The amount of business energy consumed can be cut through an integrated approach to building management, according to a study from Frost & Sullivan.
In Building Automation Systems: The Future Role of Open Protocols in Europe, the analyst's Building Management Technologies growth partnership service aims to give operators in the sector the insight they require to meet customer needs and achieve expansion in the coming months.
Frost outlines the advantages of integrated buildings - structures in which different systems are linked through centralised management systems - in terms of reducing the amount of business energy used.
Examples of integrated buildings include offices where lighting, heating and air conditioning can all be centrally managed.
Industry analyst Reka Szanto suggests that three-quarters of the power used in a commercial building is consumed by lighting, heating, air conditioning and ventilation.
With the commercial real estate portfolio accounting for 40 per cent of the nation's communal energy consumption, improvements in efficiency could stand to make a significant impact on the amount of power required.
"One of today's key challenges is to improve a building's performance by providing an optimum working environment and reduced operating costs while simultaneously diminishing its impact on the environment," the analyst notes.
A potential area where substantial savings might be made on business energy is in data centres, the subject of a new standard from the Building Research Establishment.
BREEAM Data Centres 2010 was published this week and provides guidance on cutting power consumption - potentially by more than half of the typical amount used in a new-build facility.
Cold aisle containment is one way to assist in this effort, by ensuring that the air cooled within the data centre through artificial means is kept separate from the hot air exhausted by servers.
This cool air can then be supplied to the servers' intakes, ensuring that the air passing over key components inside their casing has the ability to carry away as much heat as possible.
