Londons Dirtiest Buildings

An energy survey that carried out recently on several public buildings in and around London shows that Buckingham Palace is the least energy efficient of them all. The palace which was built in 1820 and was first ever occupied by Queen Victoria received the worst possible green score of 0 out of 10 when a team of energy surveyors carried out a survey of the palace following Januarys big freeze.

The surveyors was carried out by using thermal image testing to find out where the building was leaking energy. However, despite these tests being carried out in total darkness, the palace still lit up due to the amount of heat that was escaping from the building. The major culprits for this big loss of energy were the windows, the roof and even cracks in the wall. According to the surveying team, it appears that Buckingham Palace is better at heating the air outside than inside.

Furthermore, the latest Royal Household Financial Report that was carried out in 2008 showed that 5.9 million were spent on running Buckingham Palace, of which 2.2 million were spent on utility bills. However, according to the energy saving expert Ivan Lucas, the construction of Buckingham Palace does not lend itself to easily turning it into an eco-home.

However, there a few quick fixes that can be carried out in order to help Buckingham Palace save energy. These include replacing the single pane windows by brand new double glazing windows, because despite the thick curtains, a lot of

heat is still escaping the building.
Other repairs that can be carried to improve Buckingham Palaces energy efficiency include installing insulation panels to the outside as well as the inside of the property in order to minimize heat loss.

Carrying out these types of repairs will contribute to relieving the building industry that was very hardly hit by the recession. It would enable many companies to save jobs and train their staff in using energy saving materials.

According to energy saving experts, Buckingham Palace was not the only offender. Many other official or public buildings such as the MPs office building of Portcullis House in London and MI6 header quarters in Vauxhall were also part of the main offenders. Whats more, this happened despite the government recently launching a multimillion scheme that would lead to British households slashing their energy emissions by 50 percent by 2050.

In the light of the results of the surveys that were carried on many public buildings throughout, it transpires that the government is not setting a good example when it comes to reducing carbon emissions, and this despite multi-million schemes that aim at saving more energy.