Building Energy Audit

The building energy audit applies to mapping of energy saving possibilities of business and service buildings.

On the basis of the data on energy use and a thorough examination of the building, wasted energy consumption is found out and worthwhile energy saving measures are determined.

Building Energy Audit reports deal with the present state of the facility’s use of energy and water, describe the activity and use of HVAC&E systems and set out the rationale for saving measures, the impact of savings and the pay back period.

Auditing facilities in the service sector

Applying energy auditing models in the service area:

• less than 5,000 rm³, Building Energy Inspection
• 5,000-10,000 rm³, Building Energy Audit or Building Energy Inspection
• over 10,000 rm³, Building Energy Audit

Auditing facilities in industry and the energy sector

Industrial and energy sector production plants have their own auditing models. The building energy auditing model can be applied in the energy and industrial sectors when non-production facilities, such as offices or warehouses, are audited.

Building energy audits’ subsidized share of labour costs

Energy auditing must be carried out by following the MEE’s general guidelines and the model audit guidelines. The resources needed for the audit is determined case-by-case on the basis of the facility’s dimensions, variations, etc.

The MEE’s general guidelines on energy auditing set the share of labour costs of the energy audit, for which it is possible to receive a subsidy. The subsidized share of a building energy audit’s labour costs is determined on the basis of the capacity of the building in the general guidelines according to a subsidy tabulation.

The degree of difficulty of a facility’s energy technology affects the amount of labour hours required for the overall energy audit. Because of this the grounds of subsidy support for a building’s energy audit are divided into two classes:

• Class 1 concerns buildings in which there are the conventional HVAC&E technologies, such as in office, agency, administration, school and commercial buildings.
• Class 2 includes buildings equipped with demanding HVAC&E technologies, such as hospitals, swimming baths, spas and large business centres.