We are rapt to announce that recent work on the Hastings District Council’s Civic Building has resulted in a 38% reduction in energy use, verified by an independent energy management company.
Starting in March 2016, we undertook a services renewal of the building, replacing all air conditioning, lighting and electrical services. Work was staged, one floor at a time, so as to provide minimal disruption to the 180 occupants of the building. We completed the job in February 2017.
Regan Smith, who oversaw the project as Internal Business Services (for Economic Growth & Organisation Improvement) at the Hastings District Council, said the main driver for the services renewal was to replace equipment that was at the end of its life – the existing systems were old and not performing well – but that they wanted the replacement equipment to be as energy efficient as possible.
“The previous construction of the building meant there was a lot of holes in the perimeter – the wind whistled through the building and everyone on the south side would freeze in winter while everyone on the north side would overheat in summer, with no air flow,” explains Regan. “Implementation of the new HVAC system meant we could plug all the holes and completely manage the air and climate inside the building. Now the temperature inside is a lot more consistent. It’s made a huge amount of difference to the working environment.”
Rowan Hains, the managing engineer on the project, said the new air conditioning system and lighting will have made the biggest impact on energy savings. The lighting throughout went from fluro to LED and a new responsive system was implemented, integrating lighting with air conditioning so when meeting rooms or the office is vacant, the air conditioning pares back and lighting turns off.
Independent company Ebench compared the energy use of July/August/September this year with the same period last year and found energy use is down 38%. This is based on the gross energy consumption of the building through electricity billing and doesn’t take into account the decrease in gas consumption – the gas supply to an old boiler was decommissioned during the work.
“It was a big undertaking, moving everyone out into a separate building and keeping the project on track but with good work from Jacksons and Gemco we managed to make all milestones and get all equipment up and running on time. Overall the entire project ran smoothly,” says Regan.
“From a sustainability point of view, the work Jacksons did definitely made the building a lot more energy efficient to run and we are pleased with the savings in energy use. Staff were excited to move back into a refreshed, quieter working environment with a more even climate and no drafts!”