theconsequences of unnecessary complexity, forinstance occupant discomfort, tortuous services,incomprehensible controls and dangerousactivities. There are two solutions: simple androbust solutions which help to reduce managementand cost overheads, or seek more resources to helpmanage problems created by physical design.Either strategy may help, but the first is muchmore efficient than the second.

Responding to changesHealth, productivity, satisfaction, comfort and

energy efficiency all tend to be found together

because they all share common good practice

management features. Rapid response to changesin these features is most important to maintainstandards in the organisation. Generally speaking,if your organisation has clear goals which are wellcommunicated, rapid decision-making andresponse, with a good understanding of costs andperformance, it is also likely to be energy efficient.

Response time applies to many different aspects ofthe building – the speed with which the buildingadjusts to human comfort requirements; the easewith which furniture and partitioning layouts canbe changed; how fast the cabling can bereconfigured; the speed with which complaints aredealt with; how fast graffiti is erased and theeffectiveness of maintenance and repair regimes.

8


It is essential to match the physical characteristicsof the building with those of its control system andthe needs of its occupants. The more a building istuned to user needs, and how these change overtime, the better people will like it. This is why it isnot sufficient to provide facilities ‘just in case’ theywill be required, leaving them running whenpeople are not present, because this is intrinsicallywasteful and inefficient. It also shows again howenergy efficiency is connected to goodmanagement elsewhere in the building. The morethe physical and technological systems – fans,pumps, lights, heaters and chillers – switch offwhen not required, the more demand is beingproperly met. So sensitivity to demand and speedof response is critical to good performance.

OpportunitiesIf energy management is only a part of your

job, you will need to focus your efforts to

achieve success. Decide where you stand the mostchance of achieving an improvement and build onthat success.

At a series of energy management workshopsorganised by BRECSU in 1993, 470 facilitiesmanagers were asked what they thought was theirbest opportunity to make progress in energymanagement in their organisation. Their answerswere categorised into the four main areas shown inthe box Opportunities for improvement.

Around 60% of respondents saw their bestopportunity in the area of incentives or promotion.This emphasises the importance to many facilitiesmanagers of an organisational approach toimproving energy performance, and may give yousome ideas for applying to your own situation.

The best time to make a major improvement in

your org a n i s a t i o n ’s environmental perf o rmance is

when a significant change is being considere d. Seebox Changes that create opportunities for the kinds ofthings you need to look for.

9


Opportunities for improvement

Incentives! obtaining top management commitment! implementing an energy policy! offering incentives to individuals or departments

Promotion! publicising cost savings! promoting energy as a ‘green issue’! marketing inside and outside the organisation

Accounting! local responsibility for energy use! energy accounting! investment appraisal

Expertise! broadening personal experience/knowledge ! staff training in good housekeeping! incorporating energy measures in new-build/refurb

Changes that create opportunities• Relocating, acquiring new premises or rationalising

the existing estate

• Altering the organisation’s areas of activity orrevising product/services mix

• Refurbishing existing premises/plant/equipment

• Making major plant/equipment/materials purchases

• Renewal of contracts for maintenance to premises,plant and equipment

These are your major opportunities for makingsignificant improvements to your organisation’senvironmental impact. Notice they operate overdifferent time scales. They happen infrequently.So, when such changes are proposed, you need toseize the opportunities they represent. If you missthem, they will lock your organisation intounnecessarily heavy environmental impacts forlong periods, potentially ranging from a year toseveral decades. Use the set of questions in the boxChecklist for change to help you prepare for whatneeds to be done.

It should be clear from this list of questions

that you will not be able to bring about the

changes you are seeking by yourself. Sometimesyou will need to work with – even build allianceswith – other people inside your organisation, someof whom you have never cooperated with before.Sometimes you will need to look for advice andsupport from outside.

Energy management matrixTo be successful organisations need to adopt a

balanced approach to energy management.There is not much sense in having a highlysophisticated information system if the informationis never used by managers.

To help facilities managers measure theirorganisation’s approach to energy management,the Department of the Environment has publishedan Energy Management Matrix. This is describedin detail in BRECSU/DOE General InformationReports 12 and 13.

You can use the matrix to draw a profile for yourown organisation. The shape of this profileindicates where energy management is more or lessadvanced and where attention needs to be directed.

10


Checklist for change• In what order are opportunities likely to occur?

• Will any of them occur in the next six months?

• Are these the ones you should concentrate on first?

• Will others initiate them without consulting you?

• How can you influence their decision-making?

• Are there changes you should be initiating yourself?

• What do you need to do now to be prepared?

• With whom do you need to consult or negotiate?

• Who has the authority to sanction the decisions?

• Who holds the budgets that will need to be tapped?

• Should you act as a broker between these people?

Different profile shapes imply different problemsand suggest different courses of action:

1 A flat line at the top of the matrix meansexcellent performance. The problem is tomaintain this high standard.

2 A flat line in the middle or low down means lessadvanced performance. Possibly you have onlyjust started to think about energy management.

3 The u shape indicates that policy andinvestment are more advanced. This is a riskyshape. Adopting a corporate policy andinvesting in energy efficiency means that seniormanagement attention will be focused on youbut the other areas of energy management areundeveloped and this puts your effort at risk.

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InvestmentMarketingInformationsystems

Motivation

1

2

3

4

0

Energy Policy

Organising

Active commitment of top management

Formal policy but no commitment from top

Unadopted policy

Unwritten set of guidelines

No explicit policy

Fully integrated into general management

Clear delegation and accountability

Delegation but line management and authority unclear

Informal part-time responsibilty

No delegation of energy management

No awareness of the need to save energy

No information system or accounting for consumption

No marketing or promotion

No investment in energy efficiency

Only low cost measures taken

Investment with short term payback only

Same appraisal criteria used as for all other investment

Positve discrimination in favour of 'green' schemes

Extensive marketing within and outside organisation

Comprehensive system with effective management reporting

Monthly monitoring and targeting for individual premises

Monthly monitoring and targeting by fuel type

Invoice checking

Regular publicity campaigns

Some ad hoc staff awareness training

Informal contacts used to promote energy efficiency

All staff accept responsibilty for saving energy

Motivation patchy or sporadic

Some staff awareness of importance of energy saving

Most major users motivated to save energy

The Matrix

Locate your own organisation on thematrix by:

1 Considering each column, one at atime. Mark the place in each column whichbest describes where you think you arecurrently located. You can put your mark inthe middle of the square, between squaresor anywhere between 0 and 4 on the scale.

2 Joining up your marks across thecolumns to produce a graph line.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7The Profile! provides a diagnostic tool for assessingenergy management in your own organisation

! helps you focus on one area to attempt tomake progress

4 The n shape is the opposite condition. Thestructure is in place and motivation is high, butthere is no corporate commitment and nomoney for investment so little is likely to beachieved and this effort will be wasted.

5 The trough reflects good performance on allfronts but one and this imbalance may holdback achievement on a broad front.

6 The peak shows that one area is more advancedthan the rest and since there is no support forthis advance this effort will also be wasted.

7 Imbalanced profiles show that again effort islikely to be wasted because some areas are moreadvanced than others. About a third of delegatesto the workshops drew this kind of profile.

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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

There is little doubt that facilities managers are increasingly being asked tothink ‘green’. The principles of the green agenda have gained widespreadacceptance – but how can good intentions be turned into action?

Thinking greenOrganisations need to pay increasing attention tothe environmental impact of their operations.However, the extent to which you are currentlyexpected to take action on this front varies. Youmay work for an organisation that has alreadyintroduced an environmental policy. Perhaps yourorganisation has even decided to comply with theBritish Standard in this area, BS 7750, or theEuropean EMAS (Eco-Management and AuditScheme) and is setting about introducing anappropriate environmental management system.Maybe reducing your organisation’s environmentalimpact, through improved management of itsfacilities, has already been written explicitly intoyour job description. If you are in any of thesepositions, then you need to be able to recogniseand act upon the opportunities open to you to helpyou to deliver these responsibilities.

Or you may work in an organisation that hasn’t gotan environmental policy. If you do, the likelihoodis that it will introduce one in the foreseeablefuture, even if only in response to growing UKgovernment and European legislation anddirectives, if not because of pressure fromshareholders, financial institutions or consumers.In this case, your organisation’s ability to show thatit is making progress on this front will becomemore important over time, as clients, customers,and staff become more aware of green issues

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through the publication of indicators showingwhich organisations are performing best.

It is important to draw a distinction betweenlegislation which you have to comply with, like theHealth and Safety at Work Act, and codes ofpractice which are voluntary, like the BS 7750. (Seethe box UK and EU legislation.) The BritishStandard assumes, for instance, that compliancewith existing legislation is the bedrock minimumagainst which your organisation measures itsenvironmental performance. The Standard dealswith the kinds of management structures, actionplans, and review processes you need to put inplace to make successive improvements over time.Outside of the Building Regulations (which onlyapply to new buildings and extensions), action toreduce energy consumption remains voluntary inthe UK at present. So this chapter concentrates onvoluntary actions which, like the Department ofthe Environment’s Energy Efficiency Office’s BestPractice programme, describe managementpractices and technological opportunities aboveminimum statutory requirements.

Although voluntary at present there will be

increasing pressure to comply with these

standards. If you attend to them now you will savemoney and hassle in the future.

Identifying environmental impacts The mix of fuels that your organisation consumesgives rise to varying amounts of carbon dioxideemissions which contribute to the threat of globalwarming through the so-called Greenhouse Effect(see the CO2 emissions box). If your buildings haveair-conditioning systems that are operatinginefficiently, then you may be releasing CFCswhich deplete the ozone layer. Both of theseimpacts occur at the global level.

The electricity you consume may be supplied bypower stations that are emitting sulphur dioxide,harming plant and animal life not only within theUK but far away amongst our Northern Europeanneighbours.

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UK and EU legislation and codes of practiceIt is important to draw a distinction between mandatorylegislation and codes of practice which are voluntary.

MandatoryHealth and Safety at Work Act 1974

Environmental Protection Act 1990

COSHH Regulations 1989 and 1990

EEC Workplace Directive 1989

Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment)Regulations 1992

Noise at Work Regulations 1989

VoluntaryBS 7750 Environmental Management System 1994(revised version)

EC Eco-Management and Audit Scheme 1993

BRE Environmental Assessment Method 1990

BSRIA Environmental Code of Practice 1994

DOE Energy Efficiency Best Practice programme

(Making a Corporate Commitment campaign)

CO2 emissionskg/kWh pence/kWhdelivered

Electricity 0.68 6.37

Coal 0.32 0.99

Petroleum 0.28 0.97

Gas 0.19 1.31

1993 Figures: Building Energy Efficiency Group, BRE.

Electricity produces four times as much CO2 as gas andcosts five times as much.

As facilities manager, there are strategic decisionsyour organisation makes over which you have nocontrol. But you do need to be aware of theirenergy and environmental impact – not leastbecause, overall, they may undermineimprovements you make in how much energy isconsumed inside your buildings.

If your organisation has chosen a location whichmeans that most of your staff have to commute towork by car, then this will add to pollution at thelocal level, both in terms of traffic noise andcongestion, as well as reducing air quality throughharmful emissions. Transport is the fastest growingarea of energy consumption in the UK.

Strategic decisions, like choosing a location foryour new premises so that staff can use publictransport, can be more important than day-to-dayoperational decisions about whether you userecycled paper or switch to low energy light bulbs.If you are responsible for reducing yourorganisation’s environmental impact, you will haveto operate at both these levels:

• strategic – infrequent actions with largeenvironmental impacts

• operational – frequent actions with smallenvironmental impacts.

How regularly and how well you clean yourpremises – both in terms of plant and equipmentand furnishing and fittings – will also affect airquality inside and outside your buildings.Inadequate maintenance to cooling plant andequipment, for instance, can lead to the risk ofoccupants and even passers-by contractinglegionnaires’ disease. Inadequate internal cleaningcan lead to allergic reactions, affecting occupants’health, increasing staff turnover and absenteeism,and so reducing your organisation’s productivity.

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The box Environmental impact shows a wide rangeof impacts. which your organisation may be havingon the environment. Depending on where you arelocated in your organisation, and how yourresponsibilities are defined, you may be required tointroduce policies and practices to manage any oreven all of these.

Looking at this list may help you to assess whereyour own responsibilities currently lie and who elseyou need to collaborate with, inside yourorganisation, in order to deliver an effective andcomprehensive environmental strategy.

Just how significant is energy?Buildings consume about half the energy used inthe UK and are responsible for a similarproportion of CO2 emissions. Although energy

consumption isn’t your organisation’s only

environmental impact, it is probably one of its

most significant. Facilities managers haveestimated that it represents somewhere between25-50% of the environmental impact that they arepersonally responsible for reducing. Energyconsumption is certainly involved, in one way oranother, in most environmental impact.

Properly managing your energy consumption maybe the only area in which you can reduce yourorganisation’s environmental impact withoutimposing additional costs. Indeed, making yourorganisation more energy efficient will often leaddirectly to cost savings. So gaining control overyour energy consumption, and managing thisresource more effectively, are good ways to startimplementing an environmental strategy.

But success on the energy front alone is notenough. Successful environmental managementrequires a holistic, integrated approach. You need

to make progress across a broad range of fronts

and avoid over concentrating on single issues.Above all, you have to guard against making

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Environmental impactInternal Thermal comfort, glare, air quality, noise,allergy risk from toxic materials and processes, qualityof cleaning

Local Air pollution (CO, CO2, NO2) and noise fromcommuting and from on-site operations; landcontamination; water pollution; Legionnaires’ diseasefrom cooling systems

Regional SO2 pollution from electricity generation and

CO2 pollution from transport energy consumption

Global CO2 emissions contributing to globalwarming; CFC emissions contributing to depletion ofozone layer; depletion of finite resources, eg energy,hardwoods, top soil, bio-diversity

improvements in one area that lead to higherenvironmental impact in another.

Identifying prioritiesIt isn’t possible to be categorical about what youshould do first. This will depend on a large numberof factors, including:

• the nature of the organisation you work for andits types of activities and operations

• your range of environmental impacts and theirintensity

• whether you have a fully developedenvironmental strategy in place or are juststarting out down the road to effectiveenvironmental management

• whether you are responsible for formulatingpolicy or simply implementing one that hasalready been decided elsewhere

• the level of corporate commitment you candepend on and the extent to which this has beentranslated into access to resources, staff time orexternal expertise.

For all these reasons, facilities managerslegitimately disagree about what should be givenpriority. What you need to do is identify what ismost appropriate in your own particular case.

One of the most important factors affecting yourchances of success is your personal style – how youlike to get things done – and how well this mesheswith the circumstances you find yourself in.

Some people prefer a systematic approach toenergy management:

• defining a policy

• gaining corporate commitment for it

• getting the right management and auditingsystems in place

• assembling a robust database about currentperformance

• drawing up a short-term action plan, and

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• developing a long-term programme of work.

Others like a more ‘ad hoc’ approach:

• narrowing in immediately on a substantive issuewhere rapid achievements are possible, and

• using these achievements to signal the benefitsof ‘going green’.

These two approaches, the ‘systematic’ and the ‘adhoc’, have their strengths and weaknesses. Youneed to choose one that best suits you and thecorporate culture of the organisation in which youwork. In the medium-term, it is worth trying tomesh these two approaches together into acoherent whole, through a series of short-termgoals underpinned by an adequately resourced,long-term strategy.

Setting goals and performance indicatorsOn the energy front alone, there is a widespectrum of ways in which you can set yourselfgoals and targets. It is important here to be clearabout what you are actually trying to achieve. Isyour aim solely to save your organisation money?If so, you can probably do this through buyingyour fuels more cheaply or by installing equipmentthat will make you more productive or efficient.But, while both of these measures may reduce yourbills (energy and/or staff costs), the first won’treduce the amount of energy you consume and thesecond may actually increase it (whilst deliveringimproved output). Even if your goal is to reducethe amount of energy you consume, is this to bemeasured in an absolute or relative way?

Senior management may be keen to reduce energyconsumption, but they are unlikely to be willingfor this to occur at the expense of core businessobjectives. Core objectives may involve growthdiversification and possibly a more energyintensive mix of products. The aim, of course, is toachieve the required level of output for theminimum use of energy.

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TargetsDefine targets and performance indicators which arerealistic and will work in your organisation.

Set reduction targets:• per heated area (m2) volume (m3), or• per member of staff, or• per unit of production or service delivered

Report results by:• reduced consumption, fuel by fuel, or• reduced fuel bills, section by section, or• reduced CO2 emissions, section by section

BUILDING PROJECTS

Involvement in major building projects is the exception rather than the rule forfacilities managers. But these projects – whether new build or refurbishment –provide a special opportunity for higher standards of energy efficiency. Thischapter explains how to keep energy efficiency high on the agenda.

‘Let’s build!’From time to time the facilities manager’s routineis interrupted by a dramatic event – a new buildingor a major refurbishment project. Suddenlybudgets are measured in millions of pounds insteadof thousands and all the defects and difficulties youhave learned to live with are up for grabs. It’s anexciting opportunity – but a challenge. How doyou make the best of it?

It is vital that your organisation’s requirements

and objectives dominate the project, and this

includes your energy efficiency objectives.

This chapter describes some factors that will affectthe ultimate energy efficiency of the new building,and suggests some ways that you as facilitiesmanager can contribute to, and influence, theproject. This advice should be relevant for anyproject involving significant expenditure onbuilding work other than routine maintenanceexpenditure, including new build, refurbishmentand fit-outs or re-fits.

Briefing and commissioning are critical pointsin the dialogue between users and theconstruction industry.

In briefing the design team you describe thebuilding you require, including its energyperformance, and in commissioning you checkwhether you are getting what you ordered. Seethe box The building process.

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The building processThe development of a new building begins with aproblem or a need. Pre-design studies lead to thecrystallisation of a brief. The facilities manager shouldbe fully involved at this stage. The initiative then passesto the design and construction professionals who turnthe brief into reality. Their work is monitored by thefacilities manager who returns to centre stage oncommissioning.

Pre-design – when to build, what to build, where to buildMany of the facilities manager’s most critical inputsare made before the design stage is reached. Theproject really begins with the emergence orperception of an accommodation problem or need,often caused by growth, by new activities, or by theobsolescence of existing buildings.

The most important single pre-design decision isthat a new building is needed. No subsequentdecision will ever have as much impact. Is a newbuilding really needed? Consider, for example,whether rationalising the use of existing buildingscould solve the accommodation problem.

Early decisions have the most impact whileomissions are difficult and expensive to remedylater.

About 65% of the cost-critical decisions in abuilding project are made by the time the brief iswritten, about 25% are made during design, andonly about 10% during construction. Yet only 15%of the expenditure goes on pre-design and designactivities, and 85% is spent on construction itself.A similar pattern applies to energy use – almost allof the energy-critical decisions are made beforeconstruction begins, and the pre-design phase isthe most important of all. See the box Diminishingeffect of decisions.

Let’s assume that a new building is the rightsolution. Some key issues that must be addressed inthe pre-design stage are outlined in the box Pre-design – key points. Some of them may not appear tobe energy-related issues, but in fact basic factorslike the size of building and its location have adramatic effect on energy consumption.

The role of the facilities manager in these vital pre-design studies will vary from organisation toorganisation and project to project. Certainly thefacilities manager will not work single handed;often professional advisors are brought in even atthis pre-design stage.

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Diminishing effect of decisionsAbout 65% of the cost-critical decisions in a buildingproject are made by the time the brief is written, about25% are made during design, and only about 10%during construction. Yet only 15% of the expendituregoes on pre-design and design activities, and 85% isspent on construction itself.

A similar pattern applies to energy use – almost all ofthe energy-critical decisions are made beforeconstruction begins, and the pre-design phase is themost important of all.

Pre-design – key pointsLocation – An energy efficient building in a locationreached only by private car might easily cause a netincrease in energy consumption.

Incremental change to stock – Aim for the greatestincremental improvement in performance of yourorganisation’s whole stock of buildings, don’t focusnarrowly on the new part. Can poorly-performingbuildings be taken out of use?

Energy inflation – Be aware of the tendency forrefurbishment projects to cause increased energyconsumption, due to improved performance standards.

Activity analysis – There must be an accommodationproblem or you wouldn’t be thinking of a new building,but take the opportunity to think really carefully aboutwhat kind of building would be most appropriate.

Organising the projectNearly all building projects will involve designersand builders from outside your organisation.

You should ensure that your building is

designed by people who know about energy in

design.

The best way of assessing whether prospectivemembers of the design team are well qualified foran energy efficient project is to study their previouswork – have they been involved in projects whereenergy efficiency was an important priority, anddid they come up with convincing ideas? – as wellas their general background and approach. Toidentify practices with a track record of energyefficient design, there is a central advisory body aswell as professional institutions. Or you could alsolook through architectural and constructionjournals and books – see the box Finding an energyefficient designer.

When energy efficiency is an important designobjective you should consider adding an energyconsultant to the design team – put forward thisidea if the team do not do so themselves. Theadvantage of such an appointment is that an energyconsultant can focus specifically on energy,whereas it is only one of many issues which arecompeting for the attention of the team members.Also, a non-specialist may not be familiar with thelatest developments in energy efficient design.Additional consultants will increase the bill forprofessional fees, but successful advice pays foritself many times over in the lifetime of thebuilding.

Briefing for energy efficiencyBefore the brief is written, you should make surethat the objective of energy efficiency is agreed andaccepted within your organisation – that yours isnot a lone voice. You will need allies. The moresenior their positions in the organisation the better– ideally you want the top person to be decisivelyon the side of energy efficiency.

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Finding an energy efficient designerWho you appoint as your design team is critical toachieving an energy efficient design. But finding anenergy efficient designer is not easy.

Networking:Use your contacts in the facilities management world.

Free advisory service:Energy Design Advice Scheme – with regional offices,supported by DTI. EDAS holds a register of consultants.

Case studies: DOE publishes a series of case studies of energyefficient buildings – available free of charge.

Periodicals:Architects’ Journal, Building (both weekly)

Books:Visit and browse at the RIBA Bookshop (66 PortlandPlace, London, and in Belfast, Birmingham, Cambridge,Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham); the BuildingCentre Bookshop (Store Street, London); or the RICSBookshop (Great George Street, London).

Professional bodies:RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) – contact theClients Advisory Service

RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors)

CIBSE (Chartered Institute of Building ServicesEngineers)

Your organisation’s basic commitment to energyefficiency must be communicated to the projectteam from the outset – it should be raised whenyou are interviewing prospective project teammembers. It must be stated in the written brief andre-stated throughout the briefing dialogue.

All projects try to satisfy multiple criteria, butgenerally a few high profile issues ‘lead’ the project– they are the ones which mould the basic designconcept and the ones which are least compromisedif there are conflicts between competing criteria.Energy efficiency should be in the position of a‘leading’ objective.

Your objectives for the building project must becommunicated effectively to the design team viathe project brief. If they are not properly briefedthere is a danger that they will make decisionsbased on their preferences – or their last client’spreferences – and not on yours. There is no single,foolproof formula for briefing. It is almost always aprocess involving interaction between the clientand project team, but a central feature is usually awritten document – the brief.

The task of writing the brief can be handled indifferent ways: as an internal exercise by the clientorganisation, by specialist consultants appointedbefore the main project team, or as the projectteam’s first task. Here we are concerned with whatthe brief says about energy – see the box Briefingfor energy efficiency. Energy performance is only onepart of the brief, and it will not be the largest part.If you want an energy efficient building youmust say so in the brief.

Simply stating and re-stating your commitmentestablishes energy efficiency as a project objective.That may be all you say about energy efficiency inthe brief, relying on the project team to ask theright questions and make the right designdecisions. But such a non-specific brief does notactually help the project team very much – they areleft to interpret your priorities on your behalf; nordoes it help you to know for sure whether the endproduct meets your expectations.

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Briefing for energy efficiency• Brief may (should?) evolve during design.

• Don’t try and create a fictional, ‘perfect’ brief.

• It is easy to write an impossible brief – always checkfor feasibility.

• Get the project team to accept the brief formally.

• If you state your brief as a set of performancerequirements the project team have maximumflexibility to consider design alternatives.

If you can state your energy efficiency targets morespecifically, everybody will be in a better positionto reach a successful outcome.

A thorough energy brief contains information ofthree types, describing:

1 your performance requirements, withoutspecifying how the project team should achievethem;

2 any design features that you want the projectteam to include in the building;

3 background data that the project team needs toknow in order to make the right energy designdecisions.

Performance requirements Briefing throughperformance requirements is extremely powerful,pinning down the project team’s targets but givingthem scope for imaginative solutions. There aremany sources of information to help you selectappropriate energy performance targets. Or youmay decide to use specialist consultants to setperformance requirements in the brief. Theperformance indicators you use should bemeasurable in the finished building – otherwiseyou will never know whether they have been metor not. (An example of an unmeasurableperformance indicator would be, ‘energyconsumption to be lower than the average of allnew buildings completed in the same year’.)

Design features As well as specifyingperformance requirements, you can use the brief totell the project team what specific design featuresyou want in your building. This applies to energyand environmental design just as much as tomaterials, spatial features, etc. You may wantcondensing boilers, natural ventilation, highefficiency lighting, and so on. But remember thatthe brief describes a problem, not a solution. If thebrief encroaches too far into design matters youmay find the designers have to keep coming backto ask if they can make changes to the brief; or,what is worse, they may fail to explore fruitfuldesign options.

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Background data The brief also tells the projectteam about aspects of your organisation that affectenergy efficient design. How many people willthere be in the building? doing what? how manymachines? of what type? what are the hours ofoperation? are the activity patterns stable orvariable? – and so on.

Important issues relate to capital investmentpolicies: some energy efficient design optionsincrease building cost in exchange for reducedrunning costs. Does your organisation have a long-term or short-term time horizon? is there amaximum payback period? or a minimum rate ofreturn on investment? (see also ‘Capital spending’,p.54).

Having got all this information, or as much of it aspossible, into a written brief you must still expect adialogue with the project team. They may ask youquestions which do not appear to have anyrelevance to energy efficiency, but which may becritical to the choice between design options. Forexample, if a handful of people sometimes worklate, you may need a completely different methodof controlling the lighting.

Do not set targets that are incompatible – like, forexample, asking for both natural ventilation andconstant, cool interior temperatures which couldonly be achieved with air-conditioning. Your briefshould set challenging but achievable targets.

Design and constructionOnce you have briefed the project team you haveto judge their proposals in terms of all the criteriaset out in the brief, including energy efficiency.

Be a demanding client. Insist that the project teamexplain the energy strategy and preferably presentquantified predictions of energy performance. Ifyou have set performance standards in the brief,ask for performance data for the design proposals.Where alternative options are under consideration,ask for comparative data to justify selections.

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An issue that is likely to come up in the appraisal ofdesign proposals is lifetime energy use, includingenergy used in construction, during the life of thebuilding, and even in demolition and re-use ofmaterials. The energy used in the manufacture andtransportation of the materials in a building and inthe construction process itself is known as abuilding’s embodied energy – see the box Embodiedenergy. The numbers are significant; for example,the embodied energy in a typical new officebuilding is approximately equal to the energy usedto run it for five years. If materials have to bereplaced several times in the life of a building, theembodied energy of each replacement should beconsidered in the lifetime energy use. These ideasare still in their infancy and it is too early to expectmost design professionals to present calculationsfor lifetime energy, but this will definitely changeas research data becomes established and theseideas are more widely accepted.

Do not give approval to the design until you arereally satisfied that it meets your objectives – itmay be difficult to make changes at a late stage ofdesign but it is even more difficult onceconstruction has started, let alone when thebuilding is finished.

Projects under construction have to be carefullymonitored, but it is unlikely that new issues willarise that have a major impact on energy efficiency.The main mechanism for monitoring constructionis usually a monthly report which tends to focus onprogress and cost. Regular site inspections mayidentify unforeseen issues – it is often difficult toanticipate fully what a building will be like fromdrawings. It is problematic to make late changes –but if changes are necessary, the sooner the better.

Commissioning and useAlong with briefing, commissioning is a criticalstage in the users’ dialogue with the project team.In the brief you tell the project team what youwant, and in commissioning, the project team handover what they have provided.

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Embodied energyEven though the quantity of energy consumed in abuilding during its lifetime will be many times theenergy consumed in its production, there are a numberof reasons why reducing embodied energy is importantfor environmental improvement:

• The manufacture of many building materials isinherently energy intensive, but there are significantdifferences in the energy consumption of alternativeprocesses.

• Manufacturing processes often have the opportunityfor using low grade energy in place of high gradeenergy, i.e. minimising the use of electricity.

• There are wide differences in the embodied energycontent of alternative materials, so savings could bemade without having to make design changes.

• Savings in the embodied energy in a building aremade at once, whereas savings in the energy used in abuilding accumulate over many years.

In the worst case, it is only when the building isfinished that the facilities manager actually getsinvolved. If this happens to you, try to ensure thatyou are at least involved in commissioning and thatthe design concept and all the systems in thebuilding are fully explained to you, so that youunderstand how the building is expected to work.

The procedures for commissioning should be fullyspecified in the original brief – see the boxCommissioning new buildings. Only after all aspectshave been carried out satisfactorily is the projectfinished. Commissioning includes inspection andapproval of all parts of the completed building andworking demonstrations of all components,including energy-consuming plant andenvironmental control systems. Particularattention should be paid to control systems,especially where innovative or complex controlsare incorporated. Malfunctioning control systemsare an extremely common cause of sub-optimalenergy performance and the facilities manager’srole is absolutely vital in preventing this.

Every new building should be handed over with a‘user handbook’, prepared by the project team. Itshould include full information about the building,how to use it and how to maintain it, includinghealth and safety aspects of maintenance. Aftergaining experience of using the building, thefacilities manager may be able to augment andimprove the manual for the benefit of futurefacilities managers during the life of the building.Facilities managers should also keep it up to date.

The new project is now a building in use and theadvice on monitoring and management set out inthe chapter Buildings in use applies. With a newbuilding you have an added incentive to monitorperformance to make sure that the exciting ideas ofenergy efficiency you dreamed about at theinception of the project turn into reality.

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Commissioning new buildingsCommissioning procedures should be set out in thebrief. For electrical and mechanical plant thecommissioning procedures can be lengthy and detailed– they are set out in industry-standard manuals. Thebasic principles, which apply to all aspects of thebuilding, are:

• Inspections for completeness and quality.

• Testing, demonstration and instructions on allelectrical or mechanical systems.

• Training in the use of the building and equipment.

• Full documentation including ‘as built’ drawingsand specifications, suppliers’ names, maintenanceschedules, service contracts.

• Testing and approvals certificates from all statutoryand other bodies.

• Health and safety data about cleaning andmaintenance of the building.

• Meter reading for all services and utilities.

BUILDINGS IN USE

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the managementaspects of gaining control of energy in existing buildings. Part 2 provides moredetailed advice on technical and financial aspects of energy management.

‘What’s the problem?’Managing buildings ought to be fairlystraightforward; after all we have been creatingshelter for large complex activities for thousands ofyears. Of course buildings have become moresophisticated, but not to the same extent as, say,transportation. So what is the problem?

Ask facilities managers and, with a wry smile, nineout of ten will tell you it’s the people. If only thestaff would behave sensibly and not fiddle with theheating on a Monday morning or if only peoplewould turn the lights off when they weren’tnecessary. Facilities managers will also say they faceparticular problems in their organisation – thelighting in a television studio creates overheatingproblems, or the widely differing age and types ofbuildings on a hospital campus pose complexcontrol problems.

Facilities managers have a point. The job is mademore difficult because most of the occupants wantto be able to get on with their job without havingto think about the building. What if the buildingresponded spontaneously, like our skin or ourheart, to the changing needs of its individualoccupants? Systems are available that allow us tocontrol all aspects of the internal environment andmake it responsive to changes in the weather andoccupancy. Isn’t the answer to automate?

We know that well thought-out buildings that havebeen designed to avoid obvious problems are much

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easier to manage and more pleasant to work inthan badly designed buildings that overheat orhave little daylight. But we also know that time andagain highly automated buildings fail. As in mostthings there is a happy medium, and it is up to youas the facilities manager to find it. But you are notalone. There are tried and tested ways of doingthings and solutions to the problems you come upagainst. You can tap into this communal wisdomby joining a local energy management forum orby employing an outside consultant to adviseyou.

Different types of buildings in different industriespose very different management problems, whichmakes it difficult to give a simple description ofhow you should go about managing your premises.Nevertheless there is a common thread that can beadapted and applied to most situations and thisthread provides the eight steps to gaining controlof energy consumption that are introduced later inPart 2. First though we will look at some of the keyfactors which create differences.

Some of these have been discussed in the chapteron Needs and opportunities. What goes on in yourbuildings; the corporate culture in which you haveto operate; the attitudes of staff and buildingoccupants to energy efficiency and topmanagement interest and support will all influenceyour approach to energy management and the styleyou adopt. Two aspects of the building stock itselfwill also have a big influence: tenure and buildingtype.

TenureAttitudes to energy conservation action vary withtenure. If you are an owner occupier there will bestrong incentives for both reducing running costsby good management and for upgrading your stockby investing in energy efficiency. If, on the otherhand, you are a tenant there will be less incentiveto invest in capital projects. Although mostlandlords do not have to pay for energy used intheir buildings there will be circumstances, for

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example when tenants are exerting pressure for arent reduction, where it is important to increaseenergy efficiency in order to reduce service chargesand thus maintain the headline rent.

Whether you occupy the whole of the building oronly a part will also affect your energymanagement. There is little incentive to be energyefficient for tenants occupying part of a buildingon a service contract where the energy costs areapportioned by floor area. It is importanttherefore to ensure that service charges arebased on metered consumption for the part ofthe building you actually occupy.

The same reasoning would also apply on a campussite such as a university or hospital where youwanted to introduce cost-centre accounting tomake individual departments responsible for theirenergy consumption. Apportioning charges on anybasis other than actual consumption is unlikely tohave the desired effect. So unless you can discretelyidentify consumption by local metering do not optfor departmental budgeting.

Building typeThe type of buildings you occupy will determinehow you need to go about energy management.Some types of buildings are much more difficult tomanage than others. For example campus sitessuch as acute hospitals are more complex thansmaller, simply serviced buildings such as schools.The more complex the problem the greater theneed to employ full-time energy management staffor contract out your energy management.

The size of your building portfolio will alsodetermine your approach. Managing 3000branches is obviously of a different order tomanaging a single shop or office building and willneed standardised procedures and computerisation.Some buildings consume much more energy thanothers so the potential savings are much higher andconsequently the return on effort is much greater.

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Building tenure

Tenancy Control Low cost Capital consumption measures investment

Owner occupier yes yes yes

Full repairing yes yes yes

Service contract indirect interest no no

Landlord no financial maybe maybeinterest

Building type

Campus eg hospital, or widely dispersed diverse stock

Widely dispersed similar buildings eg retail chains, banks

Highly serviced buildings eg air-conditioned office

Simply serviced buildings eg schools

more complex less complex

large portfolio

small portfolio

Possible pitfallsSometimes our best intentioned efforts to improveenergy efficiency and reduce waste can fail.Introducing new technology to improve efficiencycan turn out to be ineffective or evencounterproductive. Ill thought-out managementmeasures to reduce costs or motivate staff can turnout to have the opposite effect. So you must try toavoid doing more harm than good.

Technological pitfalls

! The technical measure is not used as envisagedbecause it is too complex for people tounderstand, so it gets disabled.

! Dramatic malfunctions occur as a result offactors that the designers failed to anticipate,often because they did not understand how thetechnology would be used.

! The fix imposes limitations or rigidity onbehaviour that people don’t like so they subvertits use.

Management pitfalls

! Inconsistent top management support whichproduces uncertainty and lack of direction.

! Re-organisation which creates chaos at thesharp end of building management andmaintenance with a loss of continuity andcontrol.

! Bureaucracy that spawns paperwork andadministrative ritual rather than any realimprovement.

! Incentive schemes based on dubiousapportioning of costs which lose credibility andbecome a disincentive.

Reducing waste is important, it makes theorganisation more cost effective, it reduces theimpact on the environment and it has spin-offeffects on all other aspects of good managementand healthy organisations. But facilitiesmanagement can itself become a waste. If you get

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lost in the technology or get sidetracked by thedata then you will be wasting your own time andeffort and your organisation will be the loser.

So beware. Often you are on your own with littleguidance from above. Regularly ask: am I using mytime effectively? Is there a simpler way of doingthis that would get there quicker and more easily?

The answer is to keep it simple, involve others

in the process and remember what you are

trying to achieve.

This chapter has provided an overview of buildingsin use. Part 2 gives detailed tactical guidance aboutmanaging energy in buildings.

Gaining controlPart 2 of this primer provides eight Practical Stepsto gaining control. Twenty facilities managers froma wide variety of organisations in the public andprivate sector helped devise the steps. They arepresented in a logical order from Step 1:Preliminary survey to Step 8: Capital spending.

As we suggested in the opening chapter, you canstart anywhere. If you are new to facilitiesmanagement or if your organisation has onlyrecently begun to think about energy managementthen start at the beginning and work through thesteps systematically.

The eight steps provide an overview. The intentionis to help you clarify what is possible and practicalin your own circumstances and to guide you towhere you need to look for help.

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Practical steps

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PART 2 PRACTICAL STEPS

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PRELIMINARY SURVEYTake a quick look round your buildings to see how they operate and tointroduce yourself to people. The aim is to identify which parts of the buildingand what plant is causing energy waste.

Walk round the site and buildings at differenttimes of the day and different days of the week.Don’t focus on energy but look at how the wholebuilding operates. Which parts get too hot orremain too cold?

Look at the fabric. Where is heat lost throughinadequate insulation, ill-fitting windows or opendoors? Is the heat loss due to inadequatespecification or to poor workmanship? Make a noteof how this heat loss might be reduced and use thisinformation in your Plan of Action.

Check the lighting. Choose mid-morning on anovercast day. Which lights are left on when theyare no longer needed? What kind of lamp fittingsare being used? Are they kept clean? Find theswitches. Could these be relocated to make thelighting more efficient?

Check temperature and time controls and relatethese to how the building is supposed to operate.

Talk to the maintenance staff and checkmaintenance records. Telephone the previousfacilities manager. Where are the problems?

Talk to the occupants as you walk round. What dothey think of the building? Try not to raiseexpectations but don’t pretend staff and theirattitudes to the building don’t exist. Check sicknessrecords. Are staff in some parts of the buildinggoing sick more often than others?

A Practical Guide to Energy Auditing in Buildings,(BRECSU/EEO, 1994), provides matrices to helpyou assess and record the performance of hotwater, space heating, lighting and building fabric.

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BENCHMARKING CONSUMPTIONThe first step to gaining control is knowing how much energy you areconsuming and whether this is much more than you could be using with bettermanagement.

To assess your energy consumption you compareyour performance against national averages fororganisations in the same sector as yourself. Twotechniques are presented: one needing little data;and one that needs a great deal but provides moreinsight into how you might improve.

Benchmarking energy costThis is a quick and simple technique designed togive you a rough idea of how efficiently you arecurrently using energy in relation to other similarorganisations in your sector and secondly toindicate what the total savings are likely to be fromgood energy management.

The technique is based on the strong relationshipbetween size of operation and energyconsumption.

To use this benchmark you will only need figuresfor your total energy spend last year in £ and yourtotal turnover or revenue. Calculate what

percentage energy is of total revenue and thencompare your figure with the table in the boxEnergy costs.

If your buildings are in the ‘Problem Building’column then you need to act immediately anddevote effort and resources to investigating andtackling the problem.

To report energy savings to motivate staff as part ofan awareness raising campaign it may help totranslate energy costs into other units such asnumber of teacher days in a school or number ofpatient attendances at a clinic.

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Energy costs

Building Sector Average Problem Performances BuildingConsiderable Need to room for act improvement immediately

Retail 0.5–1% >1%

Banks and agencies 0.8–1% >1%

Nat. vent. offices 1–2% >2%

Hospitals 1.5–3% >3%

Higher education 3–4% >4%

Transport termini 3–5% >5%

Local authorities 2–3% >3%

Source: Data collected at EEO Energy ManagementWorkshops in 1993 and 1994 attended by nearly 2000 UKenergy managers.

Benchmarking energy consumptionTo give you a sharper indication of your energyperformance you can compare your energyconsumption with norms for your building sector.As well as allowing you to benchmark yourperformance against other organisations thistechnique also allows comparisons between similarbuildings in your estate.

Part 3 provides a table of Performance indicators fordifferent building types which summarises theinformation in the Introduction to Energy Efficiencyin Buildings series published by the DOE.

To use this benchmark you will need figures foryour total energy consumption of each of the fuelsyou used last year and accurate estimates of yourfloor area. The figures for consumption you willget from your invoices. Using Table 1 Convertingconsumption in Part 3, translate these units ofenergy into kilowatt hours.

Get photocopies of all your energy bills for the lasttwo or three years. It might also be appropriate tobegin your systematic collation of energy data byestablishing a steady stream of copies of futureinvoices to be sent to you. This data will benecessary for monitoring your consumption.

The figures for floor area may be more difficult toobtain and depending on the size of your portfoliothis exercise will demand time and effort. ThePerformance indicators table indicates whether youneed treated or gross area.

You may have figures for gross area from cleaningcontracts or lettable floor area from estate agentsand if you are confident that these figures arereliable then use them. If figures are not availablein your property records then you will need tomeasure from plans of your buildings and you willneed to check that they are up-to-date.

This technique gives a fairly crude indication ofthe scope for improved performance. This meansthat you should not use this benchmarkingapproach if you cannot get reliable floor area dataaccurate to 10-20% of the true figure.

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LOW COST OPPORTUNITIESBefore you have to spend any real money to get savings there are many low costmeasures you can take. This is the low hanging fruit you need to pick to get thesupport and funding for bigger projects.

Even if you have been engaged in energymanagement for a good while, a fresh eye canproduce new ideas or a change can open up newopportunities.

Look for the obvious: ensure that you buy yourenergy at the cheapest price, that you are burningfuel efficiently and that you are not wasting energyby overheating your buildings or by lighting themunnecessarily.

Energy procurementThe market for energy has been opened up to eventhe smallest consumers and ensuring that you arebuying your energy at the cheapest price could

save your organisation about 15% of your

energy bill.

Gas

In future, the gas supply industry will be fullyderegulated. At present there are more than 30companies eligible to supply gas to sitesthroughout the UK.

The larger the supply the larger the discount onprices is likely to be. Different supply meterswithin the area of a site can be collected intoadjacent supplies.

You should go out to tender for your gas supply. Tonegotiate the best price, when presenting your sitesfor tender, aggregate the individual supplies intothe largest units possible. Greater savings arepossible when individual organisations form aconsortium and negotiate together.

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BUYING YOUR ENERGY AT THE CHEAPEST PRICEWILL CURRENTLY SAVE YOUR ORGANISATION

ABOUT 15% OF YOUR ENERGY BILL

Electricity

In April 1994 the electricity supply industry wasfurther deregulated to allow sites with maximumdemands of 100 kW to become eligible to receivesupply from companies other than their regionalelectricity company (REC).

If your maximum demand in any three months ismore than 100 kW or your total annualconsumption is more than 200 000 kWh per yearyou should go out to tender for your electricitysupply. To negotiate the best price when presentingyour site for tender, you must have an accurateprofile of your demand throughout the year. Aswith gas, greater savings can be made whenindividual organisations form a consortium andnegotiate together.

The main ingredients of successful negotiation

are: detailed and accurate information aboutconsumption over the past two to three years, aprofessional invitation to tender sent out to alleligible suppliers, intensive negotiation with theshort list of tendering companies and a spreadsheetto analyse and compare the ten to fifteen bids youreceive.

There is also plenty of proprietary softwareavailable and, for those of you who would like help,consultants can help you with this process.

Controlling heating and hot waterParts of the same building lose heat to the outsideat very different rates. Some parts of a buildingmay be used for much longer hours than the rest.For these two reasons all but the smallest buildingsneed to have the heating system zoned. Heatingthe whole building outside normal hours becauseone small part is in use, or over-heating the wholebuilding to bring the coldest part up to therequired comfort level, leads to large wastage andpoor temperature regulation.

Efficient zoning and the sensible siting ofthermostats is thus the key to efficient heatingcontrol.

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Controls

Look for the obvious. Check time controls – roomsshould only be heated when that heat is needed bythe occupants. Check thermostats – is thebuilding heated to the right temperature? Upgradecontrol systems where you can out of revenuesavings.

Controlling the use of electricityIn most buildings your consumption of electricitymay be only a quarter of that of gas or oil, but thecost of that electricity will typically be 50-60% ofyour total energy bill. This is because electricitycosts per kWh, on average, are five times that ofgas. In addition burning fossil fuels in powerstations produces three to four times the CO2 andsulphur dioxide per kWh of delivered energy asdoes burning gas or oil in your boiler. So managingyour electrical energy is as important if not moreimportant than space heating and hot water.

There are two key ways to reduce consumption:

1 install correctly sized energy efficient

equipment

2 switch it off when you don’t need it

You may buy your electricity on a maximumdemand tariff. This means that in addition to theunit charge for the total number of units used andthe standing charge based on the supply capacity inyour contract, you will also be charged for themaximum demand in any half-hour period in themonth.

Demand management thus becomes a key

aspect of your energy management role.

Keeping your electricity costs down becomes aquestion of trying to smooth out your demand andavoid short periods of very high consumption. Thissmoothing benefits the electricity industry and thenation as a whole because increased demand can bemet by existing power stations rather than buildingnew ones.

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Usage is charged by kVA rather than kWh. This isbecause some equipment, for example olderfluorescent tubes and electric motors, imposes aninductive rather than a resistive load. Thisinductive load needs a magnetising load in additionto the load current, so although it does notcontribute to the power used it does result in anincrease in current and consequently kVA drawnfrom the supply.

The ratio of power to current is known as thepower factor. Since the supply company imposes acost penalty you need to aim for unity, or inpractice a power factor of 0.96. This is achieved byinstalling capacitors near the supply company’sboard. Suppliers of power factor correctionequipment will be able to survey and advise you.

Note that power factor equipment can go wrongand when it does it dies catastrophically andwithout telling you. Your power factor may dropfrom 0.96 to 0.7 and you may then not notice thisfor three, six or even twelve months or more. Thiscan cost you a lot of money since it will mean youare paying 30% more than you need for yourelectricity. So check your power factor monthly.

Lighting

Lighting will be a substantial part of your energybill, probably in the region of 20-40% of the totalcost of energy. Reducing lighting consumption

is an important part of energy management.

You can reduce consumption by either reducingthe load, by delamping or by installing moreefficient lamps, or by reducing operating hours, byswitching off the light manually or by installingtime switches or occupant and/or daylight sensitivecontrols.

Compact fluorescent lamps are four to six timesmore efficient than tungsten bulbs and last abouteight times as long so they save both in terms ofenergy and maintenance costs. Slimmer 26 mmfluorescent tubes with high frequency ballasts are30% more efficient than the older switch start

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38 mm fittings. These high frequency lampsproduce no noticeable flicker so cause less eyestrain and headaches when working on computermonitors. The efficiencies and colour rendering ofhigher output lamps, in particular high pressuresodium lamps, has also improved dramatically.

There is sufficient daylight in most buildings tomeet lighting requirements for a major part of thetime the building is occupied. Yet lights getswitched on in the morning and then left on longafter they are no longer needed. Lights shouldalways be switched off when a room is unoccupiedor when there is sufficient daylight. It is a myththat it is cheaper to leave lights on no matter whattype of lighting is used.

Maintenance of light fittings is also important. Thegradual accumulation of dust and dirt on reflectorsand diffusers can reduce light output by more than30%. In all but the smallest installation, therefore,it is good practice to maintain fittings on a plannedbasis.

Small power

It is wrong to assume either that the use of smallpower is bound to continue increasing into thefuture, or that nothing can be done to curtailcurrent usage without reducing your organisation’seffectiveness. A survey has predicted that powerdemand per person is likely to halve over the nextdecade (BRECSU Energy Consumption Guide 35),due largely to increases in machine efficiency.

Here are some guidelines for reducing wastefulprovision or use of small power:

! Don’t make over-generous assumptions ofelectrical demand, especially for future use.

! Select equipment with low power demand,especially during idle periods for intermittentlyused items like photocopiers. In the case ofpersonal computers, pay attention to VDUpower consumption and look out for innovativefeatures such as flat screens and automaticswitching to idle mode.

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A MUCH HIGHER LEVEL OF ELECTRICITYCONSUMPTION FOR OFFICE EQUIPMENT?

! Make sure equipment is turned off at the end ofthe working day, or when unused for longperiods. If there are perceived problems withrebooting PCs or other equipment, it is likely tobe due to a technical fault: service or replace theequipment.

! Avoid unnecessary over-specification ofsupplies.

The following DOE publications will be of help:Econ 35 Energy Efficiency in Offices: Small PowerLoads; FEB 9B Economic Use of Electricity inBuildings; GIL 06 Energy Efficiency in OfficeLighting; GPG 158 Energy Efficient Lighting inIndustrial Buildings; FEB 12 Energy Managementand Good Lighting Practices; all of the Introduction toEnergy Efficiency in Buildings series.

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PLAN OF ACTIONIdentify opportunities for improvement and priority areas for action. Keep itsimple and win support from your line and senior management.

To avoid losing sight of what you are trying toachieve you need to focus your efforts and devise aplan of action. The timescale for this plan will varyin different circumstances. But a useful periodmight be over the next two years.

Your first action is crucial. You need to be able todemonstrate success in order to gain the topmanagement support you need to invest in energyefficiency measures.

Careful analysis of your profile on the EnergyManagement Matrix (pages 10-12) will help you todecide which key area to focus on first. This firstaction does not have to be too ambitious or long-term. It might be something quite modest. Thetwo most important things are that it is successfuland that it fits into your plan and will lead on toother action and improvement.

Make a list of all the opportunities you havespotted to improve energy management and reduceconsumption. Define what action will takeadvantage of these opportunities and make a roughestimate of how much the action is likely to costand how long it is likely to take. Then try to orderthe opportunities in terms of priority, taking intoaccount that it makes sense to implement thecheaper quicker actions first.

This first draft may then need to be discussed andrefined with your line manager before formalisingand getting senior management approval.

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MONITORING CONSUMPTIONMonitor to identify problems, to budget, to set targets and to measureprogress. Establish an information system to help log data, analyse and report.

There are five important reasons for monitoring

your energy consumption:

1 to identify if something is going wrong andconsumption is rising when it shouldn’t be

2 to be able to budget for next year

3 to measure and quantify savings from measuresyou have taken

4 to set and measure progress towards a targetreduction in consumption

5 to have results to report to finance managersand hence gain further resources.

Before you start, and before you get bogged downin the data, it is worth remembering that it is notcollecting the information that brings the benefitbut its intelligent analysis and interpretation.

There are three basic approaches to monitoring

energy consumption:

1 monthly invoices

2 manual meter readings

3 automatic data systems

The right approach for your organisation willdepend on the size of your energy spend and thetype of buildings you occupy, see the boxApproaches to monitoring.

Approach 1: Monthly invoices

To monitor effectively you will need monthlyinvoices for each fuel for each of your buildings.Then you need to validate that these invoicescorrespond to each building or part of a buildingyou intend to monitor.

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Approaches to monitoring

Building Example Current Futuretype approach approach

Campus hospital invoice automatic

Dispersed bank invoice automatic

HQ office invoice automatic

Mixed LA manual varied

Small school invoice automatic

Invoices for larger customers should be based onmonthly metered readings. But customers withsmall buildings may find that their bills are likelyto be quarterly.

Having collected valid and reliable data you willneed to analyse it in order to define a stablepattern, the baseline, and to monitor changes.

Analysing heating invoices

Most buildings are required to be heated to atemperature of 18-22˚C during the hours they areoccupied and about 10˚C at other times. Theamount of energy needed to maintain thesetemperatures will depend on how cold it is outside.

For the purpose of monitoring buildings this ismeasured in ‘degree days’. Degree days indicatehow much you had to heat your building eachmonth against which you can compare the actualenergy you consumed. One way to do this, becauseit exaggerates changes in the pattern of energy useover time, is the CUSUM method. This is a simpletechnique which plots the sum of the cumulateddifferences between actual and predicted energyuse.

There are a number of proprietary energymanagement systems which will calculateCUSUM, but it can also be done quite easily on aspreadsheet which has a built-in charting facility.Cheriton Technology’s Energy Monitoring andTarget Setting using CUSUM describes the use ofthis statistical technique.

Analysing electricity invoices

Having verified which meters are supplyingelectricity to which buildings, on a computerspreadsheet set up a table with columns for thedate and the day and night meter readings.Calculate the units consumed and then divide thistotal monthly consumption by the number of daysin the month. Then create a chart of the day andnight consumption per day for each month.

Consumption rises substantially in winter, aslighting is used for longer periods. However, partof the increased consumption may be due to the

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Monitoring electricity

Moving average graph for an office showing howelectricity consumption rises in winter, in part due toincreased lighting during the day. But on siteinvestigation revealed unauthorised use of electric firesand lights and computer equipment left on at night.

CUSUM

CUSUM graph for a hospital showing cumulativesavings of £35 000 over 3 years. Changes in the shapeof the line pinpoint actions that have affectedconsumption. The difference between the area underthe new curve and a projection of the old patternshows the reduction in consumption. Future plans tocontinue savings include lighting controls, CHP andgood housekeeping.

greater use of portable electric heaters. If yourspace heating is working properly these should notbe necessary and should be outlawed. Night use inthe summer holiday period suggests computer andother equipment is left on after working hoursthroughout the year.

Within this seasonal pattern of consumption onecan also tell whether energy consumption is risingor falling. You do this by calculating the movingdaily average for each month and plotting this on achart. Look for consumption dropping in responseto energy saving initiatives or rising as moreelectronic equipment is installed.

The main advantage of this approach is simplicityof data input. The main disadvantages are: theunreliability of this data, its coarseness whichprecludes analysis of daily and weekly patterns andthe inherent time delay in identifying faults.

Approach 2: Manual meter readings

If reliable monthly invoice data is unavailable, itmay be better to take meter readings manually. Ifyou have many buildings in your estate it may bebest to restrict this exercise to those that consumethe most energy or those that you believe might beparticularly poor performers.

Oil is invoiced by tanker load and you will need totake a dip-stick reading at the beginning of eachmonth and before and after each delivery. If youuse coal for heating, consumption can be estimatedvisually from sight lines in vertical hoppers. It isalso worth mentioning that this same approach toanalysing invoices and monitoring consumptioncan and should also be applied to water.

You begin by using your invoices from the previousyear. These are used to construct a target andconsumption sheet using a standard computerspreadsheet. The consumption shown on theinvoices is used to construct your best estimates ofthe weekly target consumption. In the first yearthese will be fairly crude estimates.

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Approach 1: Monthly invoicesPros:

• Simple approach that uses available data

• Reveals monthly patterns which can be analysedwith powerful statistical techniques

Cons:

• Tends to result in a slow response to fault detection

• Estimated readings create problems

• Impossible to monitor different parts of the samebuilding

Approach 2: Manual meter readingPros:

• Low initial cost

• Fast, local response in those buildings wheresomeone takes an active interest

Cons:

• Requires a high degree of commitment andconsistency from the local energy monitors

Approach 3: Automatic data collectionPros:

• Easy, reliable data entry

• Allows hourly, daily and weekly patterns of use tobe analysed as well as monthly pattern

• Much easier to gain control of electricalconsumption

Cons:

• High initial cost of data logging equipment andenergy management system

• More appropriate for large energy users with in-house expertise

Each week at the same time, preferably early on aMonday morning, read the gas, electric and watermeters and enter the readings. (Many facilitiesmanagers have reported that weekly monitoringfits in with their routine walkround.)

The main advantages of this approach are that thesystem is extremely simple and that faults are muchmore likely to be identified sooner. On averagefaults might take only half the time to rectify withthis approach compared to a centralised systemusing monthly invoices.

The main disadvantage of this approach is thatmanual reading becomes unfeasible inorganisations with many buildings.

Approach 3: Automatic data systems

Recent changes in the energy supply industry andin data logging technology have made automaticdata reading a feasible option for largerorganisations.

Both gas and electricity suppliers are installingelectronic meters which download meter readingsautomatically by modem telephone links. This willmean that in the future accurate monthly meterreadings will appear on all customer invoices. It ispossible to get this information electronically fromthe meter operator or supply company, althoughthis will have to be negotiated with the terms ofyour supply contract.

If you have an automatic Building ManagementSystem (BMS) it should also be possible to collecthalf-hourly consumption data.

You will need computer software to help youanalyse and report this information and variousproprietary systems are available.

The main advantages of this approach are ease ofdata input, detail to allow daily, weekly andmonthly patterns to be analysed and alarms tosignal faults. The main disadvantages are highercapital cost and greater expertise needed on thepart of the user.

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DETAILED SURVEYDevelop a more detailed breakdown of where you are using energy. Separateheating and hot water; and separate lighting, cooling and power.

The object of this step is to identify particularbuildings or parts of buildings that are usingenergy wastefully. This will allow you to focus onareas which promise the biggest potential savingsand to decide priorities for future action.

If you identify particular problems of excessconsumption or inadequate comfort levels thenyou will need to do a more detailed survey.

This may involve sub-metering for a period to getdetailed information. It will also entail monitoringbuilding use to reconcile consumption tooccupancy. By taking your own readings and byinspecting the building carefully you will gain amuch clearer understanding of its energyperformance and the actions you need to take togain control of energy consumption.

If the problem concerns heating you will also needto measure temperature and to separate energyused for hot water and catering. Most avoidablewaste occurs when the heating system is only partlyloaded in spring and autumn. Because ofinadequate control, internal temperatures arehigher than necessary to provide comfort.Windows are opened to dissipate excess heat andenergy is wasted.

Providing hot water from a central boiler plant canbe extremely wasteful and you should investigateproviding point-of-use water heaters for toilets andcatering facilities.

If the problem concerns electricity consumptionyou will need to differentiate lighting fromcooling, ventilation and small power use.

Most waste occurs on overcast mornings whenlights are switched on early and then left on afterlight levels improve. Recent research has

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Hospital electrical audit

Although lighting was the largest item, the goodcondition of the existing lighting systems and therelatively high capital cost of changing them, meantthat initial efforts were directed to the other items.

demonstrated how important light is to staffmorale and productivity. But you need to ensurethat lights are turned off, preferably automatically,as soon as outside light levels increase.

Draw up a planned programme for upgrading yourlight fittings and controls. Lighting technology hasdramatically improved in the last few years.Fluorescent lamps now give good light, anddaylight and occupancy sensors are much moresensitive and user friendly. Costs have also fallendramatically and when increased reliability andsavings on planned maintenance are taken intoaccount, investment in energy efficient lighting isvery cost effective.There may also be opportunitiesto increase natural daylighting by installingwindows or roof lights or by removing internalpartitions.

Similar opportunities exist to reduce the energyconsumption of electric motors and drive systems.These might include drive fans in mechanicalventilation plant, lift motors, compressors inrefrigeration plant, motors in conveyor systemsand many other electrical applications. Dependingon the amount of electricity you consume it may beworth employing a consultant to conduct thisdetailed survey and a list of recommendations. TheDOE's Good Practice Guide 2: Reducing EnergyConsumption Costs of Electric Motor and Drive Systemsprovides advice in this area.

To have any impact on improving energy efficiencyyou need to analyse the results of this detailedsurvey and translate the findings into a set ofrecommended actions that need to be taken. Thesewill then need to be reported effectively if peopleare to act on your recommendations.

The DOE publishes Is your Energy Use underControl?: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Actionwhich provides a set of diagnostic tools to helpguide your inspection of fabric and services.There is also a booklet in the Fuel EfficiencySeries: Energy Audits for Buildings which will beuseful to you.

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INVOLVING OTHERSIn the process of getting to know your building stock you will have talked tomany of the occupants. Now you need to be more systematic about involvingothers in energy efficiency.

Management is a process of achieving your aimsthrough other people and you will have to try toaffect people’s behaviour by example andpersuasion rather than by telling them what to do.Successful energy management is not just aboutthe technical issues, it is also about raisingawareness and motivating people to behavedifferently.

Your problem is that for most people, energyefficiency is a low priority. People have other muchmore pressing concerns and only take any notice oftheir environment when they feel too hot or toocold or if it is too bright or too dim.

You may want to reduce energy consumption tosave your organisation money but this is notnecessarily what will motivate the occupants ofyour building to be more energy conscious. You

have to translate this organisational goal into

things people want to do for themselves.

Staff need to be made more aware of:

! why and how energy is consumed in yourorganisation

! why energy saving is important

! how their everyday behaviour affects energyconsumption

! what effect saving energy will have.

You need to think first about who in theorganisation is a log-jam to progress and how youcan win them over or circumvent them; andsecondly you need to decide who is likely to beyour strongest ally and support your plans.

Identify and then talk to major users. Win overdepartment heads, building managers andmaintenance staff because they can all have a major

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impact on performance. Choose a single simpleaction that will help establish your credibility withsenior management and the finance department assomeone who can deliver.

Motivating people is not simple andstraightforward and you need to avoid doing moreharm than good. This is one of the key areas whereyou are likely to need professional help, eitherfrom someone in your own personnel or trainingdivision or from an outside consultant.

Some of the key aspects to motivation are:

! Do not assume that money incentives are thebest or only way to motivate.

! Recognition and responsibility may providemuch greater incentives, and financial rewardscan be seen as a recognition for work well done.

! Give people personal responsibility anddiscretion to act rather than restricting orcontrolling their behaviour.

! Unless people want to change and aremotivated to learn, training is ineffective.

Two DOE Good Practice Guides: Guide 84Managing and Motivating Staff to save Energy andGuide 85 Energy Management Training provideguidance in this area.

ReportingReporting energy consumption and progresstowards reaching a target is another importantaspect of involving others. Begin regular reporting.Decide who to report to: the Board, finance,estates, maintenance, department heads, occupants.How often and in what form should you report?

If the reports are to aid decision making whathappens to these reports? What actions ordecisions do they affect?

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There are three levels to decision making inorganisations which demand different types ofinformation:

! operational control

! managerial control

! strategic planning.

If the information is meant to influence behaviourand encourage greater awareness then present theinformation in a way that staff can relate to. Defineusage by meaningful criteria: fuel/meal,heating/patient, power/work station, etc. Don’t getbogged down in the data.

Energy/environmental policyAdopting a corporate energy or environmentalpolicy is another way of involving others andraising the profile of energy management,especially with senior managers. The DOE’s‘Making a Corporate Commitment’ campaign isaimed at top management and two publications inthis series, The Chairman's Checklist and ExecutiveAction Plan, will help you.

It is quite possible to operate energy managementwithout a formal policy. Having a written policywhich is ignored in practice is obviously worse thannothing. But there are also very good reasons forhaving a policy and more importantly getting itadopted and accepted throughout the organisation.

Without a written policy energy management willbe vulnerable to:

! changes in personnel

! changes in organisational structure

! changes in priorities.

As long as your commitment to energy efficiency isinformal and ad hoc it can be derailed orundermined by the loss of a champion or a changein structure. And unless commitment is formallyendorsed there is a danger that more pressing

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priorities will crowd out attention to energymanagement.

The policy has two main purposes and these can bewritten as two separate parts:

! a public expression of your commitment toenergy conservation and environmentalprotection

! a working document to guide practice andprovide continuity.

PromotionOne aspect of your role you may not have givenmuch attention to is concerned with promotingenergy management as an activity in yourorganisation and publicising your achievements.This involves marketing. Maybe you didn’t realiseyour job has anything to do with selling. Yet to beeffective you will need to sell yourself and energymanagement.

Apart from raising awareness mentioned earlier,promotion has the following key objectives:

! proving value for money since it will increasetop management support

! publicising your achievements both inside andoutside the organisation since this will increasesupport from staff and customers.

The amount of time and effort you need to spendon marketing will vary, but as a rough guide you

need to spend perhaps not less than a tenth of

your time and 5% of your budget on

promotional activities. Once you start to achieveenergy savings you will want to keep up themomentum. The point is to keep energymanagement in the public eye and not let yourselfget sidetracked into a technical backwater. Byraising the profile of energy management you willhelp ensure that it has a long-term future.

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Demonstrating achievementDemonstrating that you have achieved real energy (asopposed to cost) savings – especially from no costmeasures, like good housekeeping, or from low costmeasures (with short paybacks) – can serve severalobjectives:

• indicate to staff and senior managers that there aretangible benefits to be gained from implementing anenvironmental strategy

• show that you are capable of achieving positiveresults which can often result in you being allocatedfurther resources, and

• promote, both inside and outside your organisation,the message that you take your environmentalresponsibilities seriously.

CAPITAL SPENDINGDraw up a list of possible measures, cost them and use investment appraisal todecide an order of priority for investment.

You should not have much difficulty in gettingagreement for proposals with little or no costespecially those that involve little reorganisation.However, any measures that involve capitalspending or a change in management practice willneed much more negotiation and will have to taketheir chance with all the other issues demandingmoney and management attention. This willusually mean making a financial case for theinvestment and that will involve you in financialappraisal.

The function of investment appraisal is to

determine the merits of different proposals so

that they may be compared.

Investment in energy efficiency is quite amenableto standard financial appraisal techniques and thefact that energy measures fail to get approval maybe due to poor preparation and presentation ratherthan lack of financial viability.

The kinds of things you need to guard against arethat:

! options are inadequately explored and theoptimum solution is never found

! benefits are underestimated and the proposalappears less attractive than it really is

! costs are underestimated which createsprejudice against future proposals

! simple payback filters out proposals whichwould have continued to produce increasingbenefits long after the payback period.

The brief to the design team and the contract withthe builder are the keys to ensuring energyefficiency is incorporated in any capital spending.

The DOE’s Good Practice Guide 165 FinancialAspects of Energy Management in Buildings gives

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useful guidance on how to choose which projectsto invest in. It also provides a detailed comparisonof the various methods: payback, undiscountedcash flow, discounting and net present value.

Life-cycle costing

The cheapest building may not give best value.

Decisions frequently have to be made aboutwhether to specify lower-cost materials that givepoor performance and need to be replaced quickly,or higher cost materials that give betterperformance and last longer. Life-cycle costingaims to take account of both initial cost andrunning costs.

There are alternative techniques of life cyclecosting, from very simple ones to others that arecomplex to apply and interpret. One reason forusing complex techniques is that costs or savingsthat arise now or in the near future are worth morethan costs or savings that occur some time furtherinto the future. This principle is applied bydiscounting future costs or savings, using apercentage discount rate. The higher the discountrate, the less importance is attached to future costsor savings.

For example, consider an expensive window whichreduces heat losses and therefore fuel costscompared to a cheaper window; if you costed fuelsavings over a very long period of, say, 100 years,then the more expensive window would apparentlycost far less overall than the cheaper window. But isthis reasonable? We do not know what will happenin 100 years and it is foolish to construct expensivebuildings now in the hope of making savings in thedistant future.

By applying a suitable discount rate to future costs,balanced decisions can be made that are mosteconomical in life cycle terms. These calculationscan be very sensitive to the discount rate, but thisfigure is usually determined by corporate policywithin an organisation. For a given discount rate,you can test design options and identify those withthe lowest life cycle costs.

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THE CHEAPEST BUILDING MAY NOT GIVE THEBEST VALUE

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PART 3 FURTHER INFORMATION

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

The following table gives energy consumption norms for different buildingtypes. They are to be used according to the method described in Part 2 to judgethe energy performance of your own building stock.

The figures are from Energy Consumption Guides and the Energy Efficiency in Buildings series publishedby the Department of the Environment.

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Building Type Average PoorkWh/m2 > kWh/m2

per year per year

Health Care (treated floor area)

Large acute hospitals (>25000m2) 510 600Small acute hospitals 450 600Long-stay hospitals 455 530Nursing homes 450 570Dentists’ surgeries 230 350GP surgeries 190 280Health centres 270 350Schools (treated floor area)

Primary/middle 157 216Secondary, no pool 173 235Secondary, with pool 198 254Higher Education (treated floor area)

University – residential 325 390University – academic 260 305Colleges of Further Education 180 265Sports Centres (gross floor area)

Swimming pool 1220 1390Sports centre with pool 570 840Sports centre 270 340Sports club 270 340HotelsLuxury hotels 390 610Business or holiday hotels 340 540Small hotels 320 480Catering (gross floor area)

Restaurant 1750 1980Fast food 1300 1560Pub 340 470Public Services (gross floor area)

Library 240 280Museum/art gallery 265 310

Building Type Average PoorkWh/m2 > kWh/m2

per year per year

Entertainment (ground floor area)

Cinema 650 780Theatre 600 900Social club 200 360Bingo halls 57 70Retail (sales area)

DIY 280 355Non food shop 280 390Department store 390 510Small food shop 480 600Supermarket 830 1210High Street (gross floor area)

Bank/building society 140 200Post office 185 280Travel/estate agents 205 305Offices (treated floor area)

Traditional cellular 130 330Open plan naturally ventilated 160 420Standard air-conditioned 240 600Prestige headquarters 400 800Manufacturing BuildingsGeneral 250 410Paper 280 390Electronics 260 360Textiles 260 340Light manufacturing 200 325Engineering 250 300Emergency Services (treated floor area)

Prison 550 690Police station 340 470Fire station 440 620Ambulance station 400 530Court 220 300

USEFUL TABLES

The following tables provide information you need to be able to monitor yourenergy consumption.

Table 1: Converting consumption to kWh

We suggest that you convert all different energyyou use into kilowatt hours. This is because yourelectricity consumption, which is probably yourbiggest energy cost and the consumption you mostneed to control, is measured in kWh and for mostcustomers gas consumption, which used to bemeasured in Therms, is now also billed in kWh.

A kilowatt-hour is relatively easy to visualise – aone bar electric fire burning for one hour uses1kWh.

Table 2: Converting other energy units

Energy is also measured in British thermal units(Btus) and Joules. Table 2 provides you with theconversion factors to kWh.

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Table 2

Energy units for kWh divide by

Btu 3412(100,000 Btu = 1 Therm )KiloJoule (KJ) 3600MegaJoule (MJ) 3.6GigaJoule (GJ) 0.0036

Table 1

Fuel Type Billed Units for kWh multiply by

Natural gas Therms 29.31Cubic feet 0.303

Gas oil (35 sec) Litres 10.6Light fuel oil (290 sec) Litres 11.2Medium fuel oil (950 sec) Litres 11.3Heavy fuel oil (3500 sec) Litres 11.4Coal Tonnes 7600Anthracite Tonnes 9200Liquid petroleum gas Litres 7

Table 3: Converting floor areas

Table 3 provides conversion factors from imperialto metric measures of floor area.

Table 4: Allowing for site exposure

Most buildings (90%) occupy normally exposedsites. Table 4 provides factors to multiply yourconsumption by for abnormally sheltered orexposed sites. If in doubt assume your buildingoccupies a normally exposed site.

Table 5: Allowing for location

Other things being equal, the farther north abuilding is located the more energy it willconsume. Multiply your heating consumption bythe factors in Table 5 to allow for this difference.

Table 6: Allowing for occupancy

The more hours a building is occupied the moreenergy it will consume. Multiply your consumptionby the factors in Table 6 to allow for thisdifference. (Do not apply to hospitals, hotels,prisons or residential schools.)

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Table 3Floor Area to get m2

multiply bySquare feet 0.0929Square yards 0.836

Table 4Exposure FactorSheltered 0.9Normal 1.0Exposed 1.1

Table 5Location FactorScotland 1.2Midlands 1.1South 1.0South West 0.9

Table 6Occupancy Factor10 hour occupancy 5 day week 1.010 hour occupancy 7 day week 1.215 hour occupancy 5 day week 1.315 hour occupancy 7 day week 1.4

ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS

The following represent current voluntary environmental standards.

BS 7750 Environmental Management System 1994 (revised version)This sets out a voluntary standard for anenvironmental management system. Systems arecertified by the National Accreditation Council forCertification Bodies and progress towards meetingstated environmental objectives are audited.Certification started in December 1994.

EC Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)1993Sets out a similar voluntary, but pan-European,approach to environmental auditing to BS 7750. Itsmajor difference is that it requires organisations toprovide information on their environmentalperformance which is verified, again by theNACCB. Registration began in April 1995.

BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM)Developed by the BRE to provide guidance onways of minimising the adverse effects of buildingson the global and local environments. Assessmentsare undertaken by external, qualified BREEAMassessors.

BSRIA Environmental Code of Practice 1994Aimed at reducing environmental impact ofbuildings, it adopts a ‘cradle to grave’ approach tothe procurement and management of premises.

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WHERE TO TURN FOR HELP

In addition to the many detailed technical guides available for the variousbuilding sectors and particular energy efficiency measures, the following moregeneral publications are worth having on your bookshelf.

BRECSU/DOE, General Information Report 12, Aspects of Energy Management,1993

Provides a strategic overview of how to manageenergy, a method of profiling your currentmanagement performance and practical adviceabout how to improve in the six key aspects ofenergy management.

BRECSU/DOE, Good Practice Guide 167, Organisational Aspects of EnergyManagement: a self-assessment manual for managers, 1995

A self-assessment tool that allows you to analysethe current state of energy management and guidesyou in deciding how best to improve. It helpsidentify the key factors, including corporate cultureand personal style that influence your ability tointroduce change successfully.

BRECSU/DOE, Good Practice Guide 85, Energy Management Training, 1995

Contains practical advice on how to raiseawareness and motivate staff to save energy. Alsodetails how to develop a training programme.

Grigg and Jordan, Are You Managing Facilities? Allied Dunbar, 1993

Provides a useful simple overview of facilitiesmanagement,and includes a chapter on energymanagement.

The following organisations are able to provide help on energy management.

BRECSU, Building Research Energy Conservation Support UnitBRECSU is part of the Building Research Establishment and providesguidance on energy efficiency in all building sectors by delivering the mostappropriate information to facilitate more effective decisions and actions byusers.

Tel. 01923 664258 Fax. 01923 664787

ETSU, Energy Technology Support UnitETSU is based in Harwell and promotes energy technology in industry. It alsomanages the Environmental Technology Best Practice programme.

Tel. 01235 436747 Fax. 01235 433066

BSI, British Standards InstituteThe BSI is the independent national body for the preparation of BritishStandards.

Tel. 01908 226888 for general inquiries.

BSRIA, Building Services Research and Information AssociationBSRIA is an independent, non-profit distributing, member-based researchorganisation whose objectives are to assist the building services industry toimprove the quality of its products and services, the efficiency of theirprovision and the effectiveness of their operation.

Tel. 01344 426511

62


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Advisory Council on Business and the Environment, TheEnvironment: a Business Guide, Department of Trade andIndustry, London, 1993.

Baird, G. et al., Energy Performance of Buildings, CRC Press,Boca Raton, Florida, 1984.

Baker, N.V., Energy and Environment in Non-DomesticBuildings: A Technical Design Guide, Cambridge ArchitecturalResearch Ltd., 1994, available from BRECSU.

Bordass, W. and Leaman, A. Control Strategies for BuildingServices, Advanced Climatisation Systems Conference,Barcelona, June 3-4, 1993.

BRE, BREEAM Version 1/93: An Environmental Assessment forNew Office Designs, (BR 234) Garston, Watford, 1993.

BRE, BREEAM Version 4/93: An Environmental Assessment forExisting Office Buildings, (BR 240) Garston, Watford, 1993.

BRE, Better Briefing means Better Buildings, JJN O'Reilly (BR95) Garston, Watford, 1987.

BSI, Specification for Environmental Management Systems, BS7750, London, 1994.

BSRIA, Environmental Code of Practice for Buildings and theirServices, Bracknell, 1994.

CIBSE, Energy Audits and Surveys, Applications Manual AM5,London, 1991.

Department of the Environment, Energy Consumption Guidefor Senior Managers, Energy Consumption Guide 10, (ECON10). London, DOE, 1992.

Department of the Environment, Small Power Loads, EnergyConsumption Guide 35, (ECON 35). London, DOE, 1995.

Department of the Environment, Organisational Aspects ofEnergy Management, General Information Report 12, (GIR12). London, DOE, 1993.

Department of the Environment, Reviewing EnergyManagement, General Information Report 13, (GIR 13).London, DOE, 1993.

63


Key

BRE Building Research Establishment

BRECSU Building Research Energy Conservation Support Unit

BSI British Standards Institution

BSRIA Building Services Research and Information Assoc.

CIBSE Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers

DOE Department of the Environment

ETSU Energy Technology Support Unit

RICS Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

64


Department of the Environment, Briefing the Design Teamfor Energy Efficiency in New Buildings, Good Practice Guide74, (GPG 74). London, DOE, 1994.

Department of the Environment, Organisational Aspects ofEnergy Management: A Self-Assessment Manual forManagers, Good Practice Guide 167, (GPG 167). London,DOE, 1995.

Department of the Environment, 1 Bridewell Street, GoodPractice Case Study 21, (GPCS 21). London, DOE.

Department of the Environment, Computer AidedMonitoring and Targeting for Industry, Good Practice Guide31, (GPG 31). London, DOE, 1991.

Department of the Environment, Investment Appraisal forIndustrial Energy Efficiency, Good Practice Guide 69, (GPG69). London, DOE, 1993.

Department of the Environment, Managing and MotivatingStaff to Save Energy, Good Practice Guide 84, (GPG 84).London, DOE, 1993.

Department of the Environment, Energy ManagementTraining, Good Practice Guide 85, (GPG 85). London, DOE,1993.

Department of the Environment, Energy Audits for Industry,Fuel Efficiency Booklet 1A, (FEB 1A). London, DOE, revised1993.

Department of the Environment, Energy Audits for Buildings,Fuel Efficiency Booklet 1B, (FEB 1B). London, DOE, revised1993.

Department of the Environment, Top Management Attitudesto Energy and the Environment. London, DOE, 1994.

Department of the Environment, A Practical Guide toEnergy Auditing in Buildings: Practical Aspects of EnergyManagement, Workshop Support Document. London, DOE,1994.

Department of the Environment, Responsible Energy: APractical Guide to Energy Efficiency (with ChemicalIndustries Association).

Dubin, F.S. et al., How to Save Energy and Cut Costs in ExistingIndustrial and Commercial Buildings, Noyes Data Corporation,Park Ridge, New Jersey, 1976.

Duffy F., Laing A., Crisp A., The Responsible Workplace: theRedesign of Work and Offices, Butterworth Architecture, 1993.

EC, Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, EC Directive,1993.

Encode l, Department of Health and Social Security (WorksGroup) and Welsh Office.

Energy Manager’s Workbook (based on papers presented to theEnergy Managers' Workshops organised jointly by the BritishInstitute of Management and the Department of Energy),Energy Publications, Cambridge, 1992.

Ester, P., Consumer Behaviour and Energy Conservation,Martinus Nijhooff, Dordrecht, 1985.

Gardner, P., Energy Management Systems in Buildings: ThePractical Lessons, Energy Publications, Cambridge, 1984.

Grigg, J. and Jordan, A., Are You Managing Facilities? Gettingthe Best out of Buildings, Allied Dunbar, Nicholas BrealeyPublishing, 1993.

Harris, P., Energy Monitoring and Target Setting usingCUSUM, Cheriton Technology, 1989.

Leaman, A. and Bordass, W., The dirt devils: cleaning and theculture of responsiveness, Safety and Health Practitioner, March1994.

Management guide to green workplaces, special issue of FacilitiesManagement, Eclipse Group Ltd., London, in conjunctionwith the Centre for Facilities Management, StrathclydeUniversity, 1994.

National Industrial Fuel Efficiency Service Ltd, EnergyManagers’ Handbook, Graham & Trotman, London, 1985.

RICS (with BRECSU/DOE), Energy Efficiency in Buildings:Energy Appraisal of Existing Buildings - a Handbook for Surveyors,RICS, 1993.

Salisbury, F., Architects’ Handbook for Client Briefing,Butterworth Architecture, 1990.

Sherratt, A.F.C. (ed), Energy Management in Buildings,Hutchinson, 1986.

Wilson, S. and Hedge, A., The Office Environment Survey,Building Use Studies, London, 1987.

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