The High Cost of Invisibility: Know Where Energy Waste Hides in Big Buildings

When we talk about energy waste, most people picture flickering lights left on overnight or thermostats set a few degrees too high. But in large buildings, like hospitals, schools, and skyscrapers, energy waste doesn’t always come from the obvious. It hides in the unnoticed. In the assumptions. In the “set it and forget it” mindset.

Here’s the problem: Most commercial buildings rely on a Building Automation System (BAS) to control HVAC, lighting, and other critical systems, but a BAS wasn’t designed to think critically. It was designed to follow instructions.

If a sensor drifts slightly, if a damper sticks open, or if heating and cooling run at the same time (a surprisingly common issue), the system doesn’t necessarily flag it as a problem. Energy keeps flowing. Costs keep rising. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 60% of HVAC faults go undetected by traditional Building Automation Systems. That’s not only an energy problem — it’s a budgeting problem, a maintenance problem, and a carbon emissions problem.

And here’s something most people don’t consider: Once that waste becomes “normal,” it rarely gets addressed. Facility teams change. Tenants turn over. Buildings forget. This is how multimillion-dollar buildings slowly bleed money through inefficiency — not because they’re broken, but because no one is watching close enough to see what’s going wrong.

The solution doesn’t start with more hardware. It starts with visibility. Data doesn’t just need to be collected — it needs to be understood, analyzed, and acted upon.

Wasting energy is expensive.

But not knowing you’re wasting it?

That’s what really costs you.

Book a demo and learn how easy it is to see what’s going on in a portfolio of buildings in real time through a single dashboard: