Enforcing Energy Efficiency by Starting From Oneself
IEN, April 4, 2016. Image credit: bmbyars
Beginning service in 1999, the headquarters of Delta Electronics, Inc. in Taiwan is a 9-storey office building with three underground floors. It was the first office building in Neihu Science Park using the solar PV system (5 KW). Renovating the office building into a green building after 15 years of operation was like “altering clothes when wearing them”, because it was necessary to match the original building design and use and maintain its routine operations. Nevertheless, the building finally passed the EEWH-Diamond certification, the highest level of green building certification in Taiwan. This is a new milestone for Delta green buildings and the first time for Delta to remodel an existing building into a green building. From diagnosis, planning, design and programming, to the application for certification, the Delta team did it all on its own.
Capturing power consumption trends with an energy management system
The project team adopted the iPEMSTM intelligent monitoring and management system of the Display Solutions Business Unit together terminal devices including meters, controller, and sensors to capture the energy information of the entire Delta HQ building on one single screen, particularly major power consumption items: HVAC, lighting, outlet, elevator, etc. The iPEMSTM not only locates energy consumption sources but also enables managers to keep track of energy-saving effectiveness and to control energy consumption.
Saving 25% energy: VFD for HVAC
Based on the project team’s assessment, the old HVAC in the Delta HQ building was operated at fixed frequency, and there is space for saving energy. Without replacing any HVAC hardware, the project team successfully enhances the electricity efficiency rate (EER) of the HVAC of the Delta HQ building with Delta’s HVAC energy products and solutions, including the PLC controller, inverter, HMI, and hub and the HVAC intelligent control logic. At full-load operation, the energy consumption of HVAC reduced up to 25%.
Saving 74% energy: Optimal lighting for building
Lighting system improvement included: (1) replacing all T8 fluorescent lamps with Delta’s LED lamps in the office area; (2) measuring luminance with luminance meters to provide optimal lighting levels in accordance with the CNS luminance standard; (3) infrared occupancy sensing switches for lamps in public corridors with PLC timers; (4) time management for the lighting system to shut down unnecessary lighting sources after work; and (5) Delta outdoor LED lamps for street lamps. With such the power consumption of the lighting system of the Delta HQ building reduced up to 74%.