Regulating a poorly insulated building?

Yes! And that's often where it's most cost-effective.

The question often comes up. Recently, during a works committee meeting, we heard:
“Should we prioritize investing in insulation… or in a BMS?”

And this question leads to another, more direct one:
“Is it really worth installing a BMS if my building is poorly insulated?”

Excellent question. Because it reveals a deeply ingrained misconception: that a building needs to be perfect before you can start controlling it.

The answer is no. In fact, it's often the opposite.

In this article, we're going to debunk this myth with 3 on-the-ground observations and show you what intelligent regulation can achieve in this type of building.

Some figures...

The existing building stock in France continues to heat, cool, and light empty spaces.

• Heating accounts for an average of 50 to 60% of the total consumption of commercial buildings.
• 20 to 30% of energy consumption in the commercial sector are avoidable, linked to absurd or unsupervised uses.
• Audits regularly reveal these excesses.

❌ Common misconception #1: "Regulation is useless if all the heat is lost."

It's precisely because you're losing heat... that you need to regulate.
A poorly insulated building loses heat faster, so every unnecessary degree becomes an avoidable expense.

➡️ Regulation allows for:

• Avoiding overheating,
• Turning off heating in unoccupied areas,
• Adapting in real-time based on usage.

For example, lowering the temperature by 1.5°C in a sparsely occupied or south-facing area can save 7 to 10% in consumption. Without regulation, it's impossible to do this reliably and controllably.

❌ Common misconception #2: "We'll install a BMS after the insulation work."

We hear that often. But in reality, major renovation projects take time to finance, plan, and execute... sometimes several years.

• An efficient renovation costs between 500 and 1,200 €/m².
• A BMS compliant with the BACS decree costs approximately 5 to 20 €/m² for setup, and 1 to 3 €/m² per year depending on the class and the building.

Meanwhile, losses continue, often unevenly throughout the building.

This plan illustrates it: some rooms are very energy-intensive, others are rarely used, some are overheated, etc. .

➡️ SCorp-io allows you to see this at a glance.

Instead of enduring, you can:

• Intelligently prioritize your investments
• Identify areas where insulation is truly urgent
• Detect inefficiencies or inconsistent usage

And make more informed decisions...
We don't replace the work, we help you target it to the right place, at the right time.

❌ Common misconception #3: “BMS is for new buildings”

False. It's not the age of the building that matters, but its ability to be controlled.

➡️ And today, even in a 1980s middle school, it's possible to:

• Connect to existing systems
• Improve regulation without changing equipment
• Install a monitoring system without major construction work

The ROI is there from the first year, even in a 1980s building.

In fact… what these buildings need isn't a "classic" BMS

Today, in most older buildings, temperature control is based on outdoor reset control.
It's a simple rule: the colder it is outside, the higher the temperature of the water circulating in the heating circuits.
This rule is set once, often fixed for the entire season, and rarely updated.

👉 Problem: it's a "blind" control system:

• It doesn't adapt to real indoor conditions
• It doesn't take into account occupancy, nor solar gains or temperature fluctuations throughout the day
• And most importantly, it completely malfunctions during mid-season: it's 15°C outside, but the offices are at 24°C…

Some BMS installed in the 2010s no longer have any monitoring capabilities. When the workstation is still usable, they display temperatures, sometimes allow remote commands… but they don't really change the building's behavior.

What changes everything is smart control

An intelligent layer that enhances what you already have, and completely transforms control:

All of this will allow a poorly insulated building to achieve significant savings on its operation.

🎯 And this isn't theoretical: we've seen it in dozens of school buildings, town halls, and hotels — with 20 to 30% savings from the first year, without changing walls or pipes.

✅ In conclusion

“It's better to have a poorly insulated (or old) building that is well controlled than a building that is not controlled at all.”
BMS is not a luxury reserved for Class A buildings (EPC).

It's a simple, quick, effective lever that helps you optimize consumption, make better decisions, and take concrete action — right now.