Post Occupancy
Evaluation

Post Occupancy Evaluation [POE] assesses energy use before and after occupation. Find out about our background approach to energy use and how POE helps reduce energy.

Over the last few years sustainability has been promoted a lot more heavily, mainly by the independent organisations, government and some industries. Legislation has been tightened up and pledges apparently made by governments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Coupled with the rising costs of living and the fragility of reliable energy supplies, these have all sharpened people’s awareness and understanding of the climate crisis.

The minimum legislative requirements, that are improving all the time, are a good minimum target to aim for. More can often be done though [needs to be done really] to provide truly sustainable buildings, that consume even less energy or zero energy, by exceeding and going past the minimum legislative standards, or simply reducing consumption. However, this approach, while admirable, often means the capital cost of these buildings is a lot higher, when compared to the baseline minimum under current legislation. We see this approach as essentially paying for your current energy bills up front, during the build process. Some people are fortunate enough to have the wealth to be able to spend more money up front achieving a better low energy building. Unfortunately, not everyone has this luxury. Super energy efficient buildings are often not affordable for ordinary people unless provided by the government. A pragmatic approach has therefore been taken to help clients do something and not do anything, no matter how small, that improves energy efficiency, ideally coupled with a full building and lifestyle assessment so a future phased retrofit or upgrade can be completed, together with opportunity for end user behaviour changes.

There is often a lot of scientific theory behind a building design, but these theoretical models often fall short in practice once constructed. The designed energy use is often exceeded once the building is completed and in operation. Post Occupancy Evaluation is something that needs to happen on every project, to assess energy use before and after occupation. Any problems can then be rectified for current projects and addressed for future projects, so the same mistakes are not being made again. This is one area we are falling short on, and we need to start completing this more diligently.