Transforming Building Envelope Inspections
The commercial and residential building sector accounts for approximately 76% of electricity use and 40% of all US primary energy use and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This makes it crucial to optimize energy consumption in buildings to address national energy and environmental challenges. Estimates indicate that roughly one-third, or more, of the energy used by buildings is wasted at a cost of $150 billion annually. The building envelope—comprising the walls, windows, roof, and floor—plays a crucial role in overall building energy consumption. Improving these components is key to reducing energy loss and enhancing efficiency. In the US, opaque building envelopes alone account for 25% of primary energy use. Furthermore, air leakage through the envelope contributes to an estimated four quads (1172 TWh) of energy loss annually, which is equivalent to the energy required to power 97 million residential homes.
Analysis of the envelope can often be a huge undertaking due to lack of access and time. To tackle this issue in an efficient manner, Joulea proposes a new method to building inspections and diagnostics. To test this method, in the summer of 2023, Joulea undertook a comprehensive pilot project on two Class A office towers. One tower was a 25-story, 550,000-square-foot building, and the other was a 27-story, 600,000-square-foot building. Leveraging advanced AI and autonomous drone technology, this project aimed to efficiently identify and diagnose envelope issues faster, cheaper, and more comprehensively than traditional methods.