Energy
Category: Energy
Topic: energy consumption
The larger your building or complex, the greater your common area energy consumption (electricity and gas) is likely to be and the more it will be costing your owners corporation to run.
Source: EnergyAustralia, NSW Department of Planning -
Multi Unit Residential Buildings Energy & Peak Demand Study, 2005
With utility costs set to rise continuously, the financial benefits of smart usage and reduction will make owners’ agreement to sustainable changes easier to obtain. Many projects can be shown to pay back initial costs over a few years, giving long term savings beyond. You’ll be able to reduce annual recurring expenses in your administrative fund, protect yourself against rising costs, and potentially allocate more of your levies to your sinking fund to help pay for more expensive sustainability initiatives.
Jumping straight into solar or wind energy production is not the answer. Such a move will generally involve substantial capital cost, and there is really no point in paying for infrastructure to generate energy you don’t really need!
The basic steps in reducing your common property energy needs from non-renewable resources are:
- Know where your energy is used
- Know what your energy costs
- Reduce your energy demand
- Maximise yourenergy's efficiency
- Increase your renewable energy supply
This site was made possible by an Environmental Grant from the City of Sydney
Comments
retro fitting light fittings
Hi
i run a building management business. i have a building where i used a company called LIGHT UP Willoughby to purchase LED globes for all common areas as cost of power P/a was as high as yours.
each globe was using 25-50 watts of power and these lights are on 24/7 but now only uses 9watts of power.they also dont dim over time.some common areas havent had a globe changed in nearly a year and a major reduction in power usage. if you would like to contact me @ cleanliving00
gmail [dot] com for more information. please do.
Energy - Lighting - Glebe Gardens
Our 103-residence award winning strata complex, Glebe Gardens, completed 1997, is extremely energy hungry. Our common area electricity bills are well over $30,000 pa. We have numerous overly lit foyers, walkways, and a vast bright underground garage.
Our first step in reducing electricity usage was to have an energy audit done. This identified a number of actions we could take. The first was strategic delamping, which reduced our usage by over 10% + put us in a more advantageous category when we came to re-negotiate our energy contract last year. We're now looking at sensors & timers on some lights + changing light globes.
These actions are proving much harder than delamping. One would think with all the seeming concern about green energy that there would be a scheme to help us interpret the Building Code & become familiar with our exact obligations for the provision of lighting. Alas, no. One has to hire & pay stiff fees for a lighting consultant.
It's clear that sooner or later we will move from fluorescent & halogen globes to LED globes. LED globe electricity usage is only 10% to 40% of that of halogen & fluorescent globes. But the decision is hard. There are as yet no Australian Standards for LED globes & Standards Australia has no plans to develop any. LED globes imported from the USA & Germany cost up to 10 times more than those imported from China. One hears anecdotal warnings about installing LED globes into existing fittings & about cheap globes quickly becoming dim. Enough warnings to make one pause, as we have, as we have to be more certain before we make such an investment. But there is nothing official to help us.
It would be interested to hear how other strata developments have tackled similar retrofitting issues.