Energy Saving Buildings
Written on 4:10 PM by FreshelStar
Energy saving takes on new importance!
The impact of escalating petroleum costs and the rise in energy prices influences the real estate market by increasing the running costs of a building.
The good news is that commercial and institutional buildings can now be built so that the use of fossil fuels to run them is drastically reduced, according to Poul Kristensen, the chief technical adviser of IEN Consultants in Denmark.
"This is being demonstrated in Malaysia where the Malaysian government built a 4,000-square-metre pilot project, the Zero Energy Office Building (ZEO Building)," Mr Kristensen said at the recent FIABCI World Congress held in Bangkok.
The ZEO Building has very low energy consumption as all the energy needed to run it is provided by its own solar electricity system, said Mr Kristensen, who has also done consulting in Malaysia.
"The ZEO building points to the future direction to be taken for sustainable and responsible real estate buildings."
Delegates at FIABCI, an international real-estate group, were told that among the major energy consumers in a home, air-conditioners topped the list at 33%, followed by refrigerators at 18%. water heaters and washing machines at 13% each, and televisions at 8%.
Replacing an old refrigerator with a five-star
