Building Standards Division

Energy Management Solutions Ltd (now part of Green Energy Partners) were commissioned by the Scottish Government Building Standards Division to investigate measures to improve the energy performance of a number of existing buildings.

Retail

EMS delivered a detailed investigation of the energy performance of a recently extended retail building within a major shopping development. The building was modelled using dynamic simulation software. This identified how improvements of the insulation, the energy efficiency of equipment and fittings or the installation of low carbon technologies would impact on the energy performance and cost of the building. The full report can be accessed on the Scottish Government website.

Health centre

Pilot Project: Investigation of measures to improve the energy performance of an NHS Health Centre

EMS developed a standardised analysis of energy performance improvements to existing NHS Scotland buildings. Based on the installation of cavity wall insulation at a health centre the resulting improvements to the energy performance and carbon footprint of the building were assessed. This included an analysis of gas consumption and historic cost data. Costs were assessed to provide a simple payback period analysis. The full report can be accessed on the Scottish Government website.

Energy Load Profiles for Non-Domestic Buildings

This research project investigated typical energy load profiles for a range of existing buildings. The following buildings were modelled using SBEM v3.1 Design Builder software to assess the buildings energy, emissions, lighting and comfort performance:

• sport and leisure centre with pool;
• university halls of residence;
• community and office building;
• community in-patient hospital; and
• medical centre.

Each of the building models were adjusted until they were compliant to within 1% of the Target CO2 Emission Rate (TER). This was done by adjusting various aspects of the buildings such as the building envelope, plant efficiencies, lighting and air permeability. The full report can be accessed on the Scottish Government website.

Office building

One of our directors was commissioned as consultant for a case study of an office building. The property was being extended to provide rental office space. Cost-effective options to reduce energy consumption and limit CO2 emissions were investigated and the introduction of low carbon equipment was evaluated. Following an energy audit potential improvements to the fabric and services of the building were assessed and tenders for a solar hot water system and photovoltaic panels were obtained. A particular focus of the project was to discuss the practicability of options with the organisation that owns and occupies the building and to understand their perspective on improvements to the building. The full report can be accessed on the Scottish Government website.