Welcome to our latest series of Friday posts focussing on Sustainability in Buildings!
This week we take a look at energy audits for buildings using BS EN 16247. BS EN 16247-2 specifies the requirements, methodology, and deliverables of an energy audit for a building or a group of buildings. When applied in conjunction with BS EN 16247-1 General Requirements, -3: Energy in Processes, and -4: Energy in Transport, a complete and compliant energy audit can be carried out for most organisations.
An energy baseline is set using BS EN 16247 and one year of energy data alongside information about the building(s), processes, and transport use. This is key to understating how the energy is being used in your operations (and lost along the way). A site visit can help the auditor identify possible areas of improvement and establish energy performance indicators to monitor closely in order to achieve the highest level of energy efficiency possible.
Doing energy audits is a great way to reduce the operational emissions of buildings, and it is also a great way of reducing operational costs in the knowledge that the energy you are purchasing is used in the most efficient way possible.
Also, the UK government has identified improvement in energy efficiency of buildings as the quickest way to reduce the country’s dependency on imported natural gas (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/energy-efficiency-what-you-need-to-know).
Using BS EN 16247 to perform energy audits is a great way of working towards compliance with ESOS regulations in the UK, and here at @Carbonbit, we can help you with energy audits and with your ESOS compliance! Let’s start improving the performance of your buildings together!