Sunday September 7, 2008
Green building
Going green with energy recovery improves air quality as well as saves 50% of building energy costs.
BUILDING owners and property developers can mitigate the increasing cost of energy by as much as 50% whilst improving indoor air quality (IAQ) of their properties by incorporating energy recovery ventilators (ERVs).
The increasing cost of electricity and the deteriorating IAQ provides a timely impetus for building owners to incorporate ERV to offset the effect of the sharp electricity hikes while enhancing productivity, promoting health of the buildings and its occupants and gaining significant savings in the cost of building operations/maintenance.
While incorporating these systems and improving IAQ, developers and architects take a giant step towards achieving Green Building status for their properties, said Umang Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of Bry-Air, a global leader in air engineering and environmental control technologies.
Indoor air pollution can lead to various problems and affect work productivity as well as the health of its occupants. “Green Buildings are eco friendly, reduce operating costs, increase marketability of the building and enhance the owners’ corporate image as they also increase productivity of the occupants and reduce potential liability resulting from poor indoor air quality problem.
“Studies of people working in green buildings have reported productivity gains of 16%, including reduction in absenteeism and improved quality of work. Essentially, Green Building designs incorporate positive environmental, economic and social elements that benefit all building stake holders, including owners, occupants and the general public,” said Umang.
Green Buildings, sometimes referred to as “Sustainable Buildings” or “Environmental Buildings”, are designed to enhance energy efficiency, promote renewal energy, reduce air-conditioning costs and improve indoor environment quality (both temperature and relative humidity), and in the process, enabling owners to reap financial incentives under the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism.
The World Green Building Council in the US, which rates Green Buildings, has developed standards and a rating mechanism to certify such buildings – LEED standards. Green Buildings are rated Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze based on the number of points or credits in line with the recommendations in the ratings standard.
Umang expressed concern that while some countries in the region like India, Singapore and Australia have developed their own Green Building Councils and Rating Standards derived from the LEED in the US, Malaysia is still in the process of forming a Green Building Council, while even countries like Vietnam have taken a lead.
“Malaysia needs to hasten the process to catch up with the world as many countries have gone even further and are already working on the next stage ‘Net Zero Energy’ buildings,” he added.
According to Umang, inadequate quantity of outdoor fresh air in most buildings results in a building becoming “sick”. The occupants of such buildings have no specific illness or identifiable cause of discomfort, but show irritating and nagging symptoms such as headache, nausea, eye, nose and throat irritation, fatigue, dizziness, lethargy, respiratory problems, skin rashes and so on, resulting in loss of productivity and higher levels of absenteeism.
“The indoor air has become more polluted through the furnishings in the room – carpets, varnishes, solvents, printers, fax machines, asbestos, tobacco smoke all release harmful contaminants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehydes, radon, etc, and encourage development of biological organisms like bacteria, viruses, fungus, pollen, odour and dust.
“Additionally, indoor air pollution has increased over the years due to a variety of reasons, including the construction of tightly sealed buildings, reduced ventilation, the use of synthetic building materials and furnishings, and the increased use of chemicals in pesticides and household-care products,” said Umang.
Research has shown that people spend 90% of their time indoors (in the office, at home, inside cars etc) and there is growing body of scientific evidence supporting studies that indoor air is 10 to 100 times more polluted than outside air.
The American Society of Air Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers (ASHRAE), of which Umang is also a member, specifies ventilation rates for different types of buildings, but generally recommends a minimum of 15-20 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of fresh air per person.
Most of the buildings are generally designed for 5cfm/person or even less. There are very few building which comply to ASHRAE or Green Building Standards.
Increased fresh air however comes at a steep energy cost as the hot and humid outside air adds significant load on air conditioning systems and as a result, most designers/owners compromise on the fresh air quantity.
However, with energy recovery ventilators (ERVs), one can increase the ventilation rate and comply with ASHRAE/Green Buildings standards, without the need to increase aircon costs. ERVs recycle the energy from the contaminated exhaust air, without recycling the contaminants, by using special desiccant, “molecular sieves”.
Some of the high profile projects in the region which use energy recovery systems include the Petronas Twin Towers, Beijing Airport, Technopolis Kolkata, Capricorn Dubai, and Thai Parliament House in Bangkok.
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