4 Opportunities for Building Optimization on a Budget

Buildings are full of hidden potential for improved operations and savings. But it can be difficult to imagine optimizing a building without having to make large investments in new equipment. Because of this, many building owners think they should hold off on making improvements to save money and avoid the perceived hassle of the process. In reality, building optimization doesn’t have to be a hassle, and by waiting, a building owner is paying the ongoing costs of an inefficient building and reduced performance. Making the most out of your building can be as simple as looking at these four opportunities for improvement:

1. Building Performance

Building optimization doesn’t always require new equipment and large investments. Leverage tools that make it easier. With the Trane^® Building Performance process, you are able to get valuable insights that show how your HVAC systems and subsystems are running. By identifying systems that are running inefficiently or optimizing the runtime of your equipment, you can focus service teams on the most impactful improvements resulting in extended equipment life and maximized energy savings.

2. Energy Performance

Buildings also can be evaluated from an energy consumption perspective. By collecting and analyzing utility data, engineers like those at Trane are able to take a detailed look at energy usage to uncover additional savings opportunities. At Trane, the Energy Performance analysis includes an energy baseline, as well as ongoing analysis to help validate the positive impacts on your building. Recommendations for energy conservation measures can be applied to improve energy performance by making simple schedule changes and occupancy-based control decisions. Facility managers can then track progress and access information 24/7 with a suite of web-based applications.

3. Energy Assessment

For buildings that require a more advanced tool set, the Trane Energy Assessment utilizes advanced visualization tools to display energy use by time of day, area of the building or equipment type. Using algorithms based on decades of industry expertise, the assessment produces a variety of graphics that help you measure and manage energy use across your entire portfolio of buildings, down to a single submeter. This snapshot of the building’s energy profile helps to prioritize service teams’ work and examine anomalies relative to peer buildings.

4. Active Monitoring

Once opportunities for energy savings and optimization are identified, it is critical to apply a continuous improvement mindset to building systems; but not all buildings have teams available 24/7 for monitoring and maintenance. With Trane’s Active Monitoring service, professionals can be available 24/7, 365 days per year. Our team can proactively detect, diagnose and repair issues remotely. If there is a facility team on-site, we can be your backup, developing rules of engagement for service responses in your building.

Your building is an important part of your business, and it’s a complex, changing environment that presents opportunities to impact your business outcomes. With Trane’s Intelligent Services portfolio, you can optimize your systems for energy efficiency, reliability and occupant satisfaction — and it doesn’t always require investments in new equipment.

See how Homestead High School, with declining enrollment and lower revenues, put this process into action for building optimization.

We worked with Homestead High School to address high operating costs with an ongoing solution to help increase efficiency and achieve cost-saving objectives. To improve building operations and efficiency, we implemented an analytics-based energy performance solution. Ultimately, through the partnership and building optimization projects, Homestead High School is running more efficiently, with electrical energy consumption approximately 10 percent below similar buildings, as benchmarked by the Department of Energy Buildings Performance Database. Homestead predicts future energy savings to be in excess of $40,000 a year.