Trial / Demo
Using IES Live, IES’s cloud-based building decarbonisation and energy management platform, IES identified potential annual energy cost savings of around £64,000 for Queen Margaret University of Edinburgh, which is equivalent to approximately 11% of the site’s current energy spend, through low and no-capex operational improvements.
Queen Margaret University’s main campus, opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 2008, was a landmark sustainable development. The main academic building achieved an Excellent BREEAM rating, the highest recorded for a UK University at the time. Yet, as with many buildings, operational performance had drifted over the years as systems, controls and occupancy patterns evolved, creating a gap between original design intent and how the buildings performed in practice.
The University commissioned IES to implement IES Live, a cloud-based platform that monitors and analyses energy use in real time, across its main academic building and sports facility, covering a combined area of over 266,000 sq ft. The goal was to establish a clear, evidence-based picture of where energy was being lost and where savings could be made quickly.
IES Live was integrated with the University’s building management system (BMS) data to create a live digital twin of the estate. By synchronising high-fidelity physics-based simulation with real operational data, the project team was able to forensically assess actual performance against design intent, and identify exactly where the building was losing energy.
Crucially, the analysis exposed significant metering gaps. While the University’s Air Handling Units (AHUs) were BMS-controlled, they lacked dedicated energy metering. By bridging these data gaps, IES provided visibility into previously hidden inefficiencies, establishing a roadmap for both immediate improvements and longer-term savings.
Boiler Efficiency Improvements
Boilers were operating at around 82% efficiency. Through revised control strategies and improved sequencing, efficiency could be increased to approximately 94%, equating to around £14,000 in annual savings.
Free Cooling Optimisation
Analysis showed that outside air conditions were suitable for free cooling approximately 97% of the year, however this was being utilised only around 2% of the time. Increasing the use of outside air for cooling could deliver close to £30,000 in annual savings.
Control and Scheduling Improvements
Fine-tuning when systems run and how they operate, including lowering temperatures overnight, reducing fan speeds, cutting excess runtime, and stopping heating and cooling systems from working against each other, identified further savings across the estate.
Rather than a one-off intervention, the work has been structured as an ongoing managed service. Building performance can drift over time due to control changes, occupancy shifts and seasonal variation, so IES will continue to monitor results as improvement measures are implemented. Boiler optimisation is expected to be prioritised first, followed by further refinements to air handling systems.
Alongside the immediate optimisation work, IES also explored longer-term decarbonisation pathways for the estate, which will be assessed in more detail as the programme progresses. This will provide the University with a credible, evidence-based foundation for its net-zero journey.
Identified Savings
Wider Benefits
This project demonstrates that meaningful savings do not always require major capital investment. By combining building physics modelling with live operational data, IES moved beyond assumptions to identify exactly how existing systems could be tuned to perform more efficiently, delivering near-term returns while building the foundation for long-term decarbonisation.
Through IES Live, Queen Margaret University now has the data, the insights and the roadmap to cut costs, reduce carbon and future-proof its estate for the decades ahead.
