Managing Director of halstrup-walcher, Jens Amberg explains why ventilation and air conditioning consumption are the hidden costs in many building portfolios.
The consumption of power and water in the building portfolio has a central role in numerous sustainability reports. This is also true of investment companies, real estate developers and other players in asset management.
Heat energy consumption is also closely examined in these reports. On the other hand, the issue of air consumption in air conditioning systems very rarely shifts into focus.
A serious approach to green buildings and sustainability requires a greater focus on ventilation and air conditioning systems. As we know air conditioning systems are a major contributor to overall costs and emissions yet they are rarely given the close attention they deserve.
This is due to the fact that ventilation and air conditioning systems use other media to help them provide the desired temperatures and volume flows. This results in ventilation consumption being lumped together with the costs for power, water and heating which leads to it disappearing.
Air flow is produced by fans. They use electric power. Air conditioning requires refrigeration systems that consume electric power and which are monitored seperately.
Air is mainly heated via heating circuits, the cost of which shows up in the “heating budget”. It is thus no exaggeration to describe ventilation costs as “hidden costs”.
Cost components
In many buildings, there is no separate designation of these important cost components. Ventilation costs are determined in other buildings by taking the deduction of investment costs, maintenance costs and pro rata power, water and heating costs into account.
However, this total cost is then allocated to the individual tenants according to the percentage of real estate surface they have rented. Such an allocation by area is felt by many to be unfair.
On the other hand, individual tenants do not have consumption transparency and thus have no incentive to save. The fairness question is asked in particular by those commercial tenants who require less ventilation than their neighbours or those who have few cooling loads per area because of the type of use and/or location in the building.
In the meantime, there is a remedy – the use of air meters.
Saving incentives
Measuring technology such as the P26, is installed right in the air entry duct of any leased area. Individual consumption is thus recorded in the same manner as an electricity or water meter.
The consumption values can be read directly on the meter. Moreover, they can also be transferred to a central metering point. The total ventilation costs can then be distributed extremely easily – adapted for each tenant‘s share of consumption.
Along with the consumption-based invoice, recording air consumption also results in an effective saving incentive. As is generally known, displaying consumption leads to savings of 20-30 per cent.
For example, consumption readings for heating have proven this point. In today‘s highly competitive building market, innovations are more crucial than ever.
Ideally, these should be the kinds of innovations that simultaneously and sustainably lower costs and consumption and increase the property‘s attractiveness from the tenant‘s point of view.
About the Author
Engineering master and MBA Jens Amberg, is an acknowledged specialist in marketing and development in the plant and machinery construction sector as well as in measurement technology. In 2012, he was appointed Managing Director of halstrup-walcher, the specialist manufacturer of positioning systems and measurement technology in Kirchzarten.