Leading consultant Buro Happold has criticised the energy performance of a number of the government’s flagship City Academies, saying that they could seriously improve their energy use, providing both financial and environmental gains both for the Academies and the country as a whole.
The new study, reported this week on the BSRIA website, found that none of the schools hit the good practice benchmark set by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), but were better than average.
Though the selection covered just five of the Academies including the Kingsmead Primary School in Hackney and Bristol’s John Cabot City Technology College, report commissioners BSRIA and Buro Happold believe the sample to be representative of energy wastage across the state education sector. It found that while gas consumption was “quite good” there was an overuse of electricity. The Kingsmead and John Cabot schools were using 65kWh/m2, while two of the other schools studied were using nearly double that.
The study found that control of lighting was crucial, stating that “The simple use of Passive Infrared saved 30-40% compared with manual switching.”
The schools with large connected atriums had the highest lighting energy consumption, Buro Happold also discovered.
It is often said that high energy consumption is caused by the behaviour of building occupants. However, others have shown that decisions regarding energy consumption are highly influenced by assumptions of occupant behaviour. This is why designers should close the loop between design expectation and reality if schools are to become truly low-energy.
The study concluded that facilities management staff needed to be better trained in building services as a whole and in operating Building Management Systems in particular. In addition designers needed to “advise clients on the likely operational and maintenance implications of the schools they are designing”.
“The facilities managers often felt they were not well prepared to operate the building management system. If these buildings are to perform as intended, provision of training and suitable documentation must be improved,” the report concluded.
The new study, reported this week on the BSRIA website, found that none of the schools hit the good practice benchmark set by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), but were better than average.
Though the selection covered just five of the Academies including the Kingsmead Primary School in Hackney and Bristol’s John Cabot City Technology College, report commissioners BSRIA and Buro Happold believe the sample to be representative of energy wastage across the state education sector. It found that while gas consumption was “quite good” there was an overuse of electricity. The Kingsmead and John Cabot schools were using 65kWh/m2, while two of the other schools studied were using nearly double that.
The study found that control of lighting was crucial, stating that “The simple use of Passive Infrared saved 30-40% compared with manual switching.”
The schools with large connected atriums had the highest lighting energy consumption, Buro Happold also discovered.
It is often said that high energy consumption is caused by the behaviour of building occupants. However, others have shown that decisions regarding energy consumption are highly influenced by assumptions of occupant behaviour. This is why designers should close the loop between design expectation and reality if schools are to become truly low-energy.
The study concluded that facilities management staff needed to be better trained in building services as a whole and in operating Building Management Systems in particular. In addition designers needed to “advise clients on the likely operational and maintenance implications of the schools they are designing”.
“The facilities managers often felt they were not well prepared to operate the building management system. If these buildings are to perform as intended, provision of training and suitable documentation must be improved,” the report concluded.
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