A new study shows how simple behavior changes can drastically lower energy use in commercial buildings.

FirstFuel, a Massachusetts-based company that analyses energy consumption in buildings, remotely examined utility data for 60 million square feet of commercial buildings across the U.S.

It found that slightly more than half of energy efficiency opportunities could be realised with simple operational improvements. For example, the data showed that 60 percent of HVAC systems were fully running an hour before a building was occupied. It also showed that 60 percent of buildings were running equipment out of sequence, with less efficient systems’ heating and cooling units running when they didn’t need to be.

FirstFuel isn’t arguing that operational changes are the only solution but installing a bunch of new equipment isn’t necessarily enough. They found behavior shifts can represent half of energy savings in commercial buildings. FirstFuel concluded that tweaks to behavior or automation would save roughly $17 billion if applied across all U.S. commercial building stock though in reality, solutions need to be site-specific.

Jon Guerster, CEO of Groom Energy Solutions, says “There’s an opportunity for both scenarios. You can remotely monitor a building and tell a facilities manager about energy issues. However, in some cases, they can’t act on it without new equipment. The world is moving toward intelligent analytics to help change behavior, but often you need the controls and systems to execute.”

Read the full story by Stephen Lacey at Greentech Media.