01.06.12
Seeing energy use differently
Source: Public Sector Executive May/June 12
A new pan-European project aims to cut energy consumption in public sector buildings through imaginative visualisation tools and building manager engagement. PSE spoke to Dr Richard Bull of the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development at De Montfort University, which is evaluating the SmartSpaces project.
Buildings, and activities within them, are responsible for around 44% of carbon emissions and up to a third of energy used in buildings is wasted, research suggests.
Industry and domestic users have long been encouraged to cut energy consumption in sensible ways, and a new project across eight European countries hopes to find new ways to save energy in public buildings, from libraries and museums to schools and council offices.
There are 11 ‘pilot sites’ for the €7m SmartSpaces project, three in the UK – Leicester, Birmingham and Bristol. Each council has picked buildings to take part, and in Leicester, the work is being done in conjunction with De Montfort University’s (DMU) Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development, which is also responsible for evaluating the project across the EU.
One of the project’s leaders, Dr Richard Bull, told PSE: “The specific focus of SmartSpaces is using ICT technology to communicate and engage the people who use the buildings, and on behaviour change. For a building manager, that behaviour change could mean realising they need to do some substantive work to the fabric of their building, but the specific aim of the project is more about engagement with the visualisation tool that’s being devised at each pilot site.
“There isn’t a uniform measure being recommended; at DMU we’ve trialled a range of approaches, such as widget systems that sit on someone’s desktop and show energy consumption in a bar chart or dashboard style, which you can compare with last week or the previous year. We’ve also been trialling some iPhone apps, where we try to animate buildings and do fun visualisations. It’ll be a mixture of those two approaches we’ll be trialling at our Leicester site.”
During 2012, each pilot site is coming up with its own approach, with help from empirica, the German consultancy co-ordinating the research. The baseline energy measurements will be taken from the beginning of year two, January 2013, when implementation starts.
Dr Bull said: “We need, as much as possible, a common approach to monitoring energy use, but how people will choose to visualise it, and the systems, will vary. Different sites are partnering with different providers; Birmingham with Schneider, for example, while we’re doing something bespoke based on our own research.”
DMU has been involved with EU-scale energy projects for many years, and has worked closely with Leicester City Council for two decades, since it became the first ‘environment city’ in the early 1990s. Both are also involved in the European ‘Energy Cities’ network.
In Leicester, the buildings involved include eight schools and colleges, seven leisure centres, two community centres, a library, a museum, an entertainment venue and council offices. Ensuring they all monitor energy use in a way comparable with public buildings at other pilot sites in countries like Turkey and Serbia could be a challenge.
Dr Bull said: “Domestically, you have your gas and electric meter in your home; public buildings have those as well, but increasingly people are looking at more sophisticated half-halfhourly smart meter systems so you can get live, accurate data. My colleague Graeme Stuart is establishing the methodology, which will tell them how to report, and how to gather actual electricity consumption across the whole building. We’ll get a very accurate kilowatt hour measurement, and each year we’ll be able to compare usage against the baseline.
“We’ll also be interviewing the people who manage the buildings, those who work in them, and if appropriate, visitors. It’s very much realworld research. The project wouldn’t be viewed a success if consumption was reduced but there wasn’t an engagement with the actual people as well.”
In Dr Bull’s opinion, for those taking part, it is about fighting climate change and hitting environmental targets – not just costs and bills.
He said: “The UK legislation has had a significant impact. Local authorities are under pressure to achieve the 80% reduction by 2050, and 20% by 2020. There’s a genuine sense of the need to hit that target.”
But he called it “win-win” because cutting energy bills would save money at a time when budgets are tight.
On monitoring, the UK is “ahead of the game”, he said. “That’s partly because of the Energy Performance Buildings Directive (EPBD), and the Government making Display Energy Certificates and Energy Performance Certificates mandatory as of 2008. But across Europe, the EPBD has been adopted in very different ways. Many countries haven’t implemented accurate daily or even monthly data. But the nature of this kind of project means those who’ve got involved are those most keen to take a lead and implement more sophisticated solutions.”
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