Venue Resources
Energy Efficient Venues Checklist
The purpose of this checklist is to prompt venue managers to consider implementing energy efficiency measures in the various areas of their venue.
The first step toward improving a building’s energy efficiency is measuring and understanding the energy use patterns of your venue. This initial activity, also known as performing an Energy Audit, helps to identify areas with potential for improvement, and is crucial for implementing energy efficiency measures effectively. Check out the other resources below which have also been written to help venue managers to understand and implement measures given in this checklist.
Energy Efficient Public Area Venue Lighting
Improving the efficiency of lighting can be one of the most simple and cost effective strategies for performance venues seeking to reduce energy consumption. The public areas of live performance venues, also known as ‘Front of House’ areas, often have flexible requirements that allow a combination of lighting efficiency improvement approaches from simply replacing bulbs to retrofitting fixtures.
Lighting requirements for the public areas within a venue can differ enormously from lighting requirements of performance areas. This fact sheet provides information on different types of lighting and tips on how to balance functionality, cost and environmental considerations within the public areas of live performance venues. If you are interested stage lighting, please refer to our Energy Efficient Stage Lighting Fact Sheet in Production & Touring resources.
Design Guide - Energy Efficient Stage Lighting
This design guide aims to provide an in depth overview of energy efficient stage lighting design opportunities.
Theatrical lighting gear is changing at a very fast rate and newer, more efficient technologies are increasingly gaining popularity. The greatest challenge in implementing energy efficiency measures in lighting design is to achieve balance between visual artistic outcomes and energy consumption.
Design Guide to Retrofitting HVAC in Venues
This guide does not discuss design of new HVAC systems, but instead focusses on opportunities for energy savings which could be made by retrofitting existing HVAC systems.
This guide addresses:
- what to consider before retrofitting?
- typical equipment upgrades, and
- other energy saving devices that can be retrofitted to your existing HVAC system.
Before you commence reading this Guide it is recommended that you obtain a copy of your HVAC system plans. These would have been provided by your architect or engineer when it was installed. Talk to your maintenance or engineering team about what in the system has already been upgraded or replaced.
Building Management System Information Kit
This information kit has been created for live performance venues seeking to reduce their energy consumption. Consultation with live performance venues across Australia has indicated that, along with the capacity of each venue, the size and complexity of their Building Management System (BMS) and if they have one, varies greatly. Accordingly, this information kit has been developed to assist the wide range of live performance venues in Australia to understand building management systems and to determine whether a BMS could help your particular venue to increase energy efficiency.
Managing Peak Energy Demand - Design Guide
For many live performance venues, peak demand charges account for a considerable proportion of their energy bill. Understanding your energy bill and how demand charges are calculated is a crucial step toward identifying opportunities to reduce your peak demand loads and the associated costs.
Management Guide - including Energy Efficiency in Venue Hire Kits
As a venue, you have an important role to play in helping production companies and touring acts acheive more energy efficent touring. This Management Guide is an introductory resource developed to outline how energy efficiency can be integrated into Venue Hire Kits. A Venue Hire Kit is prepared to assist touring acts by outlining venue specific technical provisions and operational expectations. Other information about the role of Venues in Touring can be found in our Touring Resources.
Management Guide - Writing an Energy Policy
With rising energy prices, reducing energy consumption is no longer solely an environmentally focused objective for businesses. In fact, for most venues energy consumption is one of the greatest operating expenditures. This resource has been developed for live performance venues that are ready to make the first step towards reducing their energy consumption by setting a clear direction for their commitment to energy efficiency.
Management Guide – Assessing and Purchasing Sub-Metering Systems
General energy meters do not provide you with any information on where, when and why energy is consumed, which makes it difficult to work out how to improve energy efficiency. By sub-metering the energy use of individual areas or appliances your venue could gain a considerably better understanding of where energy is used and where there may be opportunities for energy savings and cost reductions. This resource introduces the concept and benefits of sub-metering. It also provides you with the information required to assess whether your venue can benefit from sub-metering, and if so, what kind of sub-metering system may be suitable for your venue.