Commercial Building Energy Efficiency Essentials

About this course.

Energy efficiency matters in commercial buildings because they use a great deal of energy over long operating hours, so their efficiency has an outsized effect on running costs, occupant comfort and productivity, and emissions — and because the requirements are set within the national framework developed by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) and adopted by each state and territory. Commercial buildings often run their services for many hours a day, sometimes around the clock, and they concentrate large heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting loads under one roof. Getting their efficiency right therefore delivers large, ongoing savings and comfort benefits, while getting it wrong is expensive for the life of the building. The rules that establish minimum performance sit in the National Construction Code and are described here in general terms only.

The starting point is to understand the diversity of the commercial sector, because it shapes everything that follows. "Commercial" spans offices, shops and shopping centres, hotels and hospitality, hospitals and aged care, schools and universities, warehouses and factories, and many mixed-use buildings. These building types differ enormously in how they are occupied, how long they operate, and what drives their energy use: an office is dominated by daytime cooling, lighting and equipment loads; a hotel has significant hot water and around-the-clock demands; a supermarket is shaped by refrigeration; a hospital never stops. Because the energy profile varies so much by building type, there is no single recipe for efficiency, and the design response must suit the specific building's function and operating pattern.