Insights and observations from our practice and elsewhere
4 ACEEE Summer Study 2018 Papers
Operating at the leading edge of building energy performance analysis, Buildings Alive commits a significant amount of resources to research and development activity. Several of Buildings Alive's staff have had research papers accepted to the prestigious American...
The evidence is in: peak demand is “manageable”
Owners and managers of large non-residential buildings usually pay around 15–30% of their (ever-increasing) electricity bills for network ‘capacity’ in most markets. But peak demand savings are rarely a focus for management. Why? Until recently there have been a few...
Peak demand service delivers immediate savings
In January 2018, Buildings Alive’s peak demand service has helped the Facility management team at 2-12 Macquarie Street with reducing their demand costs. Take a look at the results below, and see how the peak demand warning messages help FM’s...
Incremental improvements deliver compelling results
The performance of 303 Sevenoaks St keeps improving month after month. It is another example of where a facilities manager actively uses the BMS, monitoring it and making changes when necessary, using Buildings Alive's daily REF messages to...
Making good use of a good BMS
The performance of 67 Albert Avenue, in Chatswood has improved significantly in the last couple of months. A facilities manager that understands and uses the BMS has now an upgraded tool, with improved control logic that are taking the...
Collaborating on controls
64 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra A building that showed great results in August is 64 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra. An active facilities management team has worked together with Buildings Alive, BMS and mechanical contractors to identify and act on controls issues that...
Continuous improvement and hitting targets
99 Walker St, North Sydney A building that showed great results in July is 99 Walker Street, North Sydney. An active facilities management team has implemented several efficiency strategies, by tightening the building’s operational schedule and optimising HVAC...
Playing our part (and capturing savings)
The property industry effectively managing peak electricity demand Recent events such as the blackouts in South Australia in late 2016 and early 2017, and flow on effects in the wider national electricity grid including significant price spikes...
Static and seasonal settings vs evidence-based building energy performance management
The Bureau of Meteorology’s monthly reports for July 2017 show that most of Australia posted significantly above average or record warm daytime temperatures last month. Mean temperatures - averaging out day and night time temperatures, and even...
Turning faults into opportunities at 9 Castlereagh Street (Building of the Month : June 2017)
In February 2017, Buildings Alive (in partnership with Envizi) deployed a revolutionary ‘Equipment Fault Detection’ (EFD) platform at 9 Castlereagh St, Sydney. The EFD platform continually analyses the building’s automation system, looking for...
Building of the Month : May 2017
20 Smith St, Parramatta In the month of May 2017, one of the buildings from the Buildings Alive program which showed notable results was 20 Smith Street in Parramatta. Look at its results, and the strategies used to achieve them! Building Bio...
Buildings of the Month : April 2017
20 Hunter St, Sydney and 65 Berry St, North Sydney This month we review the benefits of weather-adjusted measurement and verification (M&V), as highlighted by upgrade projects at two buildings that receive Buildings Alive services. In...