Total Concept – for better decisionmaking about energy efficiency investments in non-residential buildings

Panel: 6. Policies and programmes towards a zero-energy building stock

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Åsa Wahlström, CIT Energy Management AB, Sweden
Enno Abel, Chalmers Technical University, Sweden
Mari-Liis Maripuu, CIT Energy Management, Sweden

Abstract

In order to reach the 20-20-20 EU-targets it will be essential to increase the ambition among building owners to make refurbishments to achieve nearly zero-energy buildings. However, the measures that significantly reduce the energy need often entail considerable investments. If the measures are to be carried out they have to align with the property owner’s expectations of long–term investments.

Until now, very little support is offered to the building owners regarding how to make the best decisions of investment in order to improve the energy performance of their buildings. The decisions are often based on the profitability of single measures, and the feasibility is commonly evaluated with simple financial methods, e.g. simple payback method, which does not take into account the life time of the total investment and technical systems and rarely the future changes in energy prices. With this approach there is a great risk that only the simple measures, “the low hanging fruit”, will be carried out while a number of other possible measures with great energy saving potential will be overlooked.

In order to overcome this obvious risk, a method called the Total Concept, has been developed and successfully applied on a large number of non-residential buildings in Sweden. The results from these pilot projects show that it is possible to achieve energy savings up to 40-70%. Moreover, this is done within the profitability frame set by the building owner, expressed as expected internal rate of return for the investment. The basic idea with the Total Concept method is to form and implement a package of energy saving measures that together fulfil the profitability frame set by the building owner. In the method, the most financially profitable measures will assist the less profitable measures. A systematic approach is used throughout the whole building process of the energy retrofit, and includes both quality assurance of the process as well as a way of presentation of financial facts that provide guidance in how to make a decision in a complex situation with a lot of options. Currently, the method is being tried out in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Norway.