Green Room
Energy Savings Initiatives Payback – Online Poll Results
In our last poll we asked you to rate energy savings initiatives in buildings according to their payback attractiveness. Energy Consumption Monitoring came out as Nr 1, closely followed by HVAC Refurbishment measures with Relamping in third place.
The top four energy savings initiatives are dominated by technical building services. Energy consumption monitoring, implemented with very little additional costs through enhanced usage transparency, provides one of the most attractive paybacks. Relamping is a popular measure as it can be integrated into existing maintenance programmes and allows occupiers to directly profit from reduced electricity bills.
In the middle of the ranking, we find employee engagement and energy procurement initiatives that illustrate how occupiers can achieve energy savings by motivating their staff and managing their business processes efficiently.
Less appealing seem to be building-based renewable energy installations, which have, naturally, longer payback periods as upfront costs are high compared to immediately available savings. Building envelope related measures, glazing and insulation, are also more capital intensive and need longer-term engagement by building owners and occupiers to benefit from energy savings.
In the last position we find CO2 reporting, which, although connected to energy consumption, provides only indirect management indicators as carbon emissions depend on the primary energy mix used to source energy at a given building site.
We invite you to take part in our new poll "Which Green Building innovation do you consider most effective?"