How to earn an A for your building

Make the grade energy-efficiency without breaking the bank

By Udi Meirav

Does your commercial building deserve an A, B or worse for energy efficiency? By 2020, you won’t have to guess. New York City buildings of at least 25,000 square feet will then be required to posttheir energy grades at public entrances. The requirement is a key part of the city’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. Indeed, buildings account for more than two-thirds of the city’s energy use, and commercial buildings are responsible for 30% of New York’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

The regulations pose a dilemma for commercial building owners because, traditionally, achieving higher energy efficiency has required substantial up-front expenditures. This has put them in the difficult position of choosing between saving money and saving the environment.

The good news is that new technologies are empowering them to do both—while incurring zero or even negative incremental costs associated with their HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems.

Why are HVAC costs so important? These systems are among the largest contributors to excessive energy use. For years it has been standard practice for commercial buildings to replace their entire volume of indoor air every one to two hours to reduce airborne contaminants such as carbon dioxide, aldehydes and volatile organic compounds. Elevated levels of these pollutants are associated with serious diseases such as cancer and must be kept at safe levels indoors. However, this massive air exchange adds 30% to 50% to the load on HVAC systems, resulting in higher initial and ongoing costs for building owners. Furthermore, bringing in so much outside air introduces a high concentration of New York City’s outdoor pollution into the building. That is counterproductive to the health and cognitive performance of the people inside.

A better approach is to use HVAC load-reduction technology that taps into the Internet of Things and the cloud to clean and recycle existing indoor air rather than replace it so frequently. For example, a Manhattan company headquartered in a 44-story building is saving approximately $400,000 in annual energy costs, reducing outside air by 85% and cutting annual greenhouse-gas emissions by 1,400 metric tons since installing this technology last summer. Plus the building now has 24/7 monitoring of indoor air quality and reduced ozone coming from outdoors. Buildings in general are experiencing a 60% to 80% reduction in required outside air intake and a resulting decrease in heating and cooling energy consumption of 20% to 30%.

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