Energy control is a main priority in refurbishment projects
David Lewis argues the case for energy control and management ranking high on the agenda when buildings are refurbished and stresses the importance of providing a common communications hierarchy.
Many businesses focus on key areas such as glazing, insulation, HVAC systems and layout when refurbishing their premises, but energy control and management must also rank high on the agenda if the modernised building is to satisfy its potential for energy efficiency.
Retrofitable electrical and building management systems that operate on a common communications hierarchy can be easily implemented during refurbishment projects, but building-services engineers need to understand what can be done in order to maximise the system. The slowdown in the new-build market means greater emphasis needs to be placed on improving the energy efficiency of existing stock. Within refurbishment projects, building-services engineers can recommend and implement solutions that will deliver energy and cost savings.
Creating a fully integrated energy-management system can be made simple when a business has systems that operate on a common communications hierarchy. This starts at a basic level.
For example, in a refurbishment project, where contractors have to work with existing cabling, this is simply done by using Modbus communications for most lower-level devices, such as single circuit breakers and simple metering applications. Using a Modbus/Ethernet gateway that enables Internet access, provides users with the ability to view the information collated by metering and measurement technologies spread around a site.
In addition, retrofit metering kits can be connected together through the gateway using simple entry-level software to monitor energy. This allows users to track real-time power conditions and remotely monitor electrical equipment and installations across an entire network. Through the system, businesses can then measure the energy consumption of specific applications or circuits by day and hour, analyse and compare total harmonic distortion, produce reports and plot trends.
In addition, active harmonic filters and power-factor correction can be used to improve power quality by removing the distortion harmonics that cause inefficiencies and keeps an even flow of power. As with power and energy meters, these have the capability within their embedded technology that enables data to be collected from them. Again, enabling businesses to build up a further layer in the communications hierarchy and the deeper the measurement, the more energy-efficiency opportunities will be found.
In fact, once the data has been compiled in one place, it can go into a sophisticated buildings management system. This higher-level supervisory infrastructure provides organisation with greater energy-management capability.
By combining data from each operating system within a common infrastructure, businesses will reduce their operational costs, improve their premises’ functionality, optimise systems and enhance their assets. And the good news is that this is easily achievable without the need for removing and replacing cabling infrastructure.
Once an organisation has an effective system for power management, it can then turn its attention to other operational areas such as building management, access control and IT — as there is plenty of opportunity available within each of these processes to improve energy efficiency.
For example, looking at lighting as part of the building management, control command devices are effective at lowering energy usage. Solutions include voltage-regulation devices, time-delay switches, occupancy sensors and daylight harvesting controls — which can all be implemented at a basic level and gradually built up over time into a more comprehensive, integrated system. In addition, these devices can also be used to manage heating, ventilation and air conditioning, leading to a complete building-management programme.
By applying the same practices to access control and IT, starting at a basic level and building up control and management systems, businesses can then look to combine the core systems into one application. This provides an holistic view of the energy consumption of a business, enabling building-services managers to see the full potential for energy savings.
As businesses continue to finds ways to improve energy efficiency through the use of effective measures, it is important not to overlook implementing an intelligent energy-management system, as it can save money as well as energy. Starting with basic measures that can be built on to create a communications hierarchy at the refurbishment stage will enable more sophisticated automation, monitoring and control measures to be introduced at a later date.
David Lewis is marketing development manger for energy efficiency with Schneider Electric.
