4D Monitoring and LSH partner to deliver substantial energy savings across 27 sites
In 2017, Nuveen – one of the largest real estate investment managers in the world – made a public commitment to drastically reduce energy consumption across its portfolio by 2030.
To support Nuveen, Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) sought to add value to the relationship by looking for a technology that could help their client meet these sustainability targets.
4D Monitoring pilot project
4D Monitoring was invited to run installations across 27 LSH-managed sites in London. The commercial buildings involved in the pilot were a mixture of older stock and newly-built; ranging in size between 600 to 5000 square metres.
The aggregate cost of installation was just £2000 per building.
Within three months, 400 sensors had been fitted to key plant equipment across all 27 sites, feeding live performance data to the portal.
With the system in place, 4D Monitoring immediately identified 49 individual opportunities to optimise equipment runtimes. Contractors were then mobilised to make the recommended adjustments to chiller, boiler and air handling unit (AHU) operation.
Initial results: a massive reduction in energy spend
Within two months, energy consumption across the pilot sites was reduced by as much as a third.
In one building alone, a 35% reduction in kWh was observed compared to the previous 12 months. When extrapolated, this equates to a 37% annual cost saving.
Furthermore, the initial results suggest 4D Monitoring could identify and deliver wider energy savings of 10-30% per property, thereby delivering a payback within six to twelve months, which represents a significant potential return on investment.
Matt Livesey, Property Management Director, LSH: “The level of detail being obtained has proved to be a revelation. This has led to a three phase approach: identify quick wins, optimise the way the plant is used, and then maintain that level of performance.”
Phase two: driving ongoing savings
4D Monitoring is designed to drive a process of continual optimisation and efficiency gains. Once the findings had been responded to and initial savings made, 4D Monitoring provided a second phase of analysis and recommendations for further improvements.
This second phase included a series of round-table meetings, during which contractors were brought together to discuss what had been achieved, and what 4D Monitoring recommendations had yet to be looked at.
An award-winning project
As a result of the savings achieved, 4D Monitoring and LSH won the PFM Partners in Energy Management Award in late 2018.
Matt Livesey: “4D Monitoring has the potential to improve the way that property management is delivered across the industry as a whole, with enhanced supplier management, cost savings, and the improvement of building occupier wellbeing, as well as the environmental impact of reducing commercial buildings’ energy usage on a large scale”.
4D Monitoring continues to work in partnership with LSH to roll out the solution across its property portfolio, delivering ongoing energy savings, efficiency gains, and compliance.
UPDATE (September 2019): 4D Monitoring and LSH continue to deliver positive outcomes
Between January 2019 to the present, 4D Monitoring has been deployed across a further 10 LSH-managed sites.
This has led to a number of positive outcomes. For example, in one building 4D Monitoring identified that the secondary air conditioning system, which was not centrally controlled, was operating 24/7 on unoccupied floors and within the tenant demise. Acting on 4D Monitoring data, the site management team was able to raise awareness amongst tenants and address unwanted operation within unoccupied areas, leading to an immediate 9.5% energy saving.
In a second example, 4D Monitoring deployed sensors across a large commercial multi-let site in April 2019 to discover AHUs running 24/7, outside of commercial hours. In May 2019, contracted M&E engineers made the required changes to run-times, leading to an average kWh saving of 17% compared to the previous year.
Example kWh savings observed on one site as compared to the previous year, after adjustments were made to AHU run times in May 2019.
For more information, or for a demonstration, contact us today.