Air conditioning manufacturer Daikin UK has published a White Paper to highlight how installation of correctly sized, efficient systems can reduce a building’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

Designed to provide installers and end-users with information surrounding legislative drivers and best practice design within the air conditioning sector, the new White Paper covers existing legislation as well as more recent requirements such as the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS).

As recently highlighted by a European Commission report, buildings within the EU are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions. It also estimates that 35% of buildings are more than 50 years old, incorporating old materials and features, and by improving their energy efficiency, annual total energy consumption and CO2 emissions could be reduced by approximately 5%.

Accounting for nearly half of the energy consumption in non-residential buildings, climate control and ventilation systems are an essential feature in the development of sustainable buildings throughout Europe.

Covering the key legislations which impact on the design and construction of buildings, such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive that states all new buildings must be ‘nearly zero energy’ by December 2020, the white paper also discusses the benefits of correctly sizing an air conditioning system during the design phase of a building.

“As climate control and ventilation systems now legally have to be regularly inspected, organisations should also ensure they are monitoring the systems energy use to minimise the number of actions arising from inspections,” said Graham Wright, legislation specialist at Daikin UK.

“By selecting a highly energy efficient solution such as those based on variable refrigerant volume (VRV) technology, a building can significantly lower its energy consumption and reduce its CO2 emissions.”

Daikin UK’s Whitepaper “Building energy efficiency through air conditioning: Legislative drivers and best practice design ” is available for download