Energy Saving News
23% Energy Saving & 17% ROI on Building Retrofit
Gordon Holness, president of ASHRAE, in recent presentations cited the McKingsley Report, which indicates that if the U.S. were to spend $170 billion on the retrofit of existing buildings it would save, on average, 23 percent of all building energy use and get a 17 percent return on investment.
He went onto say:
“One hundred and fifty billion square feet of commercial buildings will need to be renovated over the next 30 years and 75 to 85 per cent of all of the buildings that will exist in urban areas in 2030 exist today,
“You have to look at taking energy out of existing buildings before you can make a real difference with new construction.”
“The quality of the building stock is not improved by green buildings that don’t operate efficiently,” said Holness, adding that buildings typically deteriorate in performance by as much as 30 percent in the first three to four years.
Retro-commissioning of an existing building can save 10 to 40 per cent the 20 to 50 per cent per square foot cost can be recovered in less than a year.
Monday 8th March 2010
