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What do you think of when you hear the term ‘renovation’? Giving existing premises a facelift? Adapting premises for compliance with current requirements? Disruptive noise? Out with the old and in with the new?
Only a small fraction of the building stock is extended with newbuilds each year. This means that the key to realising real change in office premises and realigning them with a new way of working is all about how we deal with the remaining majority of buildings. So, how about renovation that is inaudible, invisible, takes minimal time, requires no major material purchases and boosts energy efficiency? Sounds too good to be true? We’re talking digital renovation!
In mid-October 2020, the European Commission presented its Renovation Wave strategy for improving the energy performance of buildings. The construction sector has huge potential for achieving energy and emissions savings, and for the EU to reach its targets for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, realising that potential is a crucial step.
“75% of buildings in the EU are energy-inefficient;
85-90% of these will still be standing in 2050.”
The construction sector accounts for more than one third of emissions within the EU, and roughly 75% of existing buildings are currently energy inefficient. Moreover, an estimated 85-95% of the buildings that exist today will still be standing in 2050. This means that focusing on energy-efficient newbuilds is not sufficient; we need renovation on a massive scale to achieve our energy and climate targets. Read more about this in the office renovation guide.
Physical systems replacement is costly and resource-intensive
Recent years have brought major advances in ventilation and indoor climate systems, including increased energy efficiency, improved indoor climate control and measurement as well as modern and more user-friendly interfaces for monitoring systems on site and via cloud services. A modern control system, can, for example, contribute to a reduced climate footprint and benefit property owners and facility managers, as the building operation and maintenance costs can be kept down.
A large base of installed indoor climate systems, that have not been in place for their full durability, are now becoming outdated in terms of their capabilities for visualization, controls and energy efficiency. Investments may have been made in a solution that was state-of-the-art just a few years ago, but is now perceived as obsolete and failing to meet current requirements. Replacing an entire system may be a costly affair, and is also unsustainable in terms of resources and materials. Digital advances have basically outstripped the projected lifespan of the physical products.
This is where digital renovation comes in
Digital renovation makes it possible to update existing indoor climate systems to more modern interfaces, with new analytical methods, enhanced functionality and improved options for monitoring buildings without actually replacing the physical devices. This makes it possible to create a better indoor climate, which also helps to make building operation more energy efficient, while old systems can be enabled for various new types of digital services.
Upgrades to indoor climate systems can also be called for when extending or converting existing buildings. Complement the existing facility with new indoor climate solutions and make these interact smoothly with each other.
Smart to review demand and usage
Regardless of whether or not a building needs to undergo physical renovation, after some time, it may be worth assessing an existing indoor climate solution and evaluate how the premises are currently being used. Maybe they are being used differently compared to when the system was installed originally? Recently, in the wake of the pandemic, we are seeing how offices, for example, are being used differently, with fixed workplaces tending to become more flexible, with parts of an office unused at times, but at other times needing to be shared by many employees. Meanwhile, demand for a healthy indoor environment is increasing. A digital renovation can be both a cost-efficient and quick solution for achieving an up-to-date, more efficient and demand-aligned indoor climate system that both simplifies and reduces time investment for facility managers.
A sound investment must pay off
Having once invested in an advanced indoor climate system, the advantage is that in many cases it will be possible to extend and modernise it, which is also one of the key objectives for such systems. It should be relatively easy and not excessively costly to upgrade to a more user-friendly interface, for example. A system of this kind should be backward compatible in order to interoperate with older ventilation and indoor climate products, and obviously work with new ones. This also facilitates smoother transitioning if the aim is to scale up the system or step-by-step replace older products with new ones to meet new demand as it arises, and in that way also have the option of extending product durability and spreading the costs.
Digital renovations offer many benefits in terms of sustainability, energy-efficiency improvements and streamlining building operation. They result in a system that is up-to-date in terms of both usability and functionality, and that reduces both costs and time invested. So, instead of scrapping the old, make use of what you have with new digital possibilities!
Learn more about how we in Swegon work with digital renovation and how we have started our journey towards a circular approach here.
