Improving the use of
energy in buildings
Untangling Energy Use with
Voluntary Display Energy Certificates
Malcolm Hanna, Technical Director,
National Energy Foundation
EMEX – 19th November 2014
Contents
• Display Energy Certificates
• How people use DECs
• The issue for Landlords and tenants
• The VolDEC solution
• Future development
fairly
tangled
It’sIt’s
fairly
tangled
Display Energy Certificates
How people use DECs
• Promotional device, clear
indicator
• Enhanced when combined with
promotional campaign
• Engagement and culture change
• Competitions between buildings
• Live dashboards
• Simple message easily included in
reports and documents
• Clear indication of use and trends
The issues for Landlords and Tenants
The issue for Landlords and Tenants
• No split between Landlord and Tenant
• DEC shows whole building performance,
one DEC.
• Cannot show improvements (or not) in
what each control
• DECs use one benchmark for all offices,
not a good match for many office types
• Many offices are ‘stuck’ at G, cannot
show improvement
The issue for Landlords and Tenants
• Considerable enhancement could
occur through:
• Review letter rating, finer grain
approach
• Ensure benchmarks are
understood and appropriate
• Letter rating potentially demotivating, too coarse
• G rating has a very long tail, poor
buildings hard to show improvement
The VolDEC Solution
The VolDEC solution
Building Energy Solutions
Energy Management, Research & Training Consultancy
The VolDEC solution - Aims
• Voluntary scheme without government constraints
• Not for profit, for benefit of the industry, backed by the indusry
• To use authoritative sector specific benchmarks
• To highlight performance and encourage action and improvement
• To conduct benchmarking research for the industry
• Soft start the commercial sector into measuring performance
• Encourage deeper analysis to benefit building operators, designers
and the whole industry
The VolDEC solution - the offering
• Easy access, quick, low cost
• No lodgement, no site visit, no advisory report
• Use the existing DEC methodology as the basis
• Use a ‘similar’ (improved) DEC certificate layout with A-G scale including G1G4 and U = Unclassified
• Include a certificate quality rating: HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW to encourage better
data quality
• Immediate feedback to encourage data quality improvement
• Better (& improving) benchmarks and categories, working with sectors
The VolDEC Method
Statutory DEC
VolDEC
Methodology Produced using the
methodology described
in CIBSE TM47
Produced using the
methodology described
in CIBSE TM47
Benchmarks
Uses CIBSE TM46
benchmarks. This
provides only one
benchmark for all office
types.
Uses ECON19
benchmarks for offices.
This provides four
different office types plus
energy is broken down
by end use for each type.
Landlord /
tenant split
Unable to provide a
separate landlord tenant
DEC in the same building
Uses the granular energy
breakdown in ECON19 to
provide composite
landlord and tenant
benchmarks for 5
different building
scenarios.
The VolDEC Method
What do you need for a VolDEC?
• Building postcode
• Floor area
• Approximate hours of occupancy
• Annual energy use – landlord & Tenant
• Data year
• Main heating fuel type
What do you need for a VolDEC
• Choose office type – closest match
What do you need for a VolDEC
• Choose building Scenario – closest match
The benefits of VolDEC
• Provides landlords and tenants with comparative energy performance of
the areas they control
• Stand-alone entry level engagement tool – simple, easy to produce and
inexpensive
• Uses robust DEC method but with more appropriate benchmarks
• Highlights energy performance and provides a clear driver for improving
performance
• The VolDEC process highlights anomalies and the need for more
sophisticated benchmarking
Future Development
Future developments
• Water and waste (Environmental VolDEC)
• Floor by floor (individual tenant VolDEC)
• Shopping centres (new sector)
• Future on-line self-input
• Benchmarking reports / organisational reports
National Energy Foundation
• Primary objective is improving the use of
energy in buildings.
• Providing affordable, accessible tools to
help organisations understand and
manage their energy use is a key
objective.
• We think VolDEC can help to deliver this.
Improving the use of energy in
buildings
Malcolm.hanna@nef.org.uk
www.nef.org.uk