Every building brings its own challenges when it comes to ensuring it provides a comfortable and safe working environment. Internal conditions are determined by its shape and size, its thermal characteristics, the processes it houses and the uses made of different areas.

Power correction technology came under the spotlight when performances could be claimed to challenge the micro-renewables for reliability to reduce energy usage. CLM Managing Director Paul Caddick describes why it is important in building services to make some voltage checks.

The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES) is a carbon cap and trade scheme that is designed for non-intensive energy users in the public and private sectors. It is a complex piece of legislation that exposes a number of potential conflicts. Making it work will depend on input from facilities management specialists, such as the collection of data and energy efficiency advice and implementation.

As energy costs continue to rise and climate change legislation starts to bite, enterprises of all sizes are affected.  Effective energy reduction strategies are essential to avoid considerable financial and reputational loss.  Claude Lyons' PowerSave Energy Saving Regulators can contribute significantly to such strategies, with electricity savings of up to 25% being possible. PowerSave also secures users against excessive mains supply dips, and its output, by being tightly phase balanced, can prevent equipment overheating and reduce maintenance costs.

The majority of renewable energy technologies are powered by the sun. The earth-atmosphere system is in such a balance that heat radiation into space is equal to incoming solar radiation; the resulting level of energy within the earths atmosphere can roughly be described as the earth's climate. The hydrosphere (water) absorbs a major fraction of the incoming radiation. Most radiation is absorbed at low latitudes around the equator, but this energy is dissipated around the globe in the form of winds and ocean currents. Wave motion may play a role in the process of transferring mechanical energy between the atmosphere and the ocean through wind stress. Solar energy is also responsible for the distribution of precipitation which is tapped by hydroelectric projects, and for the growth of plants used to create biofuels.

Section 3.3 of Part L2 of the Building Regulations states that ‘to enable owners or occupiers to measure their actual energy consumption, the building and engineering services should be provided with sufficient energy meters and submeters'.  The idea being that by monitoring power and lighting separately, operators can reduce energy usage by comparing actual consumption with targets, identifying unusual periodic changes and keeping annual records of seasonal consumption. 

The government as a whole is in a right old mess but before they went completely to pot they did manage to announce the UK's first ‘green' budget and include in that a target of making all buildings zero carbon by 2019.  Is this something we can be thankful for or is it another example of all mouth and no trousers? 

The need for businesses to become more energy efficient and cut energy bills is making smart meters an increasingly attractive solution for managing energy use. As the Government announces every home and business in Britain will have a new smart meter installed by 2020, Alan Roadway, product manager for ABB, explains what is possible with smart meters and outlines some of the benefits they can bring for commercial and industrial users.

To the point

Since 2005, the Ecodesign Directive has been one of the key enabling mechanisms to drive forward the European Union's policy designed to reduce the levels of environmentally damaging emissions and to increase the use of renewable energy sources.  The Directive establishes a framework to prescribe design principles to apply to energy using products and systems, together with any necessary labelling requirements under the Energy Labelling Directive.

It was telling that one of the first actions of Barack Obama on entering office was to herald a sea change in the US government's policy on climate change and carbon emissions. Within 100 hours of his inauguration he had announced that he expected federal agencies to make all government buildings far more energy efficient. He had a target in mind as well, hoping to achieve energy savings of up to $2 billion (£1.5 billion) per year alongside a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.