It is common knowledge that buildings are the largest energy consumers globally (vs. industrial facilities, etc.)and HVAC systems consume the most energy in a building (vs. lighting, etc.), up to 70% of the building’s total energy bill, depending on climatic conditions and end-use.
Let’s consider the numbers for a typical building with chilled water systems:
This translates to an approximate annual electricity bill of AED 1.3 million, for the chillers and chilled water pumps alone. There is immense, and realizable, potential for energy savings for each such building. Condensate water harvesting is another less talked about opportunity, especially given the natural paucity of water and high cost and environmental impact of desalinating sea water.
Over the last decade, as an HVAC service provider at hundreds of such buildings, we have observed some issues related to the installed equipment at site, and some pertaining to the building management budgetary issues, inefficient operating tenets, or simply a lack of awareness. It is possible to practically and substantially, improve energy efficiency by a combination of corrective measures for legacy installation issues, duct and piping leakages, Demand Side Measures (DSM), and intelligent, real-time responsive electro-mechanical solutions – all without compromising on cooling comfort.
