Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) electricity consumption typically accounts for around 40% of total building consumption and 70% of base building (i.e. landlord) electricity consumption. It provides fresh air, control of the indoor temperature and provides comfort the building occupants. The installation, operation and maintenance of the HVAC system are the responsibility of the building owner. Under a net lease, tenants contribute to base building costs through their outgoings. Under a gross lease the building owner pays for energy costs for the base building services. Tenants will pay the energy bills for any supplementary HVAC plus additional appliances including fans and heaters installed on their floor.
Understanding the contribution heating and cooling makes to electricity consumption is important so that tenants’ actions can enhance and support the green activity of their building operators. For tenants, avoiding unnecessary heat from equipment and considering issues like air-flow when doing office fit-outs means that your floor is not working against the buildings’ own systems and unnecessarily increasingly energy load. It will help make the whole building greener and more efficient, unlocking further savings. Resetting the indoor temperature by 1 degree can make an approximate 5-10% energy saving for the base building, so a little flexibility in temperatures can offer big emission and energy savings without compromising occupant comfort. Further, good indoor environment air quality can have a significant effect on worker productivity and influences how people perceive their workplace.
Tenants can help improve HVAC systems in several ways:
Over heating or cooling your building? This factsheet will show you how we can provide better occupant comfort, save money and reduce emissions by expanding the band.
Increase productivity, reduce emissions and save money. This factsheet will explain how.
Download these fun 'Bring your Best Self' posters to use in your office.
A guide by the British Council for Offices providing methods to measure building performance, occupant satisfaction, case studies and more. The report says that high performance can create productivity improvements that swamp utilities costs.
A Property Council of Australia document providing tools for assessing office building quality in new and existing buildings. The tools provide a guide to parameters that typically influence building quality, offering a voluntary, market based approach.
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