Project plan for implementing your energy efficiency retrofit
Embarking on the building energy retrofit needs a strategy that tends to be unique to the goals as well as resources of the organization. The steps below will be followed in the development of a strategy plan for the specific situation. It should be noted that some of the steps might occur sequentially while others might take place in parallel. The following steps will be adopted in the implementation of the project plan for implementation of energy efficiency retrofit:
- Commitment and team formation
- Carrying out building assessments & identification of opportunities
- Reviewing opportunities for savings
- Determination of financial options
- Completion of the project and continued management
Making commitment and forming team: The initial step in the identification as well as implantation of opportunities for energy saving would begin by making commitments to saving energy as well as coming up with an internal support that meets such commitments. Prior to beginning an energy saving project it is integral to ensure one has the support of the leadership of the agency (Alam et al., 2019). Operations as well as maintenance staff alongside the occupants of the building are more likely to admit the changes to the operations of the building as well as equipment in case there is a significant commitment from the leadership. Commitments may be illustrated through issuance of formal policies, ascertaining adequate financial as well as staffing resources for completion of the goals besides communication of the benefits of such changes to the broader community.
Carrying out Building assessments & identification of opportunities:- Before taking into consideration conservation or even energy efficiency strategies for the selected building, it is first important to have an understanding of the distribution of energy among the different systems of the building (Filippini and Zhang, 2019). The chart below is an illustration of the breakdown of energy use in a selected building depending on the provided national data.
Figure 1: Energy consumption in the building by systems
In Victoria, HVAC system alongside lighting represents the largest share of cumulative energy use. It is thus typically most efficiency and effective to accordingly focus energy cost alongside effects to save on these two systems. Development of a more customized plan calls on the agencies to first asses the prevailing energy performance via benchmarking as well as energy audits.
Figure 2: Office layout plan
Benchmarking of the building energy would involve making a comparison of the use of energy of the building or group of buildings against the energy consumption of a baseline. This is an integral aspect in the development of a retrofit plan as it gives the organisation an opportunity to identify how as well as where energy is being consumed (Fylan et al., 2016). Still, in case the agency is thinking of improvements across numerous buildings, benchmarking would serve to aid in the identification of the buildings that are most urgent. The benchmarking exercise would involve the following:
- Inventory of the building as well as equipment
- Identification of meter configuration
- Preliminary analysis of energy use
- Carrying out building audits
Reviewing opportunities for savings: The type as well as scope of the measures for conserving energy would be unique for the individual building. This stage will involve the inclusion of the project engineer as well as construction firm to provide advice of the types of measures that would be most appropriate for the building (He et al., 2019). Among the common activities and projects include:
- Conservation via occupant behavior
- Lighting
- Building envelope
- Equipment as well as plug loads
Figure 3: Estimated cost of construction of the office building
Upon established of the goals as well as the potential measures for saving energy identified, the buildings as well as measures might be ranked by return on investment and cost with those items having no or low cost being finished as soon as possible (Hou et al., 2016). The criteria for evaluation of the project include:
- Potential for energy saving
- Aligning with replacement of equipment
- Construction sequence and timeframe
- Cash flow and budgeting
Determination of financial options: Upon determination of the scope of retrofit measures, a project schedule bearing the project costs as well as projected savings need to be generated alongside an updated annual budget showing the funds that have been deducted for covering the costs of the project.
Implementation of energy efficiency measures: An explicit agreement is made with the service providers as well as contractor during the implementation of the selected measures (Kieft et al., 2020). The following are expected of the project engineer alongside contractor and might be included in the scope of work:
- Helping in defining objectives and criteria of project, offering insights into the suggested retrofit measures and offering design reviews before construction
- Ensuring proper installation of systems and equipment as per the design during construction
- Carrying out onside building walk-through for the client to comprehend the systems and installed measures after construction
Completion of the project and continued management: This stage will involve tracking the impacts of the changes made on the building by making a comparison of the previous consumption and costs of energy against the current one. Such a comparison would aid in determination of the effectiveness of the project and its contribution to the goals of reduction. It is as well integral to identify the energy use data should as well be compared against the information available on weather and occupancy of the building to give a detailed view of use of energy in the building.
References
Alam, M., Zou, P.X., Stewart, R.A., Bertone, E., Sahin, O., Buntine, C. and Marshall, C., 2019. Government championed strategies to overcome the barriers to public building energy efficiency retrofit projects. Sustainable Cities and Society, 44, pp.56-69
Filippini, M. and Zhang, L., 2019. Impacts of heat metering and efficiency retrofit policy on residential energy consumption in China. Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, 21(2), pp.203-216
Fylan, F., Glew, D., Smith, M., Johnston, D., Brooke-Peat, M., Miles-Shenton, D., Fletcher, M., Aloise-Young, P. and Gorse, C., 2016. Reflections on retrofits: Overcoming barriers to energy efficiency among the fuel poor in the United Kingdom. Energy Research & Social Science, 21, pp.190-198
He, Y., Liao, N., Bi, J. and Guo, L., 2019. Investment decision-making optimization of energy efficiency retrofit measures in multiple buildings under financing budgetary restraint. Journal of cleaner production, 215, pp.1078-1094
Hou, J., Liu, Y., Wu, Y., Zhou, N. and Feng, W., 2016. Comparative study of commercial building energy-efficiency retrofit policies in four pilot cities in China. Energy Policy, 88, pp.204-215
Kieft, A., Harmsen, R. and Hekkert, M.P., 2020. Problems, solutions, and institutional logics: Insights from Dutch domestic energy-efficiency retrofits. Energy Research & Social Science, 60, p.101315
Krarti, M. and Dubey, K., 2017. Energy productivity evaluation of large scale building energy efficiency programs for Oman. Sustainable Cities and Society, 29, pp.12-22
Liu, Y., Liu, T., Ye, S. and Liu, Y., 2018. Cost-benefit analysis for Energy Efficiency Retrofit of existing buildings: A case study in China. Journal of cleaner production, 177, pp.493-506
Nagpal, S. and Reinhart, C.F., 2018. A comparison of two modeling approaches for establishing and implementing energy use reduction targets for a university campus. Energy and buildings, 173, pp.103-116
