building energy use Articles
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One In Three Councils Not Complying With Legal Duties On Monitoring Their Buildings’ Energy Use
Nearly a third of councils are not complying with their legal duties on monitoring their buildings’ energy use under laws designed to encourage councils to improve their estates. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive from the EU requires public authorities to have up-to-date Display Energy Certificates (DEC) in all their buildings over 1,000m2. The government has allocated ...
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Kansas City Requires Energy Benchmarking
The City Council of Kansas City, Missouri, passed an Energy Empowerment Ordinance addressing energy use in existing municipal, commercial, and residential buildings. Under the ordinance, building owners will be required to track whole-building energy and water use and report it to the city annually. Participating buildings will be phased in, starting with municipal buildings over 10,000 square ...
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Obama, better buildings and the innovators
When Obama unveiled his “Better Building Initiative” last week, it wasn’t just the usual architects, builders, and energy efficiency service companies that perked up with interest. A whole new segment of energy efficiency companies saw opportunity: the innovators. Emissaries from the high tech world, the innovators are a growing force in energy efficiency. They bring web and ...
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Clean energy, jobs and the real estate market
President Barack Obama wants to create five million new green jobs over the next decade. This is a big goal, but in line with what clean energy industry advocates see as possible. An upcoming international report provides some solid perspective on why green initiatives make for good job building opportunities. Scheduled for release next summer, “Greening Buildings and Communities: Costs and ...
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How do I Consume Energy in Comparison to the Rest of my Industry?
Energy efficiency is like a long-distance race. The first kilometres are easy and if you train a little bit you will achieve big results. But once you beat your own records, there’s a moment when you need a deeper analysis to understand where your areas of improvement are. You need to understand what is going on in your industry. Keep reading if you have ever wondered… how could I ...
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Energy efficiency in buildings - business realities and opportunities
Buildings are responsible for at least 40% of energy use in most countries. The absolute figure is rising fast, as construction booms, especially in countries such as China and India. It is essential to act now, because buildings can make a major contribution to tackling climate change and energy use. Progress can begin immediately because knowledge and technology exist today to slash the energy ...
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Smart grid and stupid buildings: Can this marriage survive?
Smart grid is still in its honeymoon phase. Hardly a day goes by without fanfare in the news about how it will reform building energy use. Maybe so. But for the marriage of smart grid and US buildings to work, someone's got to change. Is the stupid building up to the task? “Wiring the Smart Grid for Energy Efficiency,' a white paper by Oregon-based Portland Energy Conservation Inc (PECI), brings ...
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Rutherford Appleton Laboratories - Case study
The new Research Complex at Harwell Oxford is a multidisciplinary laboratory providing world leading facilities for new and cutting edge research in both life and physical sciences and the interface between them. Environmental issues were at the forefront of the building design with all energy use carefully monitored. An innovative Earth Tube has been buried along side the building to utilise ...
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Case Study: Pathway Non-profit Housing
Non-Profit Community Developments Inc. is a non-profit corporation that provides quality affordable housing in the Region of Peel. Pathway is a progressive organization and look to introduce innovative technologies to their apartment towers as part of their energy conservation strategy. Reducing electrical energy usage keeps operating costs down, which is a priority for Pathway’s ...
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Much light, little heat efficiency
Energy efficiency in the US is much light and little heat – literally. Government policy pays a great deal of attention to saving electricity, but focuses little on the thermal energy we waste. “Policy is electricity-centric in the US. Unless you are making kilowatts, the most efficient investments are off the radar,” said Rob Thornton, president of the International District ...
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Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Business Realities and Opportunities
This study highlights opportunities to promote green building know-how and technologies as the WBCSD pushes for zero net energy construction worldwide through its Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) project. Zero net energy buildings will reduce demand by design, be highly efficient and generate at least as much energy as they consume. Buildings are responsible for at least 40% of energy use ...
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Define ‘green’ please
Describing a building as ‘green’ makes a lot of people cringe. The word is overused. And what does it mean exactly? Serious efforts are underway to move away from the hype and offer a more specific analysis of a building’s energy performance. Think nutritional labels for food, except in kilowatt-hours instead of calories. In fact, more than 50 national, regional and local ...
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Net-zero energy or net zero-carbon - what does it all mean?
My third article for Forbes talks about moving past awareness of climate change and doing something about it. I noted how buildings are one of the most significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, so we must address how new and existing buildings use energy. And this is especially urgent if we want to achieve the ambitious 2050 net-zero goal spearheaded by the UN Net Zero Coalition and ...
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Building Technologies: Who’s Who?
Technology is transforming the way we use buildings, and the impact they have on our environment. There’s a long list of tech tools available now in the market to improve your building’s performance. This could make it complicated for the energy manager to understand who’s who in this market, and what building technology you can apply to each area of your building to improve its overall ...
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Zero touch energy audit: Will it change the game?
What new energy efficiency technologies will change the game? I’d like to use this space on occasion to explore that question and get your feedback on companies that I profile. This week’s company is FirstFuel Software, which it appears could make the conventional energy building audit go the way of the buggy whip. FirstFuel ‘audits’commercial buildings from afar. No ...
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Controlling Energy Costs - How an energy assessment can help you get started
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program states that “commercial buildings share a large and growing appetite for energy. They account for 18 percent of total U.S. energy consumption. In a typical office building, energy use accounts for 30 percent of operating costs, the largest single category of controllable costs.” Let’s look at some typical concerns describing the ...
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Is Occupy Wall St. Occupying the Wrong Street?
My Dad and I have a running joke when we’re in the car together. “Look,” he’ll say. “Gas is cheap. It’s down to $3.39.” Cheap, he means, compared with the month before when it was $3.79 per gallon. The joke illustrates a good point. A few years ago we were flabbergasted by gasoline prices that exceeded $3 per gallon. Now we’re really happy when it ...
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The role of Energy Management in Sustainable Building Certifications
For years, the real estate sector has been using a range of sustainability, quality and energy efficiency certifications to catalogue the building stock and highlight the best-rated buildings. The ability to categorise portfolios of buildings according to their ‘green’ credentials is very useful in positioning them better in the sales and rental market, as well as in attracting ...
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On-bill financing: Why isn’t everybody doing it?
If someone told me they could improve the efficiency of my computer so that it operates quicker, at no extra cost to me, I can’t imagine I’d turn them away. Yet, the energy efficiency industry offers a similar option for homes and businesses and at least so far, consumers aren’t flocking to the programs. On-bill financing gives customers the ability to finance energy efficiency ...
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Energy efficiency without trying (and with)
John Lennon wrote that life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. Apparently, the same is true of energy efficiency. Energy savings happen when we’re busy doing other things – Internet-based things specifically. We use email, bank online and download music not to save energy, but to make life easier and more interesting. Energy efficiency is a happy ...
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