Closing the Performance Gap: Why Buildings Underperform and How Intelligent Controls Can Fix It
Despite significant advances in building technology, many buildings continue to consume more energy than predicted, fail to deliver consistent occupant comfort, and fall short of their intended operational performance. This disparity between design intent and actual operation, commonly known as the performance gap, remains one of the greatest challenges facing the built environment.
What if your building's biggest energy-saving opportunity is already installed, but simply not being fully utilised?
This session will explore why buildings fail to meet expectations and demonstrate how Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) and Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) can help bridge the gap between design intent and real-world performance.
Gain practical insights into how intelligent controls can identify hidden inefficiencies, support ongoing optimisation, and unlock significant energy, carbon and operational savings.
In this session the panel will explore:
• Why actual building performance often differs from design intent.
• What is the real cost of doing nothing.
• Is the route to better performance already installed?
• What practical steps buildings owners can take to close the performance gap.
Chair of panel: Ron Purcell, Vice President BCIA and Product Manager at Siemens
Panellists to be announced soon.
Session Speaker
With 40 years' industry experience, Ron is a highly regarded controls and BMS engineer and an advocate for smart buildings. Currently serving as Vice President of BCIA, he is also an active member of CIBSE and holds an HNC in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
Believing that controls are vital to meet many of the challenges that we face today including how to deliver energy efficient buildings that also deliver wellbeing for their occupants, Ron supports the Association with raising the profile of the sector and broadening the understanding of the benefits of controls.
Ron is focused on shifting perceptions and advocates that BMS systems need be much more clearly mandated in UK policy that that installed systems are smart and intelligent enough to cope with today’s sophisticated designs whilst still being intuitive enough to be useful to the occupant.
