Commercial building case studies
Commercial building owners can save up to 29% in energy by tuning equipment and systems to work efficiently.
We’ve worked with a range of commercial building owners to significantly reduce their emissions and save money through cost effective improvements and upgrades.
Select your building size to see what’s possible:
- small commercial buildings
- medium commercial buildings
- large commercial buildings
If you’re interested in auditing your building’s performance, find out what service provider delivered audits to the commercial buildings under our program in the list below.
Small commercial buildings
176 McCrae Street, Bendigo
- 570 square metres
- 2 floors
- brick construction.
Identified opportunities:
- timer controls
- lighting
- HVAC
- staff training
- solar PV.
Identified annual savings: 27,00kWh in electricity
Service provider used: Programmed
277 Camberwell Road, Camberwell
- 2429 square metres
- 4 floors
- concrete construction.
Identified opportunities:
- HVAC upgrade
- lighting sensors and controls
- sub meters.
Identified annual savings: 185,000kWh in electricity and 14,000MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Programmed
I’ve gained a greater awareness of the efficiency opportunities available in buildings like ours.
70 Robertson Street, Flemington
- 2200 square metres
- 2 floors
- a mix of concrete and steel frame construction.
Identified opportunities:
- HVAC zoning
- building management system time-clock settings
- reducing cooling units.
Identified annual savings: 38,658kWh in electricity and 75,725MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Airmaster
We’ve definitely achieved bill savings, and there’s also been a substantial increase in staff awareness about energy efficiency – they’re much more conscious of switching air conditioning off when leaving a meeting room.
69 Moorabool Street, Geelong
- 1202 square metres
- 1 floor
- concrete construction, detached building.
Identified opportunities:
- upgrades to time clock
- widen dead band control
- lighting.
Identified annual savings: 21,902kWh in electricity.
222 High Street, Kew
- 2500 square meters
- 3 floors
- concrete construction with newly refurbished north façade.
Identified opportunities:
- HVAC controls and sensors
- new dampers
- repairs to ducts
- hot water reticulation system
- new metering.
Identified annual savings: 19,521kWh in electricity and 27,889MJ gas.
Service provider used: Energy Action
Senior executives have mentioned how happy they are with indoor temperatures. There has also been a decrease in temperature complaints so that’s saved time and effort for our team.
293 Swanston Street, Melbourne
- 2000 square metres
- 4 floors
- concrete attached building with east and west.
Identified opportunities: thermal comfort monitoring technology to monitor and address air conditioning issues.
Identified annual savings: 26,000kWh in electricity
227 Princes Drive, Morwell
- 1800 square metres
- 2 floors
- brick construction, detached building.
Identified opportunities: upgrades to solar PV system
Identified annual savings: electricity generation of 39,604kWh
Service provider used: Airmaster
Medium commercial buildings
810 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill
- 4830 square metres
- 3 floors and 3 levels of car park
- concrete construction, detached building.
Identified opportunities:
- carbon monoxide sensors
- controllers and variable speed drives on fan motors for ventilation in car park.
Identified annual savings: 32,110kWh in electricity.
Service provider: GHD
235 Ryrie Street, Geelong
- 4000 square metres
- 4 floors
- concrete construction.
Identified opportunities:
- building management system
- controllers on fans, dampers and the boiler
- occupancy sensors
- carbon monoxide sensors
- HVAC air balancing
- metering power
- regeneration unit
- energy recovery from lift.
Identified annual savings: 12,796kWh in electricity and 235,808MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Airmaster
Complaints have reduced, and the new meters and sensors allow me to troubleshoot my problems instantly from my laptop.
454 Glenferrie Road, Kooyong
- 4838 square metres
- 2 floors
- concrete construction.
Identified opportunities:
- replacing old equipment
- overhaul control system.
Identified annual savings: 109,644kWh in electricity and 1,056,842MJ in gas.
Service provider used: GHD
This has given me a much greater knowledge and awareness of the efficiency opportunities available in buildings like outs.
123 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
- 5800 square metres
- 11 floors
- concrete construction with north façade, adjoining buildings.
Identified opportunities:
- replacement of blocked hot water coils and liners
- refurbishment of existing fans, dampers and alarms
- installing variable speed drives
- building tuning
- upgrading building management system.
Identified annual savings: 569,011kWh in electricity and 3,197,914MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Allstaff and NDY
Previously the heating and cooling systems were fighting each other. Now, we have much greater consistency in floor temperatures, and we can detect and rectify issues before they reach complaint level. Complaints have greatly reduced and there’s not much manual intervention now.
310 King Street, Melbourne
- 6000 square metres
- 10 floors
- concrete attached building.
Identified opportunities:
- repair dampers and air distribution system
- new boiler, fans and variable speed drive
- new building management system
- sensors and controls for lighting
- programming economy cycles.
Identified annual savings: 141,134kWh in electricity and 1,126,983MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Allstaff
53 Queen Street, Melbourne
- 4145 square metres
- 13 floors
- concrete construction with east façade.
Identified opportunities:
- tuning HVAC system
- upgrading chiller
- resetting building management system.
Identified annual savings: 124,709kWh in electricity.
Service provider used: Energy Action
Large commercial buildings
990 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill
- 20,000 square metres
- 6 floors
- concrete construction, detached building.
Identified opportunities:
- installation of a building management system
- HVAC upgrades
- added variable speed drive
- installation of sensors and reprogramming lighting timers.
Identified annual savings: 109,644kWh in electricity and 1,056,842MJ in gas.
Service provider used: GHD
484 St Kilda Road, St Kilda
- 20,000 square metres
- 17 floors
- concrete construction.
Identified opportunities:
- replacement of chillers including drives, pumps, sensors and hot water variable speed drives
- new air handling units
- adjustment to HVAC systems
- installation of controls and sensors
- new submeters.
Identified annual savings: 466,443kWh in electricity
Service provider used: Allstaff and NDY
60 Albert Road, South Melbourne
- 15,000 square metres
- 19 floors
- concrete standalone building.
Identified opportunities:
- replacement of dampers and water pumps
- installation of variable speed drives
- upgrading old pneumatic controls to digital controls
- replacement of building management system
- tuning air handling units
- new flow rate sensors on boilers
- installation of carbon monoxide sensors
- installation of service meter on HVAC.
Identified annual savings: 48,526kWh in electricity and 662,168MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Allstaff
We’ve reduced demand on our HVAC system, stabilised our indoor temperatures, and we have happier tenants.
234–250 Collins Street, Melbourne
- 11,512 square metres
- 10 floors
- two adjoining buildings with shared services.
Identified opportunities:
- improvements to HVAC controls
- upgrading sensors on lights
- new meters and submeters.
Identified annual savings: 284,000kWh in electricity and 775,994MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Programmed
We expect these upgrades will improve our NABERS rating, which will help us to lease out vacant floors.
99 King Street, Melbourne
- 11,090 square metres
- 10 floors
- brick and concrete construction.
Identified opportunities:
- new variable speed drives
- building tuning
- installation of new building automation system
- new sub metering and economy cycle
- optimisation of space heating.
Identified annual savings: 531,911kWh in electricity and 729,106MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Napier and Blakeley and Allstaff
We’ve seen a significant reduction in temperature complaints, and a substantial drop in energy bills.
114 William Street, Melbourne
- 22,000 square metres
- 22 floors
- concrete construction, detached building.
Identified opportunities:
- installation of lighting sensors
- adding boiler ‘lockout’
- installation of carbon monoxide sensors.
Identified annual savings: 563,576kWh in electricity and 3,230,260MJ in gas.
Service provider used: Programmed
The building service providers are now working more collaboratively to fix problems, rather than working separately and creating more system inefficiencies. This is a new approach for the mid-tier office sector.
