Many building owners don’t have their own qualified knowledge in operating the building systems, such as heating, cooling and ventilation. The consequences may be that the building consumes more energy than necessary, and that the lifetime of technical systems is shortened.
To contract a service provider for maintenance of the building is often the solution, but even then, the building owner need to have quite a lot of own knowledge to assess whether the best possible maintenance of the building with the most optimal energy use is provided. For that, some kind of control is needed.
Service is often contracted as a specific number of visits or hours, without agreement on a specific function to be achieved. For that an other type of service contracts would be needed. To add an incentive for energy savings and high performance would increase the chance of optimal building management.
To solve this, County Board of Dalarna has together with the experience from professional building managers in the stakeholder group and a consultant that has worked for several years as a service provider, developed a tool.
The tool consist of a template for purchasing of services regarding ventilation, heating, cooling and controls in buildings, with the purpose of achieving best possible energy efficiency and system function, has been developed. The document contains suggestions for contents in both RFP:s (request for proposals) and final contracts.
The model that has been chosen, is based on a contract where the two parties – building owner and provider of services – agree upon which functions that shall be maintained and how the service provider can prove that he has succeeded. For results above or below agreed level of performance there will be a fine or a bonus. The contract can thereby be denoted as an “Energy Performance Maintenance Contract, EPMC” (compare EPC for investments).
In addition to template for contract and reporting template, 4 checklists have been developed that is optional for the service provider to use when visiting a building for service.
Tools can be found here.
About EFFECT4buildings:
EFFECT4buildings is implemented with the support from the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Program 2014-2020 (European Regional Development Fund) and Norwegian national funding. The aim of the project is to improve the capacity of public building managers in the Baltic Sea Region by providing a comprehensive decision-making support toolbox with a set of financial instruments to unlock the investments and lower the risks of implementing energy efficiency measures in buildings owned by public stakeholders. For more information: http://www.effect4buildings.se
Text author: Marit Ragnarsson, EFFECT4buildings Project Manager, Länsstyrelsen Dalarnas län
