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“Architects know that buildings can be designed to require less than half the energy of today's average U.S. building, with no additional cost."

- Edward Mazria,
  architect, author and educator

New Buildings

There is tremendous opportunity to change the face of building engineering. By 2030, half of all buildings on Earth will have been built after 2000. With all the new buildings going up, there’s no reason not to make them energy efficient from the start. Using technology that exists today, new buildings can reduce energy consumption by as much as half, perhaps even more. Solutions designed to make these reductions a reality are available today. Our approach is called Ecostruxure. It’s a comprehensive program designed to drastically reduce a building’s energy footprint, from plant to plug. To do this, we have developed competence in every step of the power chain. This allows us to optimize power consumption at every point and then coordinate systems to achieve even further reduction. That could mean anything from installing the right windows or integrating and optimizing building management systems, to incorporating renewable energy sources. Whichever solution you choose, implementing it from the ground up will ensure the greatest reductions in energy consumption – and costs.

Existing Buildings

As for existing buildings, a 30% efficiency boost can be achieved. This is largely accomplished by creating one intelligent control center that integrates all the systems that run a building onto one platform. With an integrated building management system (iBMS), HVAC, lighting, ventilation, security and all the other systems can be monitored, controlled and optimized from one computer
screen.

Even in a recently built, LEED-certified building, 20% energy and water savings can be achieved by having experts analyze and optimize your systems. Therefore energy savings can go right to your bottom line. These results are usually guaranteed, meaning
you’re paid the difference if the savings goals aren’t met.

Simplifying system management

Many buildings can’t measure the energy use of their systems, and you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Consolidating system management with an iBMS solution makes building energy management simpler and creates a safer, more comfortable indoor environment. Simplicity is the key.

An operator can program automatic actions for the heating, lighting, security, etc. based on the iBMS’s constant monitoring. For example, an iBMS at a movie theater could integrate ticket sales information for each salon to adjust HVAC requirements to exactly the number of people in the theater and integrate showtimes to provide “just-intime" HVAC so the owners never waste money heating, ventilating or cooling an empty room.

The business benefits

Upgrading systems takes time and money. But owners get even more time and money back in return. The venue that hosted the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference is a perfect example. Opting to go with an Ecostruxure solution from Schneider Electric that integrates multiple systems in a building, they upgraded to highly efficient equipment, installed timers on their heating and lighting systems, and made several other changes throughout the facility. The first phase of the energy-upgrade achieved a 20% reduction in CO2 output and yielded more than €270,000 in saved cost each year. Read more about the project.

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