Energy Crisis – how this effects education

We are all aware of the rising cost of energy at home and for businesses but for the education sector, this rise in costs is very difficult to manage.

According to the House of Commons Library, gas and electricity prices for schools have increased by 83% during the first quarter of this year alone. Budgets in the education sector are set many months, sometimes years in advance and no one could have predicted that these costs would rise so high. This is putting a squeeze on all departments and cost saving initiatives must be pursued.

As much as 60% of the energy consumed in a building comes from heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) which is controlled and monitored by the Building Management System (BMS). What seems like a tiny change increasing the temperature in a classroom, while the air conditioning unit is still turned on, can have a massive impact on energy costs. ABEC has combined some key energy services to formulate a packaged solution called ‘Focus Energy’

This is designed to make considerable reductions is a customer’s energy spend from inception and for many years agreed. The service comes in 3 key stages:

Audit

The BMS Energy Audit has been specially developed from the knowledge and expertise gained from nearly 20 years of BMS and buildings experience. ABEC takes a holistic look at the buildings performance and identify where improvements can be made based on the latest energy efficiency best practice. The report provides low or no-cost improvements, such as ensuring the HVAC plant is only operating when it is needed. This delivers up to 15% savings and a ROI typically in under 12 months.

Optimise

Next, ABEC work with you to implement all the changes identified in the Energy Audit. This often includes a review and recommissioning of the system to ensure it meets the current usage and needs of the building occupants.

Police

Finally, ABEC can help you to maintain these changes and prevent energy decay through technology and ABEC AnalytiX. ABEC AnalytiX provides automated monitoring of a wide range of factors to alert then to any energy consumption issues. ABEC AnalytiX has a comprehensive set of 99 standardised faults developed by out technical team. For example, if changes are made to the occupancy times and not changed back, this will show up as a fault and can be reset. This also includes alerts to any item of HVAC plant that is running outside of occupation hours. ABEC AnalytiX can deliver a further 15% to 20% savings.

It is clear that the energy crisis is not going to be fixed over night but what we can do it look for ways to be more energy efficient without cutting down on the services we use. There are many great offerings out these to help buildings become more efficient but it is clear that using this service can offer saving not just for now, but for the long-term too.

To find our more about how we can help save energy, click here to see our Focus Energy Sales Proposition