More consumption?

Tall office towers are top energy consumers, Matthew Margetts director at Smarter Technologies reveals smart energy tips

- Matthew Margetts

In many of the world’s major cities, the only way is up. Over half of the global population live in cities and urban areas. Within the next 25 years, another 2.5 billion are expected to join them. In increasingly densely-populated cities, vacant plots are hard to find. Hence the rise of the highrise.

There’s also an element of architectural vanity involved in building skyscrapers. Building materials, fashion aesthetics and technology have progressed to build the architecturally stunning offices of the future, but this has come with a cost.

Convenient as high-rise buildings are to accommodate the occupants of growing cities and delight our aesthetics, these buildings have been proven to be high-energy consumers. According to a new study by the Energy Institute, University College London (UCL), the taller an office and residential building, the more energy per square metre of floor area it will use. In fact, electricity use per square metre of floor area is nearly two and a half times greater in high-rise office buildings of 20 or more storeys than in low-rise buildings of six storeys or fewer. Gas consumption also increases with height by around 40%. As a result, total carbon emissions from gas and electricity from high-rise buildings are twice as high as in low-rise.