Energy Conservation Opportunities
(ECO's)
The tables on the following webpage list the ECO’s identified by
the AUDITAC project as being potential areas to assess during an
Inspection or Audit of a building, with the ultimate aim of reducing
the energy consumption of the Air Conditioning System(s) within the
building. These ECO’s were produced by Work Package 4 of the
project.
Structure of the ECO List
The main purpose of an Energy Audit is to identify a suitable set
of actions that should lead to significant energy savings, within
the specified operational and financial constraints.
In the
Preliminary Audit phase, a set of candidate ECOs is identified
following the procedure outlined in WP3 report. The ECOs are
selected from a list in which they are grouped into the following
categories and subcategories:
E. ENVELOPE AND LOADS
E.1 Solar gain
reduction / Daylight control improvement
E.2 Ventilation / Air
movement / Air leakage improvement
E.3 Envelope insulation
E.4 Other actions aimed at load reduction
P. PLANT
P.1 BEMS and controls /
Miscellaneous
P.2 Cooling equipment / Free cooling
P.3
Air handling / Heat recovery / Air distribution
P.4 Water
handling / Water distribution
P.5 Terminal units
P.6 System
replacement (in specific limited zones)
O. OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE (O&M)
O.1
Facility management
O.2 General HVAC system
O.3 Cooling
equipment
O.4 Fluid (air and water) handling and distribution
In the “Envelope and Loads” categories, ECOs aimed at reducing
the building cooling load are listed. These ECOs may be either of
the operational type, or may involve renovation work on the building
envelope. Therefore, the evaluation methods may be similar to those
normally applied either to category “O&M” or “Plant”.
“Plant”
ECOs involve more or less radical intervention on the HVAC system.
Their applicability should therefore be carefully assessed both from
the technical and economical standpoint; for this purpose, a
review of the main cost-benefit evaluation methods is presented in
this report.
The “O&M” ECOs include all actions that may in
general be implemented in a building, HVAC system, or facility
management scheme. The costs involved by such ECOs are generally
limited if not negligible: application is therefore normally
recommended, provided their technical feasibility is assessed.
Several of the ECOs of each of the above categories may be
effectively implemented with the aid of a Building Energy Management
System (BEMS). Such circumstance is highlighted in a specific column
of the ECO list.
The CAT tool refers explicitly to these ECO’s
where appropriate. |
