As November brings back extreme weather to different parts of the world, facility management teams face a familiar challenge: controlling costs by making buildings energy efficient. Whether preparing for peak cooling demand or bracing for rising heating costs, it’s time to ensure sites, structures, and assets are ready.
Building information modeling (BIM) offers a direct path to better energy performance. When integrated with facility management (FM) workflows, BIM equips teams with the data they need to make fast, informed decisions to optimize HVAC schedules, identify energy-intensive assets, or plan upgrades that reduce consumption. With the right tools in place, managers can respond to changing conditions with confidence and control.
Key takeaways
- BIM for FM improves energy efficiency: By leveraging detailed building data from the design and construction phases, facility managers can make informed decisions to optimize energy performance, reduce consumption, and improve occupant comfort
- BIM provides comprehensive data for facility management: BIM for FM offers a wide range of data, including HVAC system specifications, lighting and power distribution plans, and building envelope details, enabling facility managers to identify areas of inefficiency and prioritize upgrades
- BIM enables data-driven decision-making: By integrating BIM data into facility management solutions, teams can move beyond surface-level assessments and make targeted improvements that reduce energy consumption and improve overall system efficiency
By understanding these key benefits of BIM for FM, facility managers can begin to explore how this technology can transform their operations. As organizations look to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs, the insights provided by BIM for FM have become increasingly valuable.
A definition of BIM for FM for all seasons
BIM for FM is the process of adapting existing investments in data from the design, planning, and construction phases for operations and maintenance. Instead of starting from zero when the facility opens, teams already have access to comprehensive data on all the assets and equipment inside the enterprise facility management solution.
From there, they can move more confidently and quickly, setting up maintenance programs, scheduling preventive work, and managing resources with greater precision. With the right data in place, facility managers are better equipped to respond to seasonal demands, whether that means preparing for heatwaves or ensuring heating systems are ready for cold snaps.
Why energy efficiency matters more in summer and winter
Extreme temperatures in summer and winter push building systems to their limits. For large facilities like government campuses, manufacturing plants, and multi-site corporate offices, these seasonal shifts can quickly translate into significant operational and financial pressure.
HVAC systems alone can account for up to 52% of total energy use in commercial buildings during peak summer months. Every degree increase in outdoor temperature forces cooling systems to work harder, while high humidity adds another layer of strain as air conditioning units must also remove moisture from the air. In winter, heating systems face equal challenges, running longer and consuming more energy to maintain safe indoor temperatures.
These seasonal spikes in energy demand can lead to:
- Higher utility costs, especially in older buildings with inefficient thermal envelopes
- Increased wear and tear on HVAC components, raising the risk of breakdowns
- Reduced occupant comfort and productivity, particularly when indoor temperatures fall outside the comfortable ranges
- More frequent operational disruptions, as overworked systems may fail during critical periods
For facility managers, improving energy efficiency during high-demand seasons means maintaining uptime, protecting equipment, and ensuring a safe and productive environment for building occupants.
How to turn design data into energy-efficient operations
One of the most valuable advantages of BIM for facility management is the ability to repurpose detailed building data from earlier phases to improve energy performance, including architectural layouts and floor plans, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) schematics, HVAC system specifications and locations, lighting and power distribution plans, building envelope details, including insulation and window types, equipment manuals, asset tags, and warranty records, and energy modeling and performance benchmarks.
When this information is integrated into a facility management solution, it becomes a foundation for smarter, faster decision-making.
HVAC system specifications and locations
HVAC systems are often the single largest contributor to energy use in commercial buildings. BIM provides detailed information on each unit’s location, capacity, manufacturer specifications, installation date, and service history. Reliable, accessible data empowers facility managers to fine-tune operations and extend equipment life.
With BIM-enabled HVAC data, your teams can:
- Schedule maintenance based on actual runtime and performance metrics, not just calendar intervals
- Identify units that are undersized or oversized for their zones, leading to inefficient cycling and energy waste
- Analyze airflow distribution to rebalance systems and reduce over-conditioning in low-occupancy areas
- Monitor temperature setpoints and adjust them seasonally to avoid overuse
It’s a level of insight that’s especially valuable during extreme weather, when HVAC systems are under the most stress and energy costs are at their peak.
Lighting and power distribution plans
Lighting and electrical systems are critical to both energy efficiency and occupant comfort. BIM provides a detailed view of fixture types, control systems, circuit layouts, and power zones, allowing facility managers to make informed decisions that reduce consumption without compromising safety or productivity.
With this data, your teams can:
- Identify and replace outdated lighting with energy-efficient LED fixtures
- Implement smart lighting controls that respond to occupancy, daylight levels, and time-of-day schedules
- Balance electrical loads to prevent overuse and reduce peak demand charges
- Monitor power distribution to detect areas of excessive consumption or potential faults
- Coordinate lighting upgrades with other systems, such as HVAC and security, for integrated energy savings
Lighting and power data from BIM helps facility managers create smarter, more responsive environments that adapt to seasonal needs and occupancy patterns.
How to leverage BIM building envelope details for energy efficiency
The building envelope plays a foundational role in regulating indoor climate and controlling energy loss. It includes the physical barriers between the interior and exterior environments like walls, roofs, floors, windows, doors, and insulation. When this data is captured and made accessible through BIM, facility managers can strategically identify and address inefficiencies that directly impact heating and cooling loads.
BIM data can provide detailed specifications on insulation materials and R-values across different zones, window types, glazing layers, and thermal performance ratings, wall assemblies and construction details, roof composition and reflectivity, and door seals and air leakage points.
With this level of detail, you can move beyond surface-level assessments and make targeted improvements that reduce energy consumption and improve occupant comfort.
Identify zones with poor insulation
In winter, inadequate insulation allows heat to escape, forcing heating systems to work harder and consume more energy. In summer, poor insulation can lead to heat infiltration, increasing the load on cooling systems.
BIM enables facility managers to locate and assess insulation performance across different zones, using R-values and material specifications to identify areas that fall short of energy standards.
With this insight, you can prioritize insulation upgrades where they’ll have the greatest impact, like exterior walls facing prevailing winds or roof sections exposed to direct sunlight. The upgrades not only reduce energy consumption but also stabilize indoor temperatures, which helps maintain occupant comfort and reduces strain on HVAC systems.
By modeling the expected energy savings before making changes, you can justify investments and align improvements with budget cycles and seasonal maintenance windows.
Evaluate window types and glazing performance
In winter, single-pane or poorly sealed windows allow heat to escape, while in summer, they permit solar heat gain that drives up cooling costs. BIM provides detailed data on window types, glazing layers, frame materials, and thermal performance ratings, giving you the ability to assess and compare energy efficiency across different areas of a building.
You can then leverage the data to support decisions about where to prioritize upgrades, such as replacing single-pane windows with double or triple glazing or applying low-emissivity coatings to reduce infrared and ultraviolet light penetration.
From there, you can also use BIM to evaluate the orientation of windows and their exposure to sunlight, helping to determine where shading devices or window films could further reduce energy loads.
Targeted improvements help you lower utility bills and contribute to a more consistent indoor climate, reducing the need for reactive HVAC adjustments and improving overall system efficiency.
Success story: Nanyang Technological University uses BIM to optimize energy and space
Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is one of Asia’s leading academic institutions, with a sprawling 200-hectare garden campus, 16 residence halls, and facilities supporting more than 33,000 students.
As the university expanded, its facility management team faced growing pressure to improve operational efficiency, reduce manual processes, and better manage space and energy use across its large and diverse portfolio.
To meet these goals, they became the first university in Singapore to adopt BIM for FM, and in response to a national call for life cycle building data integration, NTU partnered with Eptura’s Archibus solution to bring together BIM models and facility data into a single platform.
The implementation took just four months and included importing legacy data from spreadsheets, log forms, and CAD drawings into a centralized system that supports both 2D and 3D visualizations.
With BIM integrated into its facility management solution, NTU gained real-time visibility into space utilization, asset locations, and building configurations, empowering their teams to:
- Eliminate manual processes and streamline reporting
- Optimize space and asset use through automated analysis
- Improve chargeback accuracy for leased spaces
The success of the project was driven by a focus on usability and adoption. NTU leveraged out-of-the-box functionality while customizing interfaces to meet user needs. The result was a highly engaged team that embraced the new system, leading to faster decision-making and more efficient operations.
With BIM now embedded in its workflows, NTU is expanding its use to include asset management and building operations, a move that positions the university to better manage energy performance and respond to seasonal demands across its campus.
Read the full success story to discover how NTU laid the groundwork for better energy and maintenance management.
Frequently asked questions
By Jonathan Davis
As a content creator at Eptura, Jonathan Davis covers asset management, maintenance software, and SaaS solutions, delivering thought leadership with actionable insights across industries such as fleet, manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality. Jonathan’s writing focuses on topics to help enterprises optimize their operations, including building lifecycle management, digital twins, BIM for facility management, and preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. With a master's degree in journalism and a diverse background that includes writing textbooks, editing video game dialogue, and teaching English as a foreign language, Jonathan brings a versatile perspective to his content creation.
