Developers at Cityscape are still promoting a green agenda
Keeping air conditioning maintained properly and turning up the thermostat is just as important as other more faddy green technologies in new buildings, according to an environmentalist.
Sabiha Shaikh, a coordinator at the Emirates Environmental Group said that simply changing the filters and cleaning the vents of the cooling systems could be one of the best ways to keep the equipment running at peak efficiency.
“Preventative maintenance goes a long way” she said at Cityscape in Dubai on Wednesday.
“People forget that air conditioning has to work in the dusty conditions that we have here,” she said, adding that keeping an eye on the temperature can make large difference in the amount of energy consumed.
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I will support the Sabiha Sheikh's statement that raising the cooling setpoint by 3-5 degrees will reduce the energy con
“So many people have the temperature turned right down to 18 degrees, but it is still perfectly comfortable, even at 25 degrees” she added.
Many developers appear to be heeding the message. Speaking elsewhere at the same exhibition, Doug Kelbaugh, a design and planning director at property builder Limitless said, “In China it is illegal to set the AC lower than 26 degrees in summer. Here in the UAE most thermostats are considerably lower, anything from 18 to 23 degrees we have found.”
“This means it can be uncomfortably chilly in malls, shops, restaurants and some homes, with energy consumption unnecessarily high.”
Kelbaugh added that notching up the AC by 3-5 degrees saves up to 30% on energy bills: “It is the most obvious way for everybody to become part of the environmental solution not the problem, although this small change in behaviour must be complemented with an underlying strategy of better insulation and solar systems to make buildings even more energy efficient” he added.
This year’s exhibition has seen a change in focus from ever more grandiose launches to selling on projects nearing completion, with buzzwords relating to environmental sustainability being banded around on practically every stand.
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Readers' Comments
Anoop Vijay (Jan 20, 2010) Dubai United Arab Emirates
Raising the cooling setpoint
I will support the Sabiha Sheikh's statement that raising the cooling setpoint by 3-5 degrees will reduce the energy consumption by upto 30%, but would like to remind that this means 30% reduction is on the cooling energy consumption only, not on building energy bills. Ofcourse, raising the thermostat setpoint in commercial buildings, I believe that would help reduce the cooling energy consumption considerably, with very little impact due to floor area and location of walls, windows etc. In simple thermodynamics this can be explianed as follows: I order to keep a space at 'x' degree C, the AC equipment needs to extract 'y' amount of heat from the space. When the setpoint is raised to say 'x+4', this means the space is allowed to contain a fraction of the heat 'y'. So, the AC equipment is required to work less due to the reduced heat load..!! This strategy will be very effective in shopping malls, commercial buildings, retail & public areas of mixed-use buildings etc.
Larry Spielvogel (Oct 17, 2009) King of Prussia, PA USA
Cooling Energy
In many commercial buildings, raising the cooling setpoint has minimal impact on energy consumption. Cooling in these buildings is primarily to reject the heat gains from lighting, equipment, and people. Those heat gains are not related to outdoor temperature and the amount of cooling energy needed does not change materially when temperatures are raised.
Some small part of the cooling energy use in these buildings is related to the walls, windows, and roofs. For those parts of the building, raising temperatures does reduce energy consumption. In larger commercial buildings, that energy is only a small fraction of the total cooling energy because the area without walls is usually much larger than the area with walls.
For example, in a climate like New York, for these reasons, decently insulated school classrooms do not require heating until the outdoor temperature goes below freezing, due to the heat gains from the lights and people.
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FEATURED COMMENT
I will support the Sabiha Sheikh's statement that raising the cooling setpoint by 3-5 degrees will reduce the energy con