Energy efficiency advice for clients

Energy Efficiency is a phrase used to describe part of the process for a sustainable building.  Sustainability being a ‘far-reaching’ concept, can be boiled down to mean the following for electrical contractors (see diagram below). 

Energy Hierarchy Diagram:

Figure 1 to the left, outlines the steps needed to create a more sustainable building through energy and building management.

Electrical contracting has a key role to play in energy efficiency (section two of the energy hierarchy) and promoting use of 'alternative' (low or no CO2) sources of energy (section 3 of the energy hierarchy). 

The following will outline some key practical ways in which members can engage with energy efficiency measures:

Firstly it is important to remember, that energy efficiency measures are an extra ‘selling tool’ for you, if you don’t tell your clients what options are available to them, how will they know what to install to save them money through their energy bills.  Particularly through these hard economic times, everyone is trying to save money where they can, and energy efficiency is one measure which can help companies, and home-owners achieve this.



(Figure 1, Source: Merton rule website)   

Practical measures: See what Paul Reeve, Head of Safety and Environment at the ECA, recommends you do:

Lighting

• Advise your clients to:
  -Install optimal lighting configurations (e.g. reflectors, dimmer circuits).
  -Investigate the scope for energy efficient lamps and lighting units (luminaires).
  -use timers/photoelectric cells to control exterior lighting.
  -use high-frequency light fittings.

Controls and meters

• Advise your clients to:
  -improve local metering, so staff can see how much energy is being used, and where.
  -consider updating the main control panel (if there is one) with the latest controllers. This can give more accurate control over equipment such as boilers, pumps, fans and control valves. 

Sensors and timers

• Advise your clients to:
  -use light sensors to switch off building lights when there is enough daylight.
  -allow lights to be turned off by using motion detectors in conference rooms, bathrooms and anywhere else appropriate. 

Following through the energy hierarchy, once energy efficiency measures have been installed, the next stage to enhance buildings sustainability is renewable energy.

Renewable energy

• Talk to your clients about considering micro-renewable energy systems such as roof-mounted solar units (water heating or solar cells). 

For more information on renewable energy visit the technical section, of the ECA website under specialist advice.

The Carbon Reduction Commitment:

The Carbon Reduction Commitment or CRC, is due to start in April 2010, and will require all medium to larger sized public and private sector organisations (such as banks, hotels, supermarkets, schools, retail chains) who have a half hourly meter, to monitor, report, and eventually purchase carbon credits on their carbon emissions released.  Carbon credits means financial implications for companies based on their improvement in energy efficiency measures.  On top of this is the reputational incentive for companies to reduce their carbon emissions, as Government will publish a performance league table annually on the efforts made by each CRC participating company.

What the CRC means to ECA members:

You may or may not have heard of the CRC, but as an electrical contractor what you need to know, is that this new mandatory emissions trading scheme could mean huge business opportunities for electrical contractors.  Organisations affected by the CRC, will be looking to drastically reduce their carbon emissions, and to do this, they will need firstly the advice and secondly the people to install the measures outlined in the energy hierarchy above.  If this sounds like something you would be interested in, visit the CRC section on the M&E Sustainability Website.

For more information sources on energy efficiency view the following:

For information on 'Part L' of the Building Regulations visit the ECA Electrical Energy Efficiency Scheme website.
For more in depth information and guidance, visit the energy efficiency section on the M&E Sustainability website.