Only 21% of senior management consider carbon output of HVAC important

Even though statistics show HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) is responsible for 40% of a business site’s energy use, just over 20% of UK senior management consider HVAC system carbon emissions to be a major concern in energy-intensive industrial businesses.

According to a study involving facilities managers from pharmaceutical, life sciences, and high-tech manufacturing industries, senior management’s main focus in almost 80% of businesses is on the products potential to generate low costs, satisfactory heating, and continuous performance.

Even though only 30% of companies claimed they checked their factory carbon emissions, over 80% of respondents asked during the COP26 climate summit considered their location as efficient.

General manager at CIM (innovative building analytics business), Paul Walsh, said that “… due to the nature of the sector and its ultra-tight cleanroom controls, once the temperature, humidity and differential pressures have been validated, alterations are rarely made. Worryingly, this ‘set and forget’ mentality can easily pervade into all areas of a manufacturing facility. All of this leaves HVAC costs – and their associated carbon emissions – at best unregulated and, at worst, increasing to unnecessary levels.”

“The solution lies in better use of Building Management System (BMS) data, especially in non-validated areas of a plant. Identifying and rectifying inefficiencies here can make significant inroads into reversing the over delivery of energy and play a tangible role in wider industrial decarbonisation strategies.”