A Method to Assess the Energy Performance of Existing Commercial Complexes

Of the building environmental assessment methods currently in use, none are able to assess the energy performance of existing commercial buildings that comprise a mix of premises with differing energy use characteristics. This paper proposes a method that takes into account the inter-related energy use characteristics of the landlord and the tenants, which aims to provide for a more comprehensive and fairer assessment. The key features of the proposed method includes a tenants/landlord co-operative scheme, and the fact that it is based on total measured energy consumption for the whole complex. This includes consumption by tenants and that of the centralised services systems. The assessment criteria have been established using the surveyed data from an energy end-use database, together with a method to determine the shares of energy consumption by the central services systems amongst the various premises in the building complex. Obtaining full participation by the tenants encourages efficient and effective use of equipment that is part of the cooling load, which can benefit both the landlord and the tenants.