Green Buildings Alive researchers will be presenting at the Australian Alliance to Save Energy Summer Study on Thursday this week.
Trigeneration technology is becoming commonplace in ‘green’ office developments. Starting yesterday, Sydney now has its first trigeneration precinct, where one building's engine can power another one's energy needs. Why was this necessary?
We’ve collated some recent observations that may shed some light on additional ways to improve building performance following this year’s Earth Hour, including seasonal variation in air-conditioning load that provide big opportunities to go 'beyond the hour'.
Interesting that the internal heat load from lights etc seems to be responsible for about half the HVAC energy on the average October day. So ......
Most large office buildings try to keep internal air temperatures hovering around 21.5°C in winter and 22.5°C in summer. They do it because the leases require it. But is that in the best interests of the occupants? We’re not sure. With record high temperatures all over Australia this summer we’ve been calculating a shirt-to-jacket ratio as a way to investigate the connections between tenants clothes choices, building management, comfort and energy use. We count the jacket and shirt wearers twice a day, every day, in three large Sydney office buildings.
This is a great study and something we are trying to kick off in Hong Kong where the climate and culture is even more extreme. ......
Feeling weary and uncomfortable at your desk on a Monday morning? A new analysis of workplace complaints shows you’re not alone, with more people complaining on Monday than any other day.
Great work. We know this anecdotally, but it is great to see the numbers. There is of course a psychological effect to Mondays, but there ......
CIBSE, the Chartered Institute of Building Sustainability Engineers, is hosting a series of seminars in Australia and NZ in November to introduce the Soft Landings tool. The Energy Efficiency Council (EEC) has its annual conference in Sydney on December 2.
The larger the building, the more energy it will use in a year, obviously. However, when you look at energy use per unit area, things become less obvious. Green Buildings Alive’s review of 50 office buildings in Australia actually shows that medium-sized [1] buildings do quite well, but both large buildings and small buildings are currently using proportionately more energy.
As a tenant of a small building I have to say that the impetus from management to invest in energy performance measures is just not ......
This insight shows the greenhouse emissions intensity in kg of carbon-dioxide-equivalent, per square metre for 53 Australian Buildings. Looks a bit like tangled spaghetti? Find out how to decipher the graphs...
These visualising tools are an excellent for raising questions about the performance of buildings over time. But thinking about these data and the buildings they ......