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Topics 9 June 2022
Building Automation as the Key to Green Buildings?!

A greener building sector with the lowest possible energy consumption, minimal resource waste and a high level of comfort – these are the goals of current efforts in many countries on both a national and international level. In this connection, the topic of building automation is attracting more and more attention. But how much does intelligent building control really have to do with greater energy efficiency?

The Key Information a Glance:

  • New buildings already have high energy standards: The goal is efficient energy use for an optimal room climate.
  • Room automation provides comfort and energy efficiency: Therefore, it represents the state of the art in many new construction projects.
  • The building stock is mostly inefficient: For the building sector to become greener, the large number of existing buildings need to be renovated with an eye towards energy efficiency.
  • A key role in building renovations: Flexible building automation can be used to be record, control and regulate building technology processes – making them more efficient.

A Major Energy Consumer: The European Building Stock

Green buildings are buildings that are constructed and operated as sustainably as possible. This concept focuses heavily on the use of energy and resources, and with good reason: With over 40 percent of total energy consumption and around 35 percent of all CO2 emissions in the EU alone, the building sector is one of the most energy-intensive industries there is – and thus an important factor in the energy transition. While the further development and expansion of renewable energies are important steps, the industry must above all address the issue of how buildings’ energy consumption can be further reduced at the same time. Currently, according to Dena 2021 Building Report*, non-residential buildings occupy about 3,507 km2 of the net heated floorspace in Germany – an area almost the size of Mallorca. With 204 TWh, room heating accounts for the largest share of the energy used, followed by lighting with 56 TWh, hot water with 25 TWh and air-conditioning with 9 TWh. “There’s still lots of room for optimization,” says Dirk Dronia, Global Industry Manager for Building Automation at WAGO.

* The latest 2022 version of the Dena Building Report, which has recently been published, can be found here.

A New Standard: High Energy Efficiency in New Buildings

“Building standards are already high,” says Dronia. “Most newly constructed buildings are almost like thermoses in terms of their insulation.” Lighting is also becoming more efficient thanks to LED technology. That generally already reduces their energy consumption. However, even in new buildings with efficient construction and low-energy technologies, the energy required for room temperature control remains one of the largest areas of energy use in the non-residential building sector – not least because a pleasant indoor climate influences the comfort and productivity of users. The goal is efficient energy use for an optimal room climate.

Room Automation Ensures Comfort and Energy Efficiency

Room automation – the combination of climate control and lighting control, as well as shading – also plays an essential role in well insulated new buildings and is essential in order to achieve an ideal climate and comfort with maximum energy efficiency. In the summer, before cooling rooms, such systems can close the shades to keep sunlight out, preventing them from heating up in the first place. In winter, opening the shades can be used to intentionally heat the room; this can support the heating system or be used to feed the warm room air to the heat recovery system via the exhaust air. If the shading system separates the glare protection and light redirection functions, sunlight can be directed into the room before the electric lighting comes on, despite the glare protection,” says Dronia. In this way, a sophisticated room automation system ensures optimal room conditions and efficient energy use without any user interventions – a win-win scenario for all sides. That’s why it already represents the state of the art in many new construction projects.

Sophisticated room automation systems support energy savings in both new and existing buildings.

Room automation also plays an essential role in well insulated new buildings and is essential in order to achieve an ideal climate and comfort with maximum energy efficiency.

Dirk Dronia, Global Industry Manager for Building Automation at WAGO

The Renovation Wave and European Green Deal: The Rate of Renovations Must Increase

For every newly constructed efficient building, there are numerous existing buildings that act as energy hogs – and sometimes have been doing so for decades. For the building sector to become greener, the large number of existing buildings needs to be renovated with an eye towards energy efficiency. Renovation has therefore long been under discussion on a European level and has been considered as a specific goal in 2020 with the “Renovation Wave.”

The “Renovation Wave” represents an action plan of the European Commission as part of the European Green Deal, which includes several measures to promote building renovation. The aim of the action paper is to improve the energy performance of buildings and thus contribute to climate neutrality and economic recovery. It is now clear that, to improve the climate footprint of the building sector, we need more than just a few model smart buildings – above all, we need a significantly larger number of energy efficient renovations on a broad scale. According to the European Commission, just one percent of all buildings currently undergo such renovations each year – too few to achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. Therefore, this rate needs to at least double as quickly as possible.

Retrofitting building automation also plays an important role. “The term ‘Renovation Wave’ refers to measures intended to achieve efficient operation of existing buildings. For instance, what WAGO’s flexROOM® already achieves currently will become mandatory in some EU countries as of 2030, namely that buildings will have to meet the requirements of Class A from EN 15232 or the global ISO 52120 standard, which itself grew out of EN 15232. That requires an interaction between shading, lighting and heating/cooling,” says Dronia.

The Greatest Energy Efficiency Potential for Non-Residential Buildings Lies in the Existing Building Stock

“Building automation offers proven benefits for users and operators in terms of energy monitoring, energy efficiency and comfort,” emphasizes Dirk Dronia once again. “Therefore, it represents a very important area for conserving energy and reducing carbon emissions, especially in existing buildings.” Current directives also highlight the importance of retrofitting: The latest version of the 2018 EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) requires larger existing non-residential buildings to be equipped with the most important building automation features by 2025. This applies to non-residential buildings with an installed capacity of 290 kW for heating or air-conditioning/ventilation systems, insofar as this is technically and economically feasible. However, the addition of “economically feasible” is currently under debate, since the goal of reducing carbon emissions is valued more highly than purely economic benefit. In any case, old existing buildings without networked building automation or room automation and energy monitoring offer some of the greatest potential for energy conservation in the industry. Therefore, automation plays a crucial role in the renovation of existing buildings.

Flexible Automation: A Key Role in Building Renovation

Building automation allows monitoring and control of building technology processes. This creates synergies, e.g., between heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, as well as lighting and shading. That in turn allows demand-driven use of primary energy, meaning that energy is only consumed when it is actually needed, as with daylight-dependent lighting control or presence-dependent air-conditioning. The controllers this requires can usually be retrofitted without difficulty. Furthermore, building automation makes any problems clear immediately, allowing them to be addressed quickly to avoid resource waste.

In addition to hardware, efficient automation also requires the right know-how: “For example, with the WAGO I/O System 750 on one side and a sophisticated application on the other, pretty much anything is possible. With a modular system like our I/O System 750, building operators have maximum flexibility in the hardware setup.” Thus the required hardware can be easily adapted to the physical conditions if necessary to allow continued use of the existing actuators and sensors. That’s important for renovation, since: “This will be a very challenging balancing act for both manufacturers and operators over the next 10 to15 years,” explains Dirk Dronia, adding: “We need maximum flexibility in existing buildings, even with old field devices and with passive signals if necessary. Meanwhile, in new buildings, we are already making progress in the IoT domain, meaning smart sensors and making everything digital. Meeting those needs with our product range is something we already do every day.”

Fieldbus-Independent and Flexible: I/O Systems from WAGO

Conclusion: Building Automation as the Key to Green Buildings?

Buildings with intelligent control have many advantages: They are more comfortable, make everyday life easier for users, allow optimal and efficient use of space, can request room maintenance, technical maintenance and troubleshooting services as needed and, last but not least, can improve the energy balance – making an important contribution to the energy transition. For this reason, almost all new building projects incorporate comprehensive automation measures – not only for energy efficiency, but also for convenience and smart services. However, we are still not exploiting the potential savings offered by building automation in existing buildings across the board to a sufficient extent. But such energy-efficient renovation, with sophisticated automation systems retrofitted, is exactly what we need in order to achieve climate neutrality in the building sector in the long term. Therefore, it is necessary to focus more on the issue of renovation – with a focus on building automation.

Buildings account for 36 to 40 % of the world’s energy emissions, and we are running out of time to meet the targets that have been set.

Dirk Dronia, Global Industry Manager for Building Automation at WAGO

Recommendations for further reading

The Need for a Change of Course: Why the Building Sector Requires Renovations

Climate action is one of the stated goals of the European Union; greenhouse gas emissions are to be minimized by 2050. The building sector will play an important role in this, since 40 percent of total energy consumption and approximately 36 percent of all CO2 emissions can be traced back to buildings. There is enormous potential her for energy savings. Modernizing existing buildings is the primary way to realize these savings.

WAGO flexROOM®

FlexROOM® is WAGO’s scalable room automation solution and is particularly suited to large and medium-sized office and administrative buildings. It can be used both in new buildings and for energy modernization projects.

Building Technology from WAGO

Intelligent technology offers the opportunity to improve entire buildings or individual systems – to reduce energy consumption, increase operating efficiency and improve user comfort. WAGO offers a wide selection of building automation and installation solutions to help achieve this, ranging from flexible system elements to ready-made solutions.

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WAGOdirect Building: Creating Future-Proof Buildings

Today’s building technology offers significant potential. It can increase the comfort and efficiency of buildings and help them conserve energy. At the same time, the demands that buildings will have to meet in the future are also increasing. In this edition of WAGOdirect Building, find out what those requirements look like and how you can make your construction projects future-proof now to prepare for the requirements of tomorrow.