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Paul Ehrlich, consulting engineer for information systems, presented a number of figures that can help building engineers convince their clients of the business case for building and using management information systems in his Building Intelligence Tour Seminar at the ASHRAE Winter Convention. building systems.
He looked at scenarios for an owner-managed building and a developer-managed building.
According to Ehrlich’s estimates, the cost of connecting various building utility systems to an information system ranges from 3 to 5 dollars/ft2 (1 ft = 30.48 cm – ed.) for newly constructed buildings and from 4 to 6 dollars/ft2 for reconstructed buildings. For these scenarios, the average cost was $4/ft2. For a building with an area of 150 thousand ft2, the cost of creating an information system will be $600 thousand. Only by reducing energy consumption when using information systems, the savings are about 1 dollar/ft2. That is, the creation of an information system will pay for itself in approximately 4 years, and in 5 years the return on investment rate will be 95%.
As for the indirect effects, such as increasing the productivity of employees in such a building, Ehrlich estimates that using an information system to optimize the management of the building’s utility systems will increase the productivity of the building’s occupants by approximately 1%, or $1.40/ft2. For the building considered in this example, the additional profit will be 210 thousand dollars, i.e. investments will pay off in 1.7 years, and the return on investment rate over 5 years will be equal to 227%. Not bad, says Ehrlich, but not too impressive either.
Next, a commercial project was considered. But, Ehrlich said, most commercial building developers are not interested in reducing energy consumption, and in this case it is recommended to take a completely different approach, namely, focusing not on reducing energy consumption, but on how the creation of an information system will increase the income generated by the building . For the same investment ($600K), energy savings would be approximately $120K ($0.80/ft2), but higher rent and occupancy options would yield much greater benefits working in premises rented here. As Ehrlich said, “Each of these categories will increase the income of building owners by 4%.” These figures are published as a result of research carried out by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA). That is, people are willing to pay higher rents for the opportunity to work in a building equipped with “intelligent” control systems. Thus, due to an increase in rent and the number of tenants, additional income will amount to $300 thousand per year. This will lead to a return on investment in 1.4 years, and the return on investment rate in 5 years will be equal to 265%.
Alexey Lenin
Based on materials from the magazine Consulting-Specifying Engineer (Reed Business Information) |