The latest National Energy Barometer Survey Awards have proven that age and size is not a deterrent when it comes to being energy efficient. The survey winners announced at the end of last year, showcased two buildings over the age of 100 years coming out tops. These buildings are being operated the most energy efficiently in their categories compared to others in a similar environment.
With support from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) through the National Energy Efficiency Agency (NEEA), as well as endorsement from government’s national energy efficiency campaign -Save It! - the National Energy Barometer was successfully rolled out in 2010 by the developers of the barometer, Energy Cybernetics.
The National Energy Barometer Survey compares buildings’ energy consumption on an ‘apples-to-apples’ basis, taking into account factors such as climatic conditions, location, occupancy, and floor area, amongst other things. In essence this means that the participants’ energy bills for a particular year are assessed and normalised in relation to these parameters. An average for the building-type is set and the various entrants’ buildings are benchmarked either above, below or within the norm. This is a non-invasive and cost-effective method for building owners, developers and facilities managers to gauge how their energy efficiency investments and initiatives are performing in comparison to others. The methods applied to determine the results of the survey also allows the entrant to identify areas where more energy savings can be made to achieve a better result in the next survey round.
The latest survey featured entries in the Hotel, Shopping Centre and Head Office Categories. The over 100-year old Imperial Hotel in KwaZulu-Natal won the Hotel Category, and the runner-up Hluhluwe Hotel in Zululand is also over 100 years old. Both hotels had the challenge of dealing with the age of their building and significant size of their operations but overcame these with the help of Utility Administration Services (UAS) whom worked with the management and staff at the hotels. Staff awareness and utility check meters was amongst the solutions that were added to the customary energy saving initiatives that are implemented when starting an energy efficiency programme.
In the Shopping Centre Category, UAS was again the proud management company of both the winner and runner-up Survey winners. N1 City Mall in Cape Town came out tops with runner up Centurion Mall in Tshwane. UAS has found the participation of these buildings in the National Energy Barometer Survey process valuable in the sense that it has provided an idea of how the buildings are performing in relation to others in the market, thereby setting a benchmark in the industry.
CEF House was awarded the winner of the Head Office Category and of all the category entries in the survey its result indicated it is the most energy efficient functioning building that participated in the year. The Head Office Category also featured the biggest gap between the efficiency of the best and poorest entries. Runner-up in this category is Exxaro Resources who rated close to the industry average.
The National Energy Barometer Survey encourages companies to become aware of their energy consumption levels and to improve these in the interest of their own bottom-lines, as well as the national economy, whilst providing a platform for comparison and learning.
This year’s survey is open for participation and building owners and operators that wish to find out how their building ranks in comparison with other’s in a similar industry are invited to logon to www.energybarometer.com for more detailed information.
For more information contact Yolanda de Lange, Energy Cybernetics, +27 (0)41 367 1041, [email protected], www.energycybernetics.com
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