EUI doesn’t tell you how your building performs

Measuring energy is a good thing, but it’s not the only thing. Decisions are commonly based on the monetary payback, too often from energy savings alone. The cost of operating a building is much more complex than the utility bills. And achieving the lowest operating cost is much more complex than EUI.

What else affects your building’s performance? Here’s a few basics:

• Comfort: Occupants need to be comfortable. If not, your maintenance cost goes up, responding to hot/cold calls, and there are very real issues with the impact it has on the people and their performance.
• Health: The number of buildings we see that don’t provide proper ventilation is frightening. Shutting off fresh air really drops the EUI, but at a potential huge cost if it leads to a sick building.
• Function: Offices are one thing, but a museum that doesn’t manage humidity, or a hospital that isn’t managing individual room pressurization, isn’t performing well. The impact might not hit the facility’s budget, but can destroy the owner.
• Maintenance: High performance buildings should run themselves—minimal hot/cold calls, eliminate manual overrides due to something as predictable as weather, and have the building direct technicians to where the problems really are.

To truly optimize a building’s performance, one has to look at its systems holistically. It’s no small job to get the BAS to orchestrate hundreds or thousands of pieces of equipment operating harmoniously, driven by tens of thousands of lines of software code, but that’s exactly the job that needs to be done.

IDS helps you get the automation right at each piece of equipment, and each system, which is essential for persistent performance. Our approach for new construction ensures that buildings enter the warranty period with minimal issues and exit performing as designed.

Call us to find out how we can help you achieve high performance, not just by delivering low energy costs, but by lowering all costs of operation.