The smartest people in the commercial real estate industry agree–if we really got energy efficiency in buildings right using smart building technologies, corporations could save so much money that there would be little need for solar panels or windmills. While most experts are still strong supporters of these alternative energy sources, they agree that extreme energy efficiency measures could have very dramatic positive results.

On the other hand, there are an increasing number of people who are growing disenchanted with the energy efficiency movement. It is not that they are against the idea, it just seems like it is an “all or nothing” proposition, and one of the major aspects of smart building technologies is the impact they can have on OPERATIONS and TENANT SAFETY/SATISFACTION as well as energy efficiency–which solar panels and windmills don’t offer.
In our world of buildings, a world that impacts us every time we enter an office, mall, school or sporting venue, and an environment that requires a great degree of operational support, why totally ignore the operational benefits, financial and human productivity possibilities, and tenant safety/satisfaction potential of intelligent, connected, high performance smart buildings?

This new generation of smart buildings, in which an IT infrastructure is laid on top of a building and every electro-mechanical device is IP enabled and connected with the ability to send data and be controlled, can provide energy savings and a WHOLE LOT MORE. The concept of centralized portfolio control with dramatically reengineered workflow, combined with advanced data analytics and visualization, could have an equal (if not greater) impact on the operational and tenant satisfaction bottom line of a building when comparing energy efficiency and savings.

Building owners care a lot about the costs of running a building. If these state of the art concepts and technologies can significantly reduce operating costs, why not exploit that fact? These details should be included in the overall strategy when cost-justifying the retrofitting of existing buildings. It makes sense to look at every aspect of these intelligent and smart buildings. Go through the front door with energy efficiency but, by no means stop there; operational efficiency and tenant satisfaction will round out the complete justification for making smart building investments.

One small, yet interesting example of this approach would be the management of fire extinguishers. Despite more technology in an iPhone than we had on the first space launch, we continue each month to walk every square foot of our buildings in search of a fire extinguisher with a small paper card attached and a hole to punch. With some pretty basic smart building technology, we can connect those fire extinguishers to a network and monitor them in real time, with almost no future financial investment. This also has a good sustainability aspect, as we are not using natural resources to transport humans in their search for cards to punch.

Another area relevant to smart building technology with a very fast payback is digital signage. Despite the fact that the hardware and technology costs have become very competitive, we continue to rely on analog solutions to communicate information in our lobbies. If you look at the cost and process, with multiple people and methods of getting a tenant’s name up on a lobby sign, it is a very inefficient way to communicate tenant information. In addition to a simple tenant directory, digital signage can also offer advertising (potential revenues), and fire life safety information in the event of an emergency.

Many different areas of a building’s operations would benefit greatly from automation: HVAC, lighting, security/access, energy, fire/life/safety, lifts, water management, landscaping/irrigation, audio visual, digital signage, parking, voice/data and more.

If we truly want to take our buildings to the next level of sophistication and take advantage of all available technologies, then start thinking of the three categories that make a smart building–energy efficiency and conservation, operational efficiency, tenant safety and satisfaction. If we include all of these categories in our financial justification models, it becomes a much easier decision to retrofit and move our buildings into the 21st century.

In spite of all available information on the subject, achieving energy efficiency through solar powered systems can still be difficult to achieve without experts who can offer practical advice based on cutting-edge knowledge and years of experience in the field. That’s why many people are now turning to solar power equipment installation contractors such as the experts at Solare Energy, when they require high efficiency solutions that are designed for seamless integration within their home or business.

Headquartered in San Diego County, Solare Energy provides residential, commercial and governmental customers with smart energy solutions that integrate both solar and energy efficiency systems. These solutions help to ensure that clients receive cost-effective, environmentally-friendly and highly efficient energy production systems that provide them with the ideal energy production capacity for their long-term future.

Many of the company’s most prominent customers are governmental contractors. Federal agencies including military facilities and others must meet strict energy management requirements that are outlined within federal statutory laws and regulations. This is outlined by recent policy documents such as the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and the National Energy Conservation Policy Act which has set in place a concrete set of energy goals that federal facilities are mandated to follow. The goals included with this legislation include: a 30% reduction in energy intensity by 2015, 7.5% of the electricity consumed by the Federal government must come from renewable energy by 2013, and the introduction of a policy whereby federal agencies can only lease space in buildings that have earned the Energy Star label.

Solare Energy now works to help federal agencies to meet these government set mandates by helping specific agencies identify problematic areas and helping them to carry out energy efficient project opportunities. In addition, solar contractors Solare Energy also work with federal agencies to analyze the various financing options that are available to them as a government workforce, including utility service contracts, power purchase agreements and government specific energy incentive programs.

As specialist solar contractors, Solare Energy is also now working with state agencies to ensure that they comply with the recently introduced Green Building Action Plan, which mandates that state buildings in California must be 20% more energy efficient by 2015. The precursor to the Green Building Action Plan, the Green Building Initiative also mandates that state agencies review the benefits of using clean and renewable on-site energy generation technologies in all new buildings or large renovation projects. Solare Energy has been involved, working directly with the California state legislators on a number of key projects, to identify and carry out solar and energy efficiency opportunities within the state. In addition, because of the company’s role as a promoter as well as a pioneer of solar technology, Solare Energy also helps to finance solar projects through the use of third-party solar PPAs [Power Purchase Agreements].

Working to make America a more cost-efficiency energy producing nation, one building at a time, Solare Energy are one of the country’s leaders when it comes to innovative solar energy efficiency technology. Contact the organization today to find out how these industry specialists can help to cut down your energy bills.

Energy efficiency continues to be a major concern for data centers with raised floor systems. In the past, energy cost was simply a given, on par with the costof hardware and labor. As hardware has become more efficient and automated procedures have taken over labor, the cost of energy has continued to climb and it now represents around 25% of total operating costs for most data centers. In most data centers, one of the biggest uses of energy involves the strategic cooling of equipment in conjunction with the raised floor system.

The typical data center uses nearly twice as much electricity as it needs for actual computing, with the remainder going toward cooling, lighting and systems that maintain the data center. One measure of this ratio of use is PUE, or power usage effectiveness, and a PUE of 1.0 is considered ideal. This means all of the power brought to the data center is used for computing, although this is not exactly an achievable goal.

The price of energy is such a large concern for data centers, they have gone to great lengths to optimize their PUE. The largest operators of data centers, Google and Facebook, have not only worked to make their data centers energy efficient. they have come close to this ideal PUE. Along the way, they have learned some valuable lessons to save energy. Their work has been amazing and shows the possibilities in new construction. However, it challenges the vast majority of older data centers with raised access floor. For data centers built 10 to 40 years ago, all hope is not lost. There are a number of ways to follow this trend without spending a fortune to take advantage of the lessons learned in energy efficiency.

Energy Efficiency for Legacy Data Centers
Legacy data centers may use a number of cost-effective techniques to boost the energy efficiency of their facility and improve the performance of their raised floor systems.

Energy Efficient Grommets
One option is sealing existing cutouts in raised floor systems for a fast and effective energy facelift. Energy efficient grommets are an effective way to prevent bypass air from escaping the underfloor to improve the efficiency and cooling capacity of the entire system. According to Uptime Institute, Inc., electricity consumed by a data center’s IT equipment is the largest infrastructure cost, and up to 80% of conditioned air never reaches the air intake of equipment due to unsealed cable openings.

Bypass air creates hot spots, which causes not only inefficiency but increased costs. Sealing cable and hose openings is one of the most cost-effective ways to update an existing raised floor system, and energy efficient grommets will not only increase the cooling capacity of existing units but also reduce the need to buy additional cooling units.

Perforated Raised Floor Tiles
Another option is the strategic installation of perforated raised floor tiles or high velocity grates. A major study conducted by the Uptime Institution of 19 large computer rooms determined that most facilities have problems with hot spots. Many data centers simply throw more AC at the problem, which most often fails. These perforated data center floor tiles must be installed with a plan in mind, however, and not simply because an area feels warm.

When cable openings are sealed, the airflow of perforated floor tiles is increased by 66%. Airflow modeling will allow for the strategic placement and quantity needed of perforated floor tiles or high velocity grates.

Rack System Layout
Finally, it’s possible to improve the cooling and power efficiency of legacy raised floor systems by re-examining the current rack layout. More data centers today use in-row solutions, which maximizes efficiency. Cabinets should be joined in a series of rows resting on the raised floor tiles. The fronts of the racks facing each other become cold aisles. Cold aisles are then positioned around the perimeter of the room, or at the end of hot aisles, and this pushes cold air under the raised floor system and through the cold aisle. Perforated raised floor tiles are then placed only in the cold aisles to concentrate the cool air in front of the racks to make sure adequate air reaches the server intake. As air moves through the servers, it’s heated and dissipated into hot aisles.

Implementing a strategic energy plan can make any data center more efficient, whether new or old.

Air conditioning refers to a system for controlling and regulating the humidity, ventilation and the temperature of a building or room for making it comfortable for the occupants. Air conditioning finds application in domestic, commercial and industrial fields.

Air conditioning also form an integral part of the medical and transportation sectors also, in both hospitals and transporting temperature fragile goods.

Conventional methods of air conditioning require a large energy source for maintaining the temperature. This translates into a high-energy requirement, high cost and high carbon dioxides emissions which has negative impacts both economically and with regard to the environment A break through in the air conditioning field came with the use of a new technology which makes use of the latent heat from the outside environment for controlling and regulating the indoor temperature. Using this technology Daikin has startled the Air conditioning industry with the production of its all-new Altherma! Daikins Altherma has high-energy use optimization.

This has been made possible with the advent of the new technology which absorbs the latent heat from the environment for its process. Altherma from Daikin has literally revolutionized the air conditioning industry.

Conventional air-conditioning systems depend upon water at heightened temperature during winter seasons to regulate the temperature. Modern day buildings are well-insulated structures built specifically with the comfort and well being of the occupants in mind. These well insulated buildings have made it easier for the working of the air conditioning systems making a reduction in the temperature of the water circulated thus saving a lot of energy. Altherma comes with a hydro-box that is compact and can be installed in limited spaces out side the building.

Air conditioning refers to the cooling and de-humidification of indoor air for thermal comfort. In a wider sense, the term can be referred to as any form of cooling, heating, ventilation or disinfection that modifies the condition of air.

An air conditioner or an air-con is an appliance, system, or mechanism designed to stabilize the air temperature and humidity within an area, typically using a refrigeration cycle but sometimes using evaporation. Most commonly for comfort cooling in buildings and transportation vehicles. Refrigeration air conditioning equipment usually reduces the humidity of the air processed by the system. The relatively cold evaporator coil condenses water vapor from the processed air, sending the water to a drain and removing water vapor from the cooled space and lowering the relative humidity.

For air conditioning in residential homes, some countries set minimum requirements for energy efficiency. In the United States, the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) often rates the efficiency of air conditioners. The higher the SEER rating, the more energy efficient is the air conditioner. The SEER rating is the BTU of cooling output during its normal annual usage divided by the total electric energy input in watt-hours during the same period.

A ground source heat pump harnesses the solar energy in your garden soil and uses it to heat your home. This process is more natural than burning fossil fuels or even using an electrical system. You can use controls to turn the heat pump on and off just as you would with another system. If you want to put in this type of heating system, it is quite an investment. Prices range for parts and installation, but you should be prepared to pay around 10,000 pounds or more in total. Because this is such as major investment, its necessary to make preparations before you actually get the heat pump system installed. Here are just a few of the ways you can prepare your home for a ground source heat pump.

Inspect the Garden Soil

The soil in your garden must be suitable for digging. While you dont need to have a huge garden space to install a ground heat pump, if the soil is very rocky or difficult to dig under you may not be the ideal candidate for a ground source heat pump. If you do choose to install the system, you will need to notify the installer about the type of soil that you have and it may become necessary to make special arrangements for digging the trench or borehole when there is a lot of rock or hard clay. Your garden must also be accessible to the necessary drilling equipment, so figure out a way that the installer can get large drilling machinery into your garden.

Install Insulation

You can save more energy with your ground source heat pump when the heated air doesnt easily escape through poorly insulated walls and flooring. Prepare your home now by installing better insulation in the walls, and consider adding floor insulation if you have access to a cellar where you can put the insulation beneath a floor. Flooring insulation is most easily installed in homes with timber flooring, but you can also install it when you have a concrete base. You can reduce lost energy by a significant degree by adding wall and floor insulation before your new heating system is installed.

Reduce Drafts

Similar to adding insulation, reducing the drafts in your home in preparation for a ground source heat pump will help you eliminate wasted energy. Drafts are most often the result of windows and doors that are not properly sealed or fitted. While you may not be able to entirely replace the doors and windows in your home you dont need to in most cases. Go to a do it yourself store and pick up some sealant. Sold in a tube, the caulk or other sealant that you choose should be weather proof. If the draft is coming from a substantial opening, you may also want to add some rubber stripping along the perimeter of the door or window so that it closes more tightly and shuts out all drafts.

Combine the Work with Other Remodeling

Your preparation plans for a ground source heat pump should also factor in other remodel work. If you are already planning on doing other work in the garden or one of your propertys outbuildings, schedule the work to be done at the same time as the heat pump when it makes sense. In the very least, you should invite the heat pump installer and other construction contractors to work together to figure out a work schedule that is sensible for everyone. You dont want to damage your new pump with unrelated excavations that are necessary for a separate project.

Ground source heat pumps are an expensive but energy efficient way to keep your home heated all year round. Even though they require a large initial investment, you can save hundreds of pounds on energy costs each year that you use the pump to heat your house. However, you must always prepare your home for the heat pump if you want the installation job to go as smoothly as possible and the heat pump to work to reduce energy costs. When in doubt, consult with an experienced installer to find out the best ways to get your home ready for a new ground source heat pump.