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.

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.

“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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.