The Challenge

Since 1900, the Good Housekeeping Institute has been testing the latest home, health, beauty, clothing, food and more everyday products for the consumer to make the smartest shopping choices and spend money wisely.

In addition to economic benefits, there are social and environmental advantages to everyone reducing energy consumption. This is important to consumers as they become increasingly aware of rising energy prices and climate change.

Specific Challenges

Provide those who are responsible for the ‘businesses’ of the site, client, construction management, sub-contractors, and suppliers alike with the actual energy saving opportunities available to them.

Key areas:

• Focusing on low and no-cost measures with quick paybacks
• Assess the potential for energy savings for improvement
• Raise awareness and motivate action amongst the staff
• Prioritise activities to maximise savings

As most areas of a construction sites has no energy monitoring capability and energy consumption is based on supplier data which can be flawed and prone to error.

This highlights the importance of:

• Providing energy usage reports for cost reduction and compliance that will not be a burden on administration
• Existing energy usage data was not being used to target energy usage or cost reduction
• No assessment sub-contractor energy related performance

The Solution

• The PSW Energy Team managed the project from initial scope, through to establishing monitoring levels, ensuring compliance at all times and an auditable trail for continual improvement through awareness.
• Metering installed to the main electrical and water supplies to obtain accurate data and establish initial baselines. The data was transferred to our cloud based energy portal for analysis, reporting on demand and unlimited user access

Results and Opportunities

• Excess KVA provision identified during construction
• ‘Out of hours’ consumption increasing wastage
• Need for targeted energy awareness campaigns
• Water leakage identified, otherwise un-noticed
• Investment based improvement identified (VO)
• Behavioural change amongst staff identified

The Benefits

An effective energy management approach requires and understanding of energy costs, bench-marking and energy performance. This includes matching energy use to requirements and maximising system efficiencies. Energy consumption during construction can vary depending on the various stages, equipment and plant in use at the time, their state of repair and the amount and type of electrical equipment installed on fixed assets.

The fundamental goal of construction energy management is to build with the least cost and least environmental effect. The judicious and effective use of energy to maximise profits (minimise costs) and enhance competitive position underpins this strategy. Accurate monitoring minimises energy costs / waste without affecting the construction programme or build quality. The environment will benefit from reductions in energy use and carbon emissions which will improve the company image.