1. Energy and Buildings –
the environmental impact
Dr Andy Wright
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University

2. Overview
• Challenges
– Energy
– Climate change mitigation
• Demand reduction is part of the solution
• Priorities
• Examples
• Solutions

4. Key messages
• Resurgence in oil & gas production (fracking), especially USA, falling prices
• The world is still failing to make the global energy system more sustainable
• Energy efficiency is widely recognised as a key option in the hands of policy
makers but is not reaching its full economic potential.
– tackling the barriers to energy efficiency…can unleash this potential and
realise huge gains for energy security, economic growth and the
environment. These gains are not based on achieving any major or
unexpected technological breakthroughs, but just on taking actions to
remove the barriers obstructing the implementation of energy efficiency
measures that are economically viable.
• The climate goal of limiting warming to 2°C is becoming more difficult and
more costly with each year
– Almost four-fifths of the CO2 emissions allowable by 2035 are already locked-in by
existing power plants, factories, buildings, etc.

5. Global energy use
International Energy Agency – Key world statistics 2010
Kyoto
Fossilfuels

6. Breakdown
not much has changed in 35 years except that consumption has doubled!
International Energy Agency – Key world statistics 2010

7. World energy system 2010
Source: World energy outlook 2012

8. Past & future energy demand
Source: World energy outlook 2012

9. Projections – total primary energy supply
under two IEA scenarios
International Energy Agency – Key world statistics 2010
~50%
fossil fuel
reduction
from 1990

10. Climate Change
• Need to limit ‘expected’ temperature rise
to 2°C, with a 4°C rise very unlikely
• The world needs to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050
• UK has committed to an 80% reduction on
1990 levels (=77% reduction on 2008 levels)
• Buildings have a major part to play

11. Source: Committee on climate change
all for buildings
mostly for
buildings
Carbon dioxide target - UK

12. Climate change, not global warming?

13. New York: Hurricane Sandy,
October 2012

14. 2013: Coldest spring
for 50 years
July 2012: 100 flood alerts as UK
braces for a month's rain in 24 hours
May 2012: Worcester

17. Energy efficiency must be a priority
• it reduces energy costs
• it reduces carbon dioxide
• it improves energy security
• it is usually much cheaper than ‘clean
energy’
• (sometimes it costs nothing)
• …so why is it so difficult?

18. “The agenda is now dominated by energy
and security. It is relatively easy to cut
carbon by using lots of clean energy, but it
is no longer acceptable as it dramatically
pushes up cost” – Ant Wilson, AECOM
• We need to make our new buildings much
more efficient in use as well as in design
• But we also need to make the existing
stock much more efficient
• These issues are now (at last) firmly part
of government policy

19. Energy efficiency deconstructed
need?
building fabric
control
system efficiency
clean energy supply

20. Examples – non-domestic buildings
from analysis of half-hourly gas,
electricity and water data
We now have unprecedented access to high
frequency energy and environmental data
Are we using it effectively?

21. Failure modes
• Heating (or cooling) out of season
– Winter cooling or summer heating
• Heating when building unoccupied
– Typically overnight, weekends
• Baseloads
– Gas – lack of control
– Water – usually a leak (not obvious in building)
– Electricity – equipment, lights left on
• Excessive consumption (continuous)
– Often gas with no time control and poor thermostatic control
• Most of these are much less likely in dwellings, because
occupants would notice

22. Library: Heating control – gas on
when clearly unoccupied
1 week:
red
summer
black
winter

23. Office: heating outside occupancy,
high electricity baseload
1 week:
red
summer
black
winter

24. Office: water as occupancy proxy
no water: unoccupied

25. Weekend unoccupied heating
Total 282 sites (2004)
Sites with complete
data 168
Unusual
configurations 114
Flatlining or missing
channel 83
Gas water electricity
Feb 2004 all available 85
No unnecessary
weekend gas heating 59
Unoccupied weekend
heating gas 26
Saturday AND Sunday unoccupied gas:
fixed 24 hour pattern 4
continuously on 4
Saturday OR Sunday
unoccupied gas 18
Sunday unoccupied
only gas
fixed 24 hour pattern 8
continuously on 9
Saturday unoccupied
only gas
fixed 24 hour pattern 1Key
Not usedWorking correctly
End nodes - faulty control
31% problems
100% data available
21%9%
1.2%20%
69% OK

26. Energy use in industry
Over the past few years, a
wide range of cheap, reliable,
non-invasive monitoring
equipment has become
available
These include
standalone loggers
clip-on electricity CTs
infra-red cameras
wireless systems

29. Why is energy efficiency difficult?
which is more complex – the aircraft or the buildings?

30. Conclusions: How to make
buildings more efficient
• Make better use of data we already collect
• Exploit new monitoring technology to
understand what’s going really on
• Understand what the occupants are doing,
and why
• Revaluate investment decisions – why
demand a 2 or 3 year payback?
• Treat buildings more like aircraft (then
they might function as they’re designed)