Development of a methodology for life cycle building energy ratings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hernandez, Patxi; Kenny, Paul

2011-01-01

Traditionally the majority of building energy use has been linked to its operation (heating, cooling, lighting, etc.), and much attention has been directed to reduce this energy use through technical innovation, regulatory control and assessed through a wide range of rating methods. However buildings generally employ an increasing amount of materials and systems to reduce the energy use in operation, and energy embodied in these can constitute an important part of the building's life cycle energy use. For buildings with 'zero-energy' use in operation the embodied energy is indeed the only life cycle energy use. This is not addressed by current building energy assessment and rating methods. This paper proposes a methodology to extend building energy assessment and rating methods accounting for embodied energy of building components and systems. The methodology is applied to the EU Building Energy Rating method and, as an illustration, as implemented in Irish domestic buildings. A case study dwelling is used to illustrate the importance of embodied energy on life cycle energy performance, particularly relevant when energy use in operation tends to zero. The use of the Net Energy Ratio as an indicator to select appropriate building improvement measures is also presented and discussed. - Highlights: → The definitions for 'zero energy buildings' and current building energy ratings are examined. → There is a need to integrate a life cycle perspective within building energy ratings. → A life cycle building energy rating method (LC-BER), including embodied energy is presented. → Net Energy Ratio is proposed as an indicator to select building energy improvement options.

Intervention strategies for energy efficient municipal buildings: Influencing energy decisions throughout buildings` lifetimes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1993-12-31

The current energy-related decisionmaking processes that take place during the lifetimes of municipal buildings in San Francisco do not reflect our ideal picture of energy efficiency as a part of staff awareness and standard practice. Two key problems that undermine the success of energy efficiency programs are lost opportunities and incomplete actions. These problems can be caused by technology-related issues, but often the causes are institutional barriers (organizational or procedural {open_quotes}people problems{close_quotes}). Energy efficient decisions are not being made because of a lack of awareness or policy mandate, or because financial resources are not available to decisionmakers. The Bureau of Energy Conservation (BEC) is working to solve such problems in the City & County of San Francisco through the Intervention Strategies project. In the first phase of the project, using the framework of the building lifetime, we learned how energy efficiency in San Francisco municipal buildings can be influenced through delivering services to support decisionmakers; at key points in the process of funding, designing, constructing and maintaining them. The second phase of the project involved choosing and implementing five pilot projects. Through staff interviews, we learned how decisions that impact energy use are made at various levels. We compiled information about city staff and their needs, and resources available to meet those needs. We then designed actions to deliver appropriate services to staff at these key access points. BEC implemented five pilot projects corresponding to various stages in the building`s lifetime. These were: Bond Guidelines, Energy Efficient Design Practices, Commissioning, Motor Efficiency, and Facilities Condition Monitoring Program.

Energy Efficiency Requirements in Building Codes, Energy Efficiency Policies for New Buildings. IEA Information Paper

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Laustsen, Jens

2008-03-15

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse current approaches to encourage energy efficiency in building codes for new buildings. Based on this analysis the paper enumerates policy recommendations for enhancing how energy efficiency is addressed in building codes and other policies for new buildings. This paper forms part of the IEA work for the G8 Gleneagles Plan of Action. These recommendations reflect the study of different policy options for increasing energy efficiency in new buildings and examination of other energy efficiency requirements in standards or building codes, such as energy efficiency requirements by major renovation or refurbishment. In many countries, energy efficiency of buildings falls under the jurisdiction of the federal states. Different standards cover different regions or climatic conditions and different types of buildings, such as residential or simple buildings, commercial buildings and more complicated high-rise buildings. There are many different building codes in the world and the intention of this paper is not to cover all codes on each level in all countries. Instead, the paper details different regions of the world and different ways of standards. In this paper we also evaluate good practices based on local traditions. This project does not seek to identify one best practice amongst the building codes and standards. Instead, different types of codes and different parts of the regulation have been illustrated together with examples on how they have been successfully addressed. To complement this discussion of efficiency standards, this study illustrates how energy efficiency can be improved through such initiatives as efficiency labelling or certification, very best practice buildings with extremely low- or no-energy consumption and other policies to raise buildings' energy efficiency beyond minimum requirements. When referring to the energy saving potentials for buildings, this study uses the analysis of recent IEA

Analysis and Optimization of Building Energy Consumption

Science.gov (United States)

Chuah, Jun Wei

Energy is one of the most important resources required by modern human society. In 2010, energy expenditures represented 10% of global gross domestic product (GDP). By 2035, global energy consumption is expected to increase by more than 50% from current levels. The increased pace of global energy consumption leads to significant environmental and socioeconomic issues: (i) carbon emissions, from the burning of fossil fuels for energy, contribute to global warming, and (ii) increased energy expenditures lead to reduced standard of living. Efficient use of energy, through energy conservation measures, is an important step toward mitigating these effects. Residential and commercial buildings represent a prime target for energy conservation, comprising 21% of global energy consumption and 40% of the total energy consumption in the United States. This thesis describes techniques for the analysis and optimization of building energy consumption. The thesis focuses on building retrofits and building energy simulation as key areas in building energy optimization and analysis. The thesis first discusses and evaluates building-level renewable energy generation as a solution toward building energy optimization. The thesis next describes a novel heating system, called localized heating. Under localized heating, building occupants are heated individually by directed radiant heaters, resulting in a considerably reduced heated space and significant heating energy savings. To support localized heating, a minimally-intrusive indoor occupant positioning system is described. The thesis then discusses occupant-level sensing (OLS) as the next frontier in building energy optimization. OLS captures the exact environmental conditions faced by each building occupant, using sensors that are carried by all building occupants. The information provided by OLS enables fine-grained optimization for unprecedented levels of energy efficiency and occupant comfort. The thesis also describes a retrofit

Country Report on Building Energy Codes in the United States

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Halverson, Mark A.; Shui, Bin; Evans, Meredydd

2009-04-30

This report is part of a series of reports on building energy efficiency codes in countries associated with the Asian Pacific Partnership (APP) - Australia, South Korea, Japan, China, India, and the United States of America (U.S.). This reports gives an overview of the development of building energy codes in U.S., including national energy policies related to building energy codes, history of building energy codes, recent national projects and activities to promote building energy codes. The report also provides a review of current building energy codes (such as building envelope, HVAC, lighting, and water heating) for commercial and residential buildings in the U.S.

Energy use in office buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-10-01

This is the report on Task IB, Familiarization with Additional Data Collection Plans of Annual Survey of BOMA Member and Non-Member Buildings in 20 Cities, of the Energy Use in Office Buildings project. The purpose of the work was to monitor and understand the efforts of the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) in gathering an energy-use-oriented data base. In order to obtain an improved data base encompassing a broad spectrum of office space and with information suitable for energy analysis in greater detail than is currently available, BOMA undertook a major data-collection effort. Based on a consideration of geographic area, climate, population, and availability of data, BOMA selected twenty cities for data collection. BOMA listed all of the major office space - buildings in excess of 40,000 square feet - in each of the cities. Tax-assessment records, local maps, Chamber of Commerce data, recent industrial-development programs, results of related studies, and local-realtor input were used in an effort to assemble a comprehensive office-building inventory. In order to verify the accuracy and completeness of the building lists, BOMA assembled an Ad-Hoc Review Committee in each city to review the assembled inventory of space. A questionnaire on office-building energy use and building characteristics was developed. In each city BOMA assembled a data collection team operating under the supervision of its regional affiliate to gather the data. For each city a random sample of buildings was selected, and data were gathered. Responses for over 1000 buildings were obtained.

Building energy analysis tool

Science.gov (United States)

Brackney, Larry; Parker, Andrew; Long, Nicholas; Metzger, Ian; Dean, Jesse; Lisell, Lars

2016-04-12

A building energy analysis system includes a building component library configured to store a plurality of building components, a modeling tool configured to access the building component library and create a building model of a building under analysis using building spatial data and using selected building components of the plurality of building components stored in the building component library, a building analysis engine configured to operate the building model and generate a baseline energy model of the building under analysis and further configured to apply one or more energy conservation measures to the baseline energy model in order to generate one or more corresponding optimized energy models, and a recommendation tool configured to assess the one or more optimized energy models against the baseline energy model and generate recommendations for substitute building components or modifications.

Energy management study: A proposed case of government building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tahir, Mohamad Zamhari; Nawi, Mohd Nasrun Mohd; Baharum, Mohd Faizal

2015-01-01

Align with the current needs of the sustainable and green technology in Malaysian construction industry, this research is conducted to seek and identify opportunities to better manage energy use including the process of understand when, where, and how energy is used in a building. The purpose of this research is to provide a best practice guideline as a practical tool to assist construction industry in Malaysia to improve the energy efficiency of the office building during the post-production by reviewing the current practice of the building operation and maintenance in order to optimum the usage and reduce the amount of energy input into the building. Therefore, this paper will review the concept of maintenance management, current issue in energy management, and on how the research process will be conducted. There are several process involves and focuses on technical and management techniques such as energy metering, tracing, harvesting, and auditing based on the case study that will be accomplish soon. Accordingly, a case study is appropriate to be selected as a strategic research approach in which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence for the data collection process. A Government office building will be selected as an appropriate case study for this research. In the end of this research, it will recommend a strategic approach or model in a specific guideline for enabling energy-efficient operation and maintenance in the office building

Energy management study: A proposed case of government building

Science.gov (United States)

Tahir, Mohamad Zamhari; Nawi, Mohd Nasrun Mohd; Baharum, Mohd Faizal

2015-05-01

Align with the current needs of the sustainable and green technology in Malaysian construction industry, this research is conducted to seek and identify opportunities to better manage energy use including the process of understand when, where, and how energy is used in a building. The purpose of this research is to provide a best practice guideline as a practical tool to assist construction industry in Malaysia to improve the energy efficiency of the office building during the post-production by reviewing the current practice of the building operation and maintenance in order to optimum the usage and reduce the amount of energy input into the building. Therefore, this paper will review the concept of maintenance management, current issue in energy management, and on how the research process will be conducted. There are several process involves and focuses on technical and management techniques such as energy metering, tracing, harvesting, and auditing based on the case study that will be accomplish soon. Accordingly, a case study is appropriate to be selected as a strategic research approach in which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence for the data collection process. A Government office building will be selected as an appropriate case study for this research. In the end of this research, it will recommend a strategic approach or model in a specific guideline for enabling energy-efficient operation and maintenance in the office building.

Energy management study: A proposed case of government building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tahir, Mohamad Zamhari; Nawi, Mohd Nasrun Mohd [School of Technology Management and Logistics, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah (Malaysia); Baharum, Mohd Faizal [School of Building, Housing and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang (Malaysia)

2015-05-15

Align with the current needs of the sustainable and green technology in Malaysian construction industry, this research is conducted to seek and identify opportunities to better manage energy use including the process of understand when, where, and how energy is used in a building. The purpose of this research is to provide a best practice guideline as a practical tool to assist construction industry in Malaysia to improve the energy efficiency of the office building during the post-production by reviewing the current practice of the building operation and maintenance in order to optimum the usage and reduce the amount of energy input into the building. Therefore, this paper will review the concept of maintenance management, current issue in energy management, and on how the research process will be conducted. There are several process involves and focuses on technical and management techniques such as energy metering, tracing, harvesting, and auditing based on the case study that will be accomplish soon. Accordingly, a case study is appropriate to be selected as a strategic research approach in which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence for the data collection process. A Government office building will be selected as an appropriate case study for this research. In the end of this research, it will recommend a strategic approach or model in a specific guideline for enabling energy-efficient operation and maintenance in the office building.

Economic Energy Savings Potential in Federal Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, Daryl R.; Dirks, James A.; Hunt, Diane M.

2000-09-04

The primary objective of this study was to estimate the current life-cycle cost-effective (i.e., economic) energy savings potential in Federal buildings and the corresponding capital investment required to achieve these savings, with Federal financing. Estimates were developed for major categories of energy efficiency measures such as building envelope, heating system, cooling system, and lighting. The analysis was based on conditions (building stock and characteristics, retrofit technologies, interest rates, energy prices, etc.) existing in the late 1990s. The potential impact of changes to any of these factors in the future was not considered.

Building Standards and Codes for Energy Conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Gross, James G.; Pierlert, James H.

1977-01-01

Current activity intended to lead to energy conservation measures in building codes and standards is reviewed by members of the Office of Building Standards and Codes Services of the National Bureau of Standards. For journal availability see HE 508 931. (LBH)

Energy consumption in buildings for different sport activities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Norrfors, M; Werner, G; Oertenstrand, G

1978-01-01

Some buildings for different kinds of sport activities have a great energy demand. The actions which could be taken in order to decrease the energy demand and at the same time decrease the operating costs for these buildings are summarized. References are given to literature of current interest in this field.

Improving building energy efficiency in India: State-level analysis of building energy efficiency policies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Sha; Tan, Qing; Evans, Meredydd; Kyle, Page; Vu, Linh; Patel, Pralit L.

2017-11-01

India is expected to add 40 billion m2 of new buildings till 2050. Buildings are responsible for one third of India’s total energy consumption today and building energy use is expected to continue growing driven by rapid income and population growth. The implementation of the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) is one of the measures to improve building energy efficiency. Using the Global Change Assessment Model, this study assesses growth in the buildings sector and impacts of building energy policies in Gujarat, which would help the state adopt ECBC and expand building energy efficiency programs. Without building energy policies, building energy use in Gujarat would grow by 15 times in commercial buildings and 4 times in urban residential buildings between 2010 and 2050. ECBC improves energy efficiency in commercial buildings and could reduce building electricity use in Gujarat by 20% in 2050, compared to the no policy scenario. Having energy codes for both commercial and residential buildings could result in additional 10% savings in electricity use. To achieve these intended savings, it is critical to build capacity and institution for robust code implementation.

Integrating Renewable Energy Requirements Into Building Energy Codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kaufmann, John R.; Hand, James R.; Halverson, Mark A.

2011-07-01

This report evaluates how and when to best integrate renewable energy requirements into building energy codes. The basic goals were to: (1) provide a rough guide of where we’re going and how to get there; (2) identify key issues that need to be considered, including a discussion of various options with pros and cons, to help inform code deliberations; and (3) to help foster alignment among energy code-development organizations. The authors researched current approaches nationally and internationally, conducted a survey of key stakeholders to solicit input on various approaches, and evaluated the key issues related to integration of renewable energy requirements and various options to address those issues. The report concludes with recommendations and a plan to engage stakeholders. This report does not evaluate whether the use of renewable energy should be required on buildings; that question involves a political decision that is beyond the scope of this report.

Distributed energy resources at naval base ventura county building 1512

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bailey, Owen C.; Marnay, Chris

2004-01-01

This paper reports the findings of a preliminary assessment of the cost effectiveness of distributed energy resources at Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) Building 1512. This study was conducted in response to the base's request for design assistance to the Federal Energy Management Program. Given the current tariff structure there are two main decisions facing NBVC: whether to install distributed energy resources (DER), or whether to continue the direct access energy supply contract. At the current effective rate, given assumptions about the performance and structure of building energy loads and available generating technology characteristics, the results of this study indicate that if the building installed a 600 kW DER system with absorption cooling and heat capabilities chosen by cost minimization, the energy cost savings would be about 14 percent, or $55,000 per year. However, under current conditions, this study also suggests that significant savings could be obtained if Building 1 512 changed from the direct access contract to a SCE TOU-8 (Southern California Edison time of use tariff number 8) rate without installing a DER system. At current SCE TOU-8 tariffs, the potential savings from installation of a DER system would be about 4 percent, or $15,000 per year

Web-based energy information systems for energy management and demand response in commercial buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Motegi, Naoya; Piette, Mary Ann; Kinney, Satkartar; Herter, Karen

2003-04-18

Energy Information Systems (EIS) for buildings are becoming widespread in the U.S., with more companies offering EIS products every year. As a result, customers are often overwhelmed by the quickly expanding portfolio of EIS feature and application options, which have not been clearly identified for consumers. The object of this report is to provide a technical overview of currently available EIS products. In particular, this report focuses on web-based EIS products for large commercial buildings, which allow data access and control capabilities over the Internet. EIS products combine software, data acquisition hardware, and communication systems to collect, analyze and display building information to aid commercial building energy managers, facility managers, financial managers and electric utilities in reducing energy use and costs in buildings. Data types commonly processed by EIS include energy consumption data; building characteristics; building system data, such as heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) and lighting data; weather data; energy price signals; and energy demand-response event information. This project involved an extensive review of research and trade literature to understand the motivation for EIS technology development. This study also gathered information on currently commercialized EIS. This review is not an exhaustive analysis of all EIS products; rather, it is a technical framework and review of current products on the market. This report summarizes key features available in today's EIS, along with a categorization framework to understand the relationship between EIS, Energy Management and Control Systems (EMCSs), and similar technologies. Four EIS types are described: Basic Energy Information Systems (Basic-EIS); Demand Response Systems (DRS); Enterprise Energy Management (EEM); and Web-based Energy Management and Control Systems (Web-EMCS). Within the context of these four categories, the following characteristics of EIS

A Fuzzy-Based Building Energy Management System for Energy Efficiency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José L. Hernández

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Information and communication technologies (ICT offer immense potential to improve the energetic performance of buildings. Additionally, common building control systems are typically based on simple decision-making tools, which possess the ability to obtain controllable parameters for indoor temperatures. Nevertheless, the accuracy of such common building control systems is improvable with the integration of advanced decision-making techniques embedded into software and energy management tools. This paper presents the design of a building energy management system (BEMS, which is currently under development, and that makes use of artificial intelligence for the automated decision-making process required for optimal comfort of occupants and utilization of renewables for achieving energy-efficiency in buildings. The research falls under the scope of the H2020 project BREASER which implements fuzzy logic with the aim of governing the energy resources of a school in Turkey, which has been renovated with a ventilated façade with integrated renewable energy sources (RES. The BRESAER BEMS includes prediction techniques that increase the accuracy of common BEMS tools, and subsequent energy savings, while ensuring the indoor thermal comfort of the building occupants. In particular, weather forecast and simulation strategies are integrated into the functionalities of the overall system. By collecting the aforementioned information, the BEMS makes decisions according to a well-established selection of key performance indicators (KPIs with the objective of providing a quantitative comparable value to determine new actuation parameters.

Zero Energy Building

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marszal, Anna Joanna; Heiselberg, Per; Bourrelle, J.S.

2011-01-01

The concept of Zero Energy Building (ZEB) has gained wide international attention during last few years and is now seen as the future target for the design of buildings. However, before being fully implemented in the national building codes and international standards, the ZEB concept requires......, (4) the type of energy balance, (5) the accepted renewable energy supply options, (6) the connection to the energy infrastructure and (7) the requirements for the energy efficiency, the indoor climate and in case of gird connected ZEB for the building–grid interaction. This paper focuses...

China building energy consumption: Situation, challenges and corresponding measures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cai, W.G.; Wu, Y.; Zhong, Y.; Ren, H.

2009-01-01

As one of the biggest parts of total national energy consumption (TNEC), building energy consumption (BEC) catches public eyes and has been regarded as a crucial problem of the current society. For the past 20 years, BEC in china has been increasing at a high speed. To curb the rapid growing of BEC, china has enforced and implemented a series of policies. These include enforcing BEC constraints on new building projects, promoting more environment friendly building designs, establishing a more sophisticated legislation for building energy conservation, and increasing the total budget in the area of BEC control. This article analyzed china BEC situation and the challenges. As the main point, the measures required by China government to improve building energy efficiency were introduced as well.

Establishing a commercial building energy data framework for India

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Iyer, Maithili [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Kumar, Satish [Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy, New Delhi (India); Mathew, Sangeeta [Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy, New Delhi (India); Stratton, Hannah [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Mathew, Paul A. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Singh, Mohini [Synurja, Inc. (India)

2018-04-18

Buildings account for over 40% of the world’s energy consumption and are therefore a key contributor to a country’s energy as well as carbon budget. Understanding how buildings use energy is critical to understanding how related policies may impact energy use. Data enables decision making, and good quality data arms consumers with the tools to compare their energy performance to their peers, allowing them to differentiate their buildings in the real estate market on the basis of their energy footprint. Good quality data are also essential for policy makers to prioritize their energy saving strategies and track implementation. The United States’ Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) is an example of a successful data framework that is highly useful for governmental and nongovernmental initiatives related to benchmarking energy forecasting, rating systems and metrics, and more. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in India developed the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) and launched the Star Labeling program for a few energy-intensive building segments as a significant first step. However, a data driven policy framework for systematically targeting energy efficiency in both new construction and existing buildings has largely been missing. There is no quantifiable mechanism currently in place to track the impact of code adoption through regular reporting/survey of energy consumption in the commercial building stock. In this paper we present findings from our study that explored use cases and approaches for establishing a commercial buildings data framework for India.

Thermal Comfort and Ventilation Criteria for low Energy Residential Buildings in Building Codes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cao, Guangyu; Kurnitski, Jarek; Awbi, Hazim

2012-01-01

of the indoor air quality in such buildings. Currently, there are no global guidelines for specifying the indoor thermal environment in such low-energy buildings. The objective of this paper is to analyse the classification of indoor thermal comfort levels and recommended ventilation rates for different low...

Energy Performance and CO2 Emissions of HVAC Systems in Commercial Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafat Al-Waked

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Energy performance of buildings has attracted much attention among building physicists and engineers worldwide. The effects of building heating; ventilation; and air conditioning (HVAC systems’ design upgrade on the building energy performance are the focus of the current study. The adopted HVAC system consisted of chilled ceiling and chilled beam systems served by a centrifugal water chiller. An energy simulation study was undertaken in accordance with the national Australian built environment rating system-rules for collecting and using data. A three-dimensional simulation study was carried out utilizing the virtual environment-integrated environmental solutions software. Results from the current study have shown the importance of utilizing energy-efficient HVAC systems and HVAC strategies for achieving a high building energy star rating. Recommended strategies in order to achieve the nominated star rating; as predicted by the simulation analysis; were presented. Moreover; the effects of solar radiation inside the building atrium were significant; which cannot be overcome by simply installing a low shading coefficient glazing type at the atrium skylight. In addition to providing chilled ceiling technology; a high efficiency chiller and low energy lighting; it is recommended that the building be well tuned during the commissioning period. The current approach could be extended to accommodate higher energy ratings of commercial buildings at different locations worldwide.

Analysis of a Residential Building Energy Consumption Demand Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng Liu

2011-03-01

Full Text Available In order to estimate the energy consumption demand of residential buildings, this paper first discusses the status and shortcomings of current domestic energy consumption models. Then it proposes and develops a residential building energy consumption demand model based on a back propagation (BP neural network model. After that, taking residential buildings in Chongqing (P.R. China as an example, 16 energy consumption indicators are introduced as characteristics of the residential buildings in Chongqing. The index system of the BP neutral network prediction model is established and the multi-factorial BP neural network prediction model of Chongqing residential building energy consumption is developed using the Cshap language, based on the SQL server 2005 platform. The results obtained by applying the model in Chongqing are in good agreement with actual ones. In addition, the model provides corresponding approximate data by taking into account the potential energy structure adjustments and relevant energy policy regulations.

Revealing myths about people, energy and buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Diamond, R.; Moezzi, M.

2000-05-01

In this essay we take a closer look at some energy myths, focusing on the ways energy professionals and the public alike, talk, write and teach about how energy affects the way in which we design, operate, retrofit and inhabit buildings. What myths about people, energy and buildings are current today? Who tells these myths and why do we believe them? How do myths affect our behavior? Myths are a way of understanding the world we live in. They may represent incomplete understanding, or be based on premises that are scientifically not valid, but they help us understand and explain how the world works, and we shape our behavior accordingly.

Energy and behavioral impacts of integrative retrofits for residential buildings: What is at stake for building energy policy reforms in northern China?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Peng; Xu, Tengfang; Shen, Pengyuan

2013-01-01

Based upon the results from extensive building monitoring and surveys on occupant’s behaviors in a representative nine-story apartment building in northern China, building energy simulations were performed to evaluate the impacts of integrative retrofits implemented. Integrative retrofits required by the newer building energy standard produced significant heating-energy savings (i.e., 53%) when compared with baseline buildings commonly built in early 1980s. Taking into account district-heating-system upgrades as part of integrative retrofit measures, a representative apartment building was 66% more efficient than the baseline building. Contrary to expectation, little behavioral change was found in response to the provisions of monetary incentive, billing-method reform, or metering of heating energy use in individual apartment units. Yet this paper identified sizable energy savings potential if occupants’ behavioral changes were to actually happen. This indicates that provisions of financial incentives or individual metering were insufficient for triggering substantial behavioral changes leading toward more energy savings in the current buildings. It is recommended that innovative energy policies, technology upgrades, and education would be needed to promote behavioral changes toward additional energy savings. Finally, measures and strategies to further enhance thermal integrity criteria (e.g., insulations of roof and balcony) are recommended in China’s future building energy policy reforms. - Highlights: ► Integrative retrofits significantly reduce residential heating energy in north China. ► Energy effects of retrofits, incentive, billing and behavioral changes were studied. ► Monetary incentive, control or metering technologies did not lead to behavior change. ► Potential energy savings due to occupants’ behavioral changes are sizable. ► Thermal integrity needs to be enhanced in future building standards and policies.

Estimating building energy consumption using extreme learning machine method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naji, Sareh; Keivani, Afram; Shamshirband, Shahaboddin; Alengaram, U. Johnson; Jumaat, Mohd Zamin; Mansor, Zulkefli; Lee, Malrey

2016-01-01

The current energy requirements of buildings comprise a large percentage of the total energy consumed around the world. The demand of energy, as well as the construction materials used in buildings, are becoming increasingly problematic for the earth's sustainable future, and thus have led to alarming concern. The energy efficiency of buildings can be improved, and in order to do so, their operational energy usage should be estimated early in the design phase, so that buildings are as sustainable as possible. An early energy estimate can greatly help architects and engineers create sustainable structures. This study proposes a novel method to estimate building energy consumption based on the ELM (Extreme Learning Machine) method. This method is applied to building material thicknesses and their thermal insulation capability (K-value). For this purpose up to 180 simulations are carried out for different material thicknesses and insulation properties, using the EnergyPlus software application. The estimation and prediction obtained by the ELM model are compared with GP (genetic programming) and ANNs (artificial neural network) models for accuracy. The simulation results indicate that an improvement in predictive accuracy is achievable with the ELM approach in comparison with GP and ANN. - Highlights: • Buildings consume huge amounts of energy for operation. • Envelope materials and insulation influence building energy consumption. • Extreme learning machine is used to estimate energy usage of a sample building. • The key effective factors in this study are insulation thickness and K-value.

Energy-efficient and low CO{sub 2} office building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Airaksinen, M., Email: miimu.airaksinen@vtt.fi

2012-06-15

Current office buildings are becoming more and more energy efficient. In particular the importance of heating is decreasing, but the share of electricity use is increasing. When the CO{sub 2} equivalent emissions are considered, the emissions from embodied energy make up an important share of the total, indicating that the building materials have a high importance which is often ignored when only the energy efficiency of running the building is considered. This paper studies a new office building in design phase. The results showed that the reduction of energy use reduces both the primary energy use and CO{sub 2} eq. emissions. Especially the reduction of electricity use has a high importance for both primary energy use and CO{sub 2} emissions when fossil fuels are used. The lowest CO{sub 2} eq. emissions were achieved when bio-based, renewable energies or nuclear power was used to supply energy for the office building. Evidently then the share of CO{sub 2} eq. emissions from the embodied energy of building materials and products became the dominant source of CO{sub 2} eq. emissions. (orig.)

European national strategies to move towards very low energy buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wittchen, Kim Bjarne; Thomsen, Kirsten Engelund

high energy performance. It is important to stress the need for MS to introduce a national or regional definition of very low energy buildings in their building regulation and to develop a national strategy towards this level of energy performance to become the standard. This market transformation...... the ambition in the EU Action plan - to develop an EU strategy towards very low energy houses. The current recast of the EPBD is an opportunity, which must not be missed to introduce the requirement to MS to define very low energy buildings and a national strategy towards this level of energy performance....... A strategy for improved energy efficiency of existing buildings is a necessity if the energy consumption is to be reduced significantly over a limited period of time. The life time of buildings ranges from 50 to 100 years and improvement of the existing building stock will thus have much higher impact than...

Performance analysis of an energy efficient building prototype by using TRNSYS

OpenAIRE

Lai, Kun; Wang, Wen; Giles, Harry

2014-01-01

Buildings section accouts for a large part of the total primary energy consumption. This paper reports a simulative study on an energy efficient building prototype named MIDMOD by using TRNSYS program. The prototype is a new genre of affordable medium density building concepts that are more adaptable, durable, and energy efficient as whole-life housing typologies than those currently available.The building envelope thermal insulation and air tightness are enhanced to reduce heat loss. Several...

Net positive energy buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romero, A.; Barreiro, E.; Sanchez Zabala, V.

2010-01-01

Buildings are great consumers of energy, being responsible for almost 36% of CO2 emissions in Europe. Though there are many initiatives towards the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions in buildings, many of the alternatives are diminished due to a lack of a unique and holistic approach to the problem. This paper reports a new innovative concept of Positive Energy Buildings (EB+), as well as an integral methodology that covers the overall design process for achieving them. The methodology evaluates energy efficiency solutions at different scales, from building site to generation systems. An educational building design in Navarra serves as a case study to check the feasibility of the proposed methodology. The study concludes that the key to achieve a Positive Energy Building is a minimized energy demand, complemented by efficient facilities and enhanced by distributed power generation from renewable sources. (Author).

ASEAN-USAID buildings energy conservation project. Volume 1, Energy standards: Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Levine, M.D.; Busch, J.F. [eds.][Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States); Deringer, J.J. [Deringer Group, Riva, MD (United States)

1992-06-01

Mandatory or voluntary energy-efficiency standards for new or existing buildings can play an important role in a national program aimed at promoting energy conservation. Building codes and standards can provide a degree of control over design and building practices throughout the construction process, and encourage awareness of energy-conscious design. Studies in developed countries indicate that efficiency standards can produce energy reductions on the order of 20 to 40% or more. Within ASEAN, analyses of the savings potential from the proposed standards suggest that if implemented, these standards would produce savings over current new design practice of 19% to 24%. In this volume we provide an overview of the ASEAN-USAID project aimed at promulgating standards for energy efficiency in commercial buildings. The process of developing and implementing energy-efficiency standards for buildings can be subdivided into two key components: policy development; and technical and economic analysis. Each of these involves a number of steps and processes, as outlined in Figure 1-1. This volume describes the technical and economic analyses used to develop the proposed energy efficiency standards for four countries (Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia), and to refine an energy standard existing in Singapore since 1979. Though oriented toward the ASEAN region, the analysis methods described here are applicable in a range of settings, provided appropriate modifications are made for local building construction, climatic, economic, and political conditions. Implementation issues are not specifically addressed here; rather this volume is oriented towards the analytical work needed to establish or revise an energy standard for buildings.

Energy management systems in buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lush, D. M.

1979-07-01

An investigation is made of the range of possibilities available from three types of systems (automatic control devices, building envelope, and the occupants) in buildings. The following subjects are discussed: general (buildings, design and personnel); new buildings (envelope, designers, energy and load calculations, plant design, general design parameters); existing buildings (conservation measures, general energy management, air conditioned buildings, industrial buildings); man and motivation (general, energy management and documentation, maintenance, motivation); automatic energy management systems (thermostatic controls, optimized plant start up, air conditioned and industrial buildings, building automatic systems). (MCW)

A Retrofit Tool for Improving Energy Efficiency of Commercial Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Levine, Mark; Feng, Wei; Ke, Jing; Hong, Tianzhen; Zhou, Nan

2013-06-06

Existing buildings will dominate energy use in commercial buildings in the United States for three decades or longer and even in China for the about two decades. Retrofitting these buildings to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use is thus critical to achieving the target of reducing energy use in the buildings sector. However there are few evaluation tools that can quickly identify and evaluate energy savings and cost effectiveness of energy conservation measures (ECMs) for retrofits, especially for buildings in China. This paper discusses methods used to develop such a tool and demonstrates an application of the tool for a retrofit analysis. The tool builds on a building performance database with pre-calculated energy consumption of ECMs for selected commercial prototype buildings using the EnergyPlus program. The tool allows users to evaluate individual ECMs or a package of ECMs. It covers building envelope, lighting and daylighting, HVAC, plug loads, service hot water, and renewable energy. The prototype building can be customized to represent an actual building with some limitations. Energy consumption from utility bills can be entered into the tool to compare and calibrate the energy use of the prototype building. The tool currently can evaluate energy savings and payback of ECMs for shopping malls in China. We have used the tool to assess energy and cost savings for retrofit of the prototype shopping mall in Shanghai. Future work on the tool will simplify its use and expand it to cover other commercial building types and other countries.

Energy - efficient buildings in pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sohail, M.; Qureshi, M.U.D.

2011-01-01

Pakistan is one of the countries with the highest energy consumption for domestic use. Annual energy consumption by the domestic sector is 45.9 % of the total, while the industrial sector, consumes about 27.5%. About half of the total energy consumed is used in buildings and/or heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) and lighting appliances. The energy consumed for the same purposes in China and UK is 25 to 30 % and 40 %, respectively, even in extreme weather conditions. Energy deficiency in Pakistan is approximately 5,000 MWe, which results in worst load-shedding in summers and, lately, even in winters. Building new energy sources like dams, coal power plants and renewable energy power projects are some possible solutions, but these are time taking and need at least 2 to 6 years to complete, depending upon the nature of the project. Fast development of energy-efficient buildings is, therefore, necessary to deal with exacerbating energy-crisis and related environmental impact in Pakistan. Innovations in the prevailing building-design will help the country in reducing the energy burden. These innovations may include improved architectural designs, energy-efficient building materials, electrical appliances and implementation of building energy-efficiency codes. In 1987, the National Energy Conservation Centre (ENERCON), was established under Ministry of Environment, Government of Pakistan, with the aim to build awareness among the masses for energy conservation, and to make policies regarding energy-conservation structures in the country. But no policy regarding building energy codes has been introduced by ENERCON till now. In collaboration with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), ENERCON has recently finalized the Building Energy Code of Pakistan Energy Provisions 2011 for which statutory notification is under process for necessary amendment in the building by-laws. The implementation of this Energy Code will result in 25 to 30 % of energy savings in the

Supervisory Control of Loads and Energy Storage in Next-Generation Zero Energy Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kung, Feitau [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Frank, Stephen [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Scheib, Jennifer [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Bernal Heredia, Willy [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Pless, Shanti [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-09-01

A zero energy building (ZEB)—also known as a net zero energy or zero net energy building—is a building that exports as much renewable energy as the total energy it imports from other sources on an annual basis (DOE 2015). Large-scale and commercially viable ZEBs are now in the marketplace, and they are expected to become a larger share of the commercial building footprint as government and private sector policies continue to promote the development of buildings that produce more on-site energy than they use. However, the load profiles of ZEBs are currently perceived by electric utilities to be unfavorable and unpredictable. As shown in Figure ES-1, ZEB load profiles can have abrupt changes in magnitude, at times switching rapidly between exporting and importing electricity. This is a challenge for utilities, which are responsible for constantly balancing electricity supply and demand across the grid. Addressing these concerns will require new strategies and tools.

The development of preliminary energy bench marking for office buildings in Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azah Ahmad; Asfaazam Kasbani

2006-01-01

Benchmarking energy consumption in buildings means comparing how much energy is used in a building to an average or theoretical standard relative to a set of similar buildings. Building energy benchmarking is a useful starting point for commercial building owners to target energy saving opportunities. Building owners can determine the energy performance efficiency level of their buildings and compare it to the entire group of office buildings of its class. It is also useful during the design stage of a new building or retrofit to determine if a design is relatively efficient. The energy performance of a building can be assessed using Building Energy Index (BEI) regardless of building's size, height or age. In the development of preliminary energy benchmarking for office buildings in Malaysia, Malaysia Energy Centre (PTM) has taken a step through its involvement with The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Network, via the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) Centre for Energy (ACE) through a project a develop a similar benchmarking system for various ASEAN members. Through data collection of 54 office building throughout Malaysia, preliminary or baseline energy consumption could be determined. This paper discusses the findings of current energy consumption of office buildings. I will also examine the overall trends of energy consumption among office buildings in Malaysia

Technology Roadmaps: Energy-efficient Buildings: Heating and Cooling Equipment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2011-07-01

Buildings account for almost a third of final energy consumption globally and are an equally important source of CO2 emissions. Currently, both space heating and cooling as well as hot water are estimated to account for roughly half of global energy consumption in buildings. Energy-efficient and low/zero-carbon heating and cooling technologies for buildings have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2 gigatonnes (Gt) and save 710 million tonnes oil equivalent (Mtoe) of energy by 2050. Most of these technologies -- which include solar thermal, combined heat and power (CHP), heat pumps and thermal energy storage -- are commercially available today. The Energy-Efficient Buildings: Heating and Cooling Equipment Roadmap sets out a detailed pathway for the evolution and deployment of the key underlying technologies. It finds that urgent action is required if the building stock of the future is to consume less energy and result in lower CO2 emissions. The roadmap concludes with a set of near-term actions that stakeholders will need to take to achieve the roadmap's vision.

Compliance with building energy regulations for new-build dwellings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pan, Wei; Garmston, Helen

2012-01-01

Despite increasingly stringent building energy regulations worldwide, non-compliance exists in practice. This paper examines the profile of compliance with building energy regulations for new-build dwellings. In total 404 new-build dwellings completed in the UK from 2006 to 2009 were investigated. Only a third of these dwellings were evidenced as being compliant with Building Regulations Part L (England and Wales). Such low compliance casts a serious concern over the achievability of the UK Government's target for all new-build homes to be ‘zero carbon’ from 2016. Clearly evidenced was a lack of knowledge of Part L and its compliance requirements among the supply and building control sides of new-build dwellings. The results also indicate that the compliance profile was influenced by factors including Standard Assessment Procedure (UK Government's methodology for energy efficiency) calculation submissions, learning and experience of builders and building controls with Part L, use of Part L1A checklist, the introduction of energy performance certificate (EPC), build method, dwelling type, and project size. Better compliance was associated with flats over houses and timber frame over masonry. The use of EPC and Part L1A checklist should be encouraged. Key to addressing the lack of compliance with building energy regulations is training. -- Highlights: ► There exists a lack of compliance, worldwide, with building energy regulations. ► The implementation of England and Wales building energy regulations is problematic. ► Training, learning and experience of builders and building control are critical. ► Energy performance certificate and Part L 2006 checklist helped achieve compliance. ► Flats achieved better compliance over houses; and timber frame over masonry.

A comprehensive framework to quantify energy savings potential from improved operations of commercial building stocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azar, Elie; Menassa, Carol C.

2014-01-01

While studies highlight the significant impact of actions performed by occupants and facility managers on building energy performance, current policies ignore the importance of human actions and the potential energy savings from a more efficient operation of building systems. This is mainly attributed to the lack of methods that evaluate non-technological drivers of energy use for large stocks of commercial buildings to support policy making efforts. Therefore, this study proposes a scientific approach to quantifying the energy savings potential due to improved operations of any stock of commercial buildings. The proposed framework combines energy modeling techniques, studies on human actions in buildings, and surveying and sampling methods. The contributions of this study to energy policy are significant as they reinforce the role of human actions in energy conservation, and support efforts to integrate operation-focused solutions in energy conservation policy frameworks. The framework's capabilities are illustrated in a case study performed on the stock of office buildings in the United States (US). Results indicate a potential 21 percent reduction in the current energy use levels of these buildings through realistic changes in current building operation patterns. - Highlights: • Human actions highly influence energy performance of commercial building stocks. • It is challenging to quantify operation-related energy savings potential. • The proposed framework quantifies potential energy savings from improved operations. • The framework can be applied on any stock of commercial buildings. • Applications include support for operation-focused solutions in energy policies

Comparison of building energy use data between the United States and China

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xia, Jianjun; Hong, Tianzhen; Shen, Qi; Feng, Wei; Yang, Le; Im, Piljae; Lu, Alison; Bhandari, Mahabir

2013-10-30

Buildings in the United States and China consumed 41percent and 28percent of the total primary energy in 2011, respectively. Good energy data are the cornerstone to understanding building energy performance and supporting research, design, operation, and policy making for low energy buildings. This paper presents initial outcomes from a joint research project under the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency. The goal is to decode the driving forces behind the discrepancy of building energy use between the two countries; identify gaps and deficiencies of current building energy monitoring, data collection, and analysis; and create knowledge and tools to collect and analyze good building energy data to provide valuable and actionable information for key stakeholders. This paper first reviews and compares several popular existing building energy monitoring systems in both countries. Next a standard energy data model is presented. A detailed, measured building energy data comparison was conducted for a few office buildings in both countries. Finally issues of data collection, quality, sharing, and analysis methods are discussed. It was found that buildings in both countries performed very differently, had potential for deep energy retrofit, but that different efficiency measures should apply.

Integrated fuel cell energy system for modern buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moard, D.M.; Cuzens, J.E.

1998-07-01

Energy deregulation, building design efficiency standards and competitive pressures all encourage the incorporation of distributed fuel cell cogeneration packages into modern buildings. The building marketplace segments to which these systems apply include office buildings, retail stores, hospitals, hotels, food service and multifamily residences. These applications represent approximately 60% of the commercial building sector's energy use plus a portion of the residential sector's energy use. While there are several potential manufacturers of fuel cells on the verge of marketing equipment, most are currently using commercial hydrogen gas to fuel them. There are few suppliers of equipment, which convert conventional fuels into hydrogen. Hydrogen Burner Technology, Inc. (HBT) is one of the few companies with a proven under-oxidized-burner (UOB) technology, patented and already proven in commercial use for industrial applications. HBT is developing a subsystem based on the UOB technology that can produce a hydrogen rich product gas using natural gas, propane or liquid fuels as the feed stock, which may be directly useable by proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells for conversion into electricity. The combined thermal output can also be used for space heating/cooling, water heating or steam generation applications. HBT is currently analyzing the commercial building market, integrated system designs and marketplace motivations which will allow the best overall subsystem to be designed, tested and introduced commercially in the shortest time possible. HBT is also actively involved in combined subsystem designs for use in automotive and small residential services.

Building energy governance in Shanghai

Science.gov (United States)

Kung, YiHsiu Michelle

With Asia's surging economies and urbanization, the region is adding to its built environment at an unprecedented rate, especially those population centers in China and India. With numerous existing buildings, plus a new building boom, construction in these major Asian cities has caused momentous sustainability challenges. This dissertation focuses on China's leading city, Shanghai, to explore and assess its existing commercial building energy policies and practices. Research estimates that Shanghai's commercial buildings might become a key challenge with regard to energy use and CO2 emissions as compared to other major Asian cities. Relevant building energy policy instruments at national and local levels for commercial buildings are reviewed. In addition, two benchmarks are established to further assess building energy policies in Shanghai. The first benchmark is based on the synthesis of relevant criteria and policy instruments as recommended by professional organizations, while the second practical benchmark is drawn from an analysis of three global cities: New York, London and Tokyo. Moreover, two large-scale commercial building sites - Shanghai IKEA and Plaza 66 - are selected for investigation and assessment of their efforts on building energy saving measures. Detailed building energy savings, CO2 reductions, and management cost reductions based on data availability and calculations are presented with the co-benefits approach. The research additionally analyzes different interventions and factors that facilitate or constrain the implementation process of building energy saving measures in each case. Furthermore, a multi-scale analytical framework is employed to investigate relevant stakeholders that shape Shanghai's commercial building energy governance. Research findings and policy recommendations are offered at the close of this dissertation. Findings and policy recommendations are intended to facilitate commercial building energy governance in Shanghai and

The Reality and Future Scenarios of Commercial Building Energy Consumption in China

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhou, Nan; Lin, Jiang

2007-08-01

While China's 11th Five Year Plan called for a reduction of energy intensity by 2010, whether and how the energy consumption trend can be changed in a short time has been hotly debated. This research intends to evaluate the impact of a variety of scenarios of GDP growth, energy elasticity and energy efficiency improvement on energy consumption in commercial buildings in China using a detailed China End-use Energy Model. China's official energy statistics have limited information on energy demand by end use. This is a particularly pertinent issue for building energy consumption. The authors have applied reasoned judgments, based on experience of working on Chinese efficiency standards and energy related programs, to present a realistic interpretation of the current energy data. The bottom-up approach allows detailed consideration of end use intensity, equipment efficiency, etc., thus facilitating assessment of potential impacts of specific policy and technology changes on building energy use. The results suggest that: (1) commercial energy consumption in China's current statistics is underestimated by about 44%, and the fuel mix is misleading; (2) energy efficiency improvements will not be sufficient to offset the strong increase in end-use penetration and intensity in commercial buildings; (3) energy intensity (particularly electricity) in commercial buildings will increase; (4) different GDP growth and elasticity scenarios could lead to a wide range of floor area growth trajectories , and therefore, significantly impact energy consumption in commercial buildings.

Energy Flexibility in Retail Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ma, Zheng; Billanes, Joy Dalmacio; Kjærgaard, Mikkel Baun

2017-01-01

Retail buildings has an important role for demand side energy flexibility because of their high energy consumption, variety of energy flexibility resources, and centralized control via building control systems. Energy flexibility requires agreements and collaborations among different actors......), with the discussion of the stakeholders’ roles and their interrelation in delivering energy flexibility with the influential factors to the actual implementation of energy flexible operation of their buildings. Based on a literature analysis, the results cover stakeholders’ types and roles, perceptions (drivers......, barriers, and benefits), energy management activities and technology adoptions, and the stakeholders’ interaction for the energy flexibility in retail buildings....

California commercial building energy benchmarking

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kinney, Satkartar; Piette, Mary Ann

2003-07-01

Building energy benchmarking is the comparison of whole-building energy use relative to a set of similar buildings. It provides a useful starting point for individual energy audits and for targeting buildings for energy-saving measures in multiple-site audits. Benchmarking is of interest and practical use to a number of groups. Energy service companies and performance contractors communicate energy savings potential with ''typical'' and ''best-practice'' benchmarks while control companies and utilities can provide direct tracking of energy use and combine data from multiple buildings. Benchmarking is also useful in the design stage of a new building or retrofit to determine if a design is relatively efficient. Energy managers and building owners have an ongoing interest in comparing energy performance to others. Large corporations, schools, and government agencies with numerous facilities also use benchmarking methods to compare their buildings to each other. The primary goal of Task 2.1.1 Web-based Benchmarking was the development of a web-based benchmarking tool, dubbed Cal-Arch, for benchmarking energy use in California commercial buildings. While there were several other benchmarking tools available to California consumers prior to the development of Cal-Arch, there were none that were based solely on California data. Most available benchmarking information, including the Energy Star performance rating, were developed using DOE's Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), which does not provide state-level data. Each database and tool has advantages as well as limitations, such as the number of buildings and the coverage by type, climate regions and end uses. There is considerable commercial interest in benchmarking because it provides an inexpensive method of screening buildings for tune-ups and retrofits. However, private companies who collect and manage consumption data are concerned that the

Member State approach towards a strategy for passive/very low-energy buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dyrbøl, Susanne; Thomsen, Kirsten Engelund; Wittchen, Kim Bjarne

2008-01-01

One of the prescribed actions on buildings in the EU Action Plan on Energy Efficiency [COM(2006)545] is for the Commission to develop a strategy for very low-energy or passive houses (before 2009) towards a more widespread deployment of these building types by 2015. In order to generate a picture...... of the current national approach in this area EuroACE has initiated a survey. The scope was to create an overview of current and planned strategies in the European countries regarding the implementation of requirements towards very low-energy buildings (on passive level or similar) in their national legislation...

Weather Correlations to Calculate Infiltration Rates for U. S. Commercial Building Energy Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Lisa C; Quiles, Nelson Ojeda; Dols, W Stuart; Emmerich, Steven J

2018-01-01

As building envelope performance improves, a greater percentage of building energy loss will occur through envelope leakage. Although the energy impacts of infiltration on building energy use can be significant, current energy simulation software have limited ability to accurately account for envelope infiltration and the impacts of improved airtightness. This paper extends previous work by the National Institute of Standards and Technology that developed a set of EnergyPlus inputs for modeling infiltration in several commercial reference buildings using Chicago weather. The current work includes cities in seven additional climate zones and uses the updated versions of the prototype commercial building types developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U. S. Department of Energy. Comparisons were made between the predicted infiltration rates using three representations of the commercial building types: PNNL EnergyPlus models, CONTAM models, and EnergyPlus models using the infiltration inputs developed in this paper. The newly developed infiltration inputs in EnergyPlus yielded average annual increases of 3 % and 8 % in the HVAC electrical and gas use, respectively, over the original infiltration inputs in the PNNL EnergyPlus models. When analyzing the benefits of building envelope airtightening, greater HVAC energy savings were predicted using the newly developed infiltration inputs in EnergyPlus compared with using the original infiltration inputs. These results indicate that the effects of infiltration on HVAC energy use can be significant and that infiltration can and should be better accounted for in whole-building energy models.

Net Zero Energy Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marszal, Anna Joanna; Bourrelle, Julien S.; Gustavsen, Arild

2010-01-01

and identify possible renewable energy supply options which may be considered in calculations. Finally, the gap between the methodology proposed by each organisation and their respective national building code is assessed; providing an overview of the possible changes building codes will need to undergo......The international cooperation project IEA SHC Task 40 / ECBCS Annex 52 “Towards Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings”, attempts to develop a common understanding and to set up the basis for an international definition framework of Net Zero Energy Buildings (Net ZEBs). The understanding of such buildings...

Solar energy in buildings solved by building information modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Chudikova, B.; Faltejsek, M.

2018-03-01

Building lead us to use renewable energy sources for all types of buildings. The use of solar energy is the alternatives that can be applied in a good ratio of space, price, and resultant benefits. Building Information Modelling is a modern and effective way of dealing with buildings with regard to all aspects of the life cycle. The basis is careful planning and simulation in the pre-investment phase, where it is possible to determine the effective result and influence the lifetime of the building and the cost of its operation. By simulating, analysing and insert a building model into its future environment where climate conditions and surrounding buildings play a role, it is possible to predict the usability of the solar energy and establish an ideal model. Solar systems also very affect the internal layout of buildings. Pre-investment phase analysis, with a view to future aspects, will ensure that the resulting building will be both low-energy and environmentally friendly.

Energy efficiency in buildings. Yearbook 2013; Energieeffizienz in Gebaeuden. Jahrbuch 2013

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Poeschk, Juergen (ed.)

2013-06-01

The book under consideration presents current political controversies and technical solutions. Numerous practical examples show in detail how the German building stock for energy transition can be made fit. 40 technical papers shed light on the following topics: policy strategies, efficiency concepts on the test stand, districts and quarters, positive results: The house as an energy source, energy storage facilities for buildings, and smart energy.

ImBuild: Impact of building energy efficiency programs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scott, M.J.; Hostick, D.J.; Belzer, D.B.

1998-04-01

As part of measuring the impact of government programs on improving the energy efficiency of the Nation`s building stock, the Department of Energy Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs (BTS) is interested in assessing the economic impacts of its portfolio of programs, specifically the potential impact on national employment and income. The special-purpose version of the IMPLAN model used in this study is called ImBuild. In comparison with simple economic multiplier approaches, such as Department of Commerce RIMS 2 system, ImBuild allows for more complete and automated analysis of the economic impacts of energy efficiency investments in buildings. ImBuild is also easier to use than existing macroeconomic simulation models. The authors conducted an analysis of three sample BTS energy programs: the residential generator-absorber heat exchange gas heat pump (GAX heat pump), the low power sulfur lamp (LPSL) in residential and commercial applications, and the Building America program. The GAX heat pump would address the market for the high-efficiency residential combined heating and cooling systems. The LPSL would replace some highly efficient fluorescent commercial lighting. Building America seeks to improve the energy efficiency of new factory-built, modular, manufactured, and small-volume, site-built homes through use of systems engineering concepts and early incorporation of new products and processes, and by increasing the demand for more energy-efficient homes. The authors analyze a scenario for market penetration of each of these technologies devised for BTS programs reported in the BTS GPRA Metrics Estimates, FY99 Budget Request, December 19, 1997. 46 figs., 4 tabs.

Energy performance of building fabric - Comparing two types of vernacular residential houses

Science.gov (United States)

Draganova, Vanya Y.; Matsumoto, Hiroshi; Tsuzuki, Kazuyo

2017-10-01

Notwithstanding apparent differences, Japanese and Bulgarian traditional residential houses share a lot of common features - building materials, building techniques, even layout design. Despite the similarities, these two types of houses have not been compared so far. The study initiates such comparison. The focus is on houses in areas with similar climate in both countries. Current legislation requirements are compared, as well as the criteria for thermal comfort of people. Achieving high energy performance results from a dynamic system of 4 main key factors - thermal comfort range, heating/cooling source, building envelope and climatic conditions. A change in any single one of them can affect the final energy performance. However, it can be expected that a combination of changes in more than one factor usually occurs. The aim of this study is to evaluate the correlation between the thermal performance of building envelope designed under current regulations and a traditional one, having in mind the different thermal comfort range in the two countries. A sample building model is calculated in Scenario 1 - Japanese traditional building fabric, Scenario 2 - Bulgarian traditional building fabric and Scenario 3 - meeting the requirements of the more demanding current regulations. The energy modelling is conducted using EnergyPlus through OpenStudio cross-platform of software tools. The 3D geometry for the simulation is created using OpenStudio SketchUp Plug-in. Equal number of inhabitants, electricity consumption and natural ventilation is assumed. The results show that overall low energy consumption can be achieved using traditional building fabric as well, when paired with a wider thermal comfort range. Under these conditions traditional building design is still viable today. This knowledge can reestablish the use of traditional building fabric in contemporary design, stimulate preservation of local culture, building traditions and community identity.

Energy Efficiency, Building Productivity and the Commercial Buildings Market

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jones, D.W.

2002-05-16

The energy-efficiency gap literature suggests that building buyers are often short-sighted in their failure to apply life-cycle costing principles to energy efficient building technologies, with the result that under investment in these advanced technology occurs. This study examines the reasons this behavior may occur, by analyzing the pressures that market forces place on purchasers of buildings. Our basic conclusion is that the fundamental manner in which the buildings sector does business creates pressures to reduce initial capital outlays and to hedge against a variety of risks, including the ability of building owners to capture benefits from energy efficiency. Starting from the position that building buyers' willingness to pay drives choices over building attributes, we examine basic market principles, the structure of the buildings market, including the role of lenders, and policies that promote penetration of energy efficient technologies. We conclude that greater attention to buyers, and to the incentives and constraints they face, would promote a better understanding of building investment choices and contribute to better policies to promote the penetration of these technologies into markets.

Proactive control for solar energy exploitation: A german high-inertia building case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michailidis, Iakovos T.; Baldi, Simone; Pichler, Martin F.; Kosmatopoulos, Elias B.; Santiago, Juan R.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Solar gains exploitation by utilizing large glass facades and concrete core thermal energy storing capacity. • Efficient Building Energy Management in a well-insulated modern building construction. • Energy consumption reduction by maintaining user comfort. • High inertia large scale office building test case, located in Germany. - Abstract: Energy efficient passive designs and constructions have been extensively studied in the last decades as a way to improve the ability of a building to store thermal energy, increase its thermal mass, increase passive insulation and reduce heat losses. However, many studies show that passive thermal designs alone are not enough to fully exploit the potential for energy efficiency in buildings: in fact, harmonizing the active elements for indoor thermal comfort with the passive design of the building can lead to further improvements in both energy efficiency and comfort. These improvements can be achieved via the design of appropriate Building Optimization and Control (BOC) systems, a task which is more complex in high-inertia buildings than in conventional ones. This is because high thermal mass implies a high memory, so that wrong control decisions will have negative repercussions over long time horizons. The design of proactive control strategies with the capability of acting in advance of a future situation, rather than just reacting to current conditions, is of crucial importance for a full exploitation of the capabilities of a high-inertia building. This paper applies a simulation-assisted control methodology to a high-inertia building in Kassel, Germany. A simulation model of the building is used to proactively optimize, using both current and future information about the external weather condition and the building state, a combined criterion composed of the energy consumption and the thermal comfort index. Both extensive simulation as well as real-life experiments performed during the unstable German

Government regulation and associated innovations in building energy-efficiency supervisory systems for large-scale public buildings in a market economy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dai Xuezhi; Wu Yong; Di Yanqiang; Li Qiaoyan

2009-01-01

The supervision of energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings is the main embodiment for government implementation of Public Administration in the fields of resource saving and environmental protection. Aimed at improving the current situation of lack of government administration in building energy efficiency, this paper proposes the concept of 'change and redesign of governmental supervision in building energy efficiency', repositioning the role of government supervision. Based on this theory and other related theories in regulation economic and modern management, this paper analyzes and researches the action and function of all level governments in execution of the supervisory system of building energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings. This paper also defines the importance of government supervision in energy-efficiency system. Finally, this paper analyzes and researches the interaction mechanism between government and owners of different type buildings, government and energy-efficiency service institution with gambling as main features. This paper also presents some measurements to achieve a common benefit community in implementation of building energy-efficiency supervisory system.

Government regulation and associated innovations in building energy-efficiency supervisory systems for large-scale public buildings in a market economy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dai Xuezhi [China Academy of Building Research, Beijing 100013 (China)], E-mail: daixz9999@126.com; Wu Yong [Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People' s Republic of China, Beijing 100835 (China); Di Yanqiang [China Academy of Building Research, Beijing 100013 (China); Li Qiaoyan [Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore (Singapore)

2009-06-15

The supervision of energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings is the main embodiment for government implementation of Public Administration in the fields of resource saving and environmental protection. Aimed at improving the current situation of lack of government administration in building energy efficiency, this paper proposes the concept of 'change and redesign of governmental supervision in building energy efficiency', repositioning the role of government supervision. Based on this theory and other related theories in regulation economic and modern management, this paper analyzes and researches the action and function of all level governments in execution of the supervisory system of building energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings. This paper also defines the importance of government supervision in energy-efficiency system. Finally, this paper analyzes and researches the interaction mechanism between government and owners of different type buildings, government and energy-efficiency service institution with gambling as main features. This paper also presents some measurements to achieve a common benefit community in implementation of building energy-efficiency supervisory system.

Government regulation and associated innovations in building energy-efficiency supervisory systems for large-scale public buildings in a market economy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dai, Xuezhi; Di, Yanqiang [China Academy of Building Research, Beijing 100013 (China); Wu, Yong [Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People' s Republic of China, Beijing 100835 (China); Li, Qiaoyan [Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore (Singapore)

2009-06-15

The supervision of energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings is the main embodiment for government implementation of Public Administration in the fields of resource saving and environmental protection. Aimed at improving the current situation of lack of government administration in building energy efficiency, this paper proposes the concept of 'change and redesign of governmental supervision in building energy efficiency', repositioning the role of government supervision. Based on this theory and other related theories in regulation economic and modern management, this paper analyzes and researches the action and function of all level governments in execution of the supervisory system of building energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings. This paper also defines the importance of government supervision in energy-efficiency system. Finally, this paper analyzes and researches the interaction mechanism between government and owners of different type buildings, government and energy-efficiency service institution with gambling as main features. This paper also presents some measurements to achieve a common benefit community in implementation of building energy-efficiency supervisory system. (author)

Energy Analysis at a Near Zero Energy Building. A Case-Study in Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javier M. Rey-Hernández

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This paper develops an energy analysis for an existing near Zero Energy (nZEB and Zero Carbon Emissions building called LUCIA, located at the university campus in Valladolid (Spain. It is designed to supply electricity, cooling and heating needs through solar energy (Photovoltaic Systems, PV, biomass and an Earth–Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE, besides a Combined Heat Power (CHP. It is currently among the top three buildings with the highest LEED certification in the World. The building model is simulated with DesignBuilder version 5. The results of the energy analysis illustrate the heating, cooling and lighting consumptions expected, besides other demands and energy uses. From this data, we carried out an energy balance of the nZEB, which will help to plan preventive actions when compared to the actual energy consumptions, improving the management and control of both the building and its systems. The primary energy indicator obtained is 67 kWh/m2 a year, and 121 kWh/m2 a year for renewable energy generation, with respect to 55 kWh/m2 and 45 kWh/m2 set as reference in Europe. The Renewable Energy Ratio (RER is 0.66. These indicators become a useful tool for the energy analysis of the nZEB according to the requirements in the European regulations and for its comparison with further nZEB.

Energy Innovations for Healthy Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bogucz, Edward A. [Syracuse Univ., NY (United States)

2016-09-23

Healthy buildings provide high indoor environmental quality for occupants while simultaneously reducing energy consumption. This project advanced the development and marketability of envisioned healthy, energy-efficient buildings through studies that evaluated the use of emerging technologies in commercial and residential buildings. The project also provided resources required for homebuilders to participate in DOE’s Builders Challenge, concomitant with the goal to reduce energy consumption in homes by at least 30% as a first step toward achieving envisioned widespread availability of net-zero energy homes by 2030. In addition, the project included outreach and education concerning energy efficiency in buildings.

Energy efficiency buildings program, FY 1980

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1981-05-01

A separate abstract was prepared on research progress in each group at LBL in the energy efficient buildings program. Two separate abstracts were prepared for the Windows and Lighting Program. Abstracts prepared on other programs are: Energy Performance of Buildings; Building Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality Program; DOE-21 Building Energy Analysis; and Building Energy Data Compilation, Analysis, and Demonstration. (MCW)

Building energy efficiency in rural China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evans, Meredydd; Yu, Sha; Song, Bo; Deng, Qinqin; Liu, Jing; Delgado, Alison

2014-01-01

Rural buildings in China now account for more than half of China's total building energy use. Forty percent of the floorspace in China is in rural villages and towns. Most of these buildings are very energy inefficient, and may struggle to provide for basic needs. They are cold in the winter, and often experience indoor air pollution from fuel use. The Chinese government plans to adopt a voluntary building energy code, or design standard, for rural homes. The goal is to build on China's success with codes in urban areas to improve efficiency and comfort in rural homes. The Chinese government recognizes rural buildings represent a major opportunity for improving national building energy efficiency. The challenges of rural China are also greater than those of urban areas in many ways because of the limited local capacity and low income levels. The Chinese government wants to expand on new programs to subsidize energy efficiency improvements in rural homes to build capacity for larger-scale improvement. This article summarizes the trends and status of rural building energy use in China. It then provides an overview of the new rural building design standard, and describes options and issues to move forward with implementation. - Highlights: • Building energy use is larger in rural China than in cities. • Rural buildings are very energy intensive, and energy use is growing with incomes. • A new design standard aims to help rural communities build more efficiently. • Important challenges remain with implementation

Commercial Building Energy Saver: An energy retrofit analysis toolkit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong, Tianzhen; Piette, Mary Ann; Chen, Yixing; Lee, Sang Hoon; Taylor-Lange, Sarah C.; Zhang, Rongpeng; Sun, Kaiyu; Price, Phillip

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Commercial Building Energy Saver is a powerful toolkit for energy retrofit analysis. • CBES provides benchmarking, load shape analysis, and model-based retrofit assessment. • CBES covers 7 building types, 6 vintages, 16 climates, and 100 energy measures. • CBES includes a web app, API, and a database of energy efficiency performance. • CBES API can be extended and integrated with third party energy software tools. - Abstract: Small commercial buildings in the United States consume 47% of the total primary energy of the buildings sector. Retrofitting small and medium commercial buildings poses a huge challenge for owners because they usually lack the expertise and resources to identify and evaluate cost-effective energy retrofit strategies. This paper presents the Commercial Building Energy Saver (CBES), an energy retrofit analysis toolkit, which calculates the energy use of a building, identifies and evaluates retrofit measures in terms of energy savings, energy cost savings and payback. The CBES Toolkit includes a web app (APP) for end users and the CBES Application Programming Interface (API) for integrating CBES with other energy software tools. The toolkit provides a rich set of features including: (1) Energy Benchmarking providing an Energy Star score, (2) Load Shape Analysis to identify potential building operation improvements, (3) Preliminary Retrofit Analysis which uses a custom developed pre-simulated database and, (4) Detailed Retrofit Analysis which utilizes real-time EnergyPlus simulations. CBES includes 100 configurable energy conservation measures (ECMs) that encompass IAQ, technical performance and cost data, for assessing 7 different prototype buildings in 16 climate zones in California and 6 vintages. A case study of a small office building demonstrates the use of the toolkit for retrofit analysis. The development of CBES provides a new contribution to the field by providing a straightforward and uncomplicated decision

A generalized window energy rating system for typical office buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tian, Cheng; Chen, Tingyao; Yang, Hongxing; Chung, Tse-ming [Research Center for Building Environmental Engineering, Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong (China)

2010-07-15

Detailed computer simulation programs require lengthy inputs, and cannot directly provide an insight to relationship between the window energy performance and the key window design parameters. Hence, several window energy rating systems (WERS) for residential houses and small buildings have been developed in different countries. Many studies showed that utilization of daylight through elaborate design and operation of windows leads to significant energy savings in both cooling and lighting in office buildings. However, the current WERSs do not consider daylighting effect, while most of daylighting analyses do not take into account the influence of convective and infiltration heat gains. Therefore, a generalized WERS for typical office buildings has been presented, which takes all primary influence factors into account. The model includes embodied and operation energy uses and savings by a window to fully reflect interactions among the influence parameters. Reference locations selected for artificial lighting and glare control in the current common simulation practice may cause uncompromised conflicts, which could result in over- or under-estimated energy performance. Widely used computer programs, DOE2 and ADELINE, for hourly daylighting and cooling simulations have their own weaknesses, which may result in unrealistic or inaccurate results. An approach is also presented for taking the advantages of the both programs and avoiding their weaknesses. The model and approach have been applied to a typical office building of Hong Kong as an example to demonstrate how a WERS in a particular location can be established and how well the model can work. The energy effect of window properties, window-to-wall ratio (WWR), building orientation and lighting control strategies have been analyzed, and can be indicated by the localized WERS. An application example also demonstrates that the algebraic WERS derived from simulation results can be easily used for the optimal design of

Scenarios of building energy demand for China with a detailed regional representation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Sha; Eom, Jiyong; Zhou, Yuyu; Evans, Meredydd; Clarke, Leon

2014-01-01

Building energy consumption currently accounts for 28% of China's total energy use and is expected to continue to grow induced by floorspace expansion, income growth, and population change. Fuel sources and building services are also evolving over time as well as across regions and building types. To understand sectoral and regional difference in building energy use and how socioeconomic, physical, and technological development influence the evolution of the Chinese building sector, this study developed a building energy use model for China downscaled into four climate regions under an integrated assessment framework. Three building types (rural residential, urban residential, and commercial) were modeled specifically in each climate region. Our study finds that the Cold and Hot Summer Cold Winter regions lead in total building energy use. The impact of climate change on heating energy use is more significant than that of cooling energy use in most climate regions. Both rural and urban households will experience fuel switch from fossil fuel to cleaner fuels. Commercial buildings will experience rapid growth in electrification and energy intensity. Improved understanding of Chinese buildings with climate change highlighted in this study will help policy makers develop targeted policies and prioritize building energy efficiency measures. - Highlights: • We conduct integrated assessment of Chinese building energy use at sub-regional level. • The C and HSCW regions each account for one-third of China's building energy use. • China's building energy use with climate change would decrease by 5% in 2050. • With climate change energy use rises in HSWW region and declines in other regions

Energy audit role in building planning

Science.gov (United States)

Sipahutar, Riman; Bizzy, Irwin

2017-11-01

An energy audit is one way to overcome the excessive use of energy in buildings. The increasing growth of population, economy, and industry will have an impact on energy demand and the formation of greenhouse gas emissions. Indonesian National Standard (SNI) concerning the building has not been implemented optimally due to the socialization process by a government not yet been conducted. An energy audit of buildings has been carried out at offices and public services. Most electrical energy in buildings used for air refresher equipment or air conditioning. Calculation of OTTV has demonstrated the importance of performing since the beginning of the planning of a building to get energy-efficient buildings.

Energy efficient direct current distribution in commercially used buildings with smart power link to the AC distribution grid; Energieeffiziente Gleichstromverteilung in kommerziell genutzten Gebaeuden mit intelligenter Kopplung zum Niederspannungsnetz

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weiss, Roland [Siemens AG, Erlangen (Germany); Boeke, Ulrich [Philips Group Innovation-Research, Eindhoven (Netherlands); Maurer, Wilhelm [Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg (Germany); Zeltner, Stefan [Fraunhofer-Inst. fuer Integrierte Systeme und Bauelementetechnologie (IISB), Erlangen (Germany)

2012-07-01

The joint undertaking ''Direct Current Components and Grid'' (DCC+G) takes on the strategic challenge to reduce energy consumption and thus the reduction of CO{sub 2} emission caused by commercially used buildings through research in the fields of Direct Current distribution at a voltage level of {+-} 380 V. The major energy consumers in commercially used buildings, ready for the ''net-zero-energy'' goal of the European Union, are heat pumps for heating, ventilation systems, air conditioning units, cooling units (HVAC), lighting systems and information technology. All these components and subsystems have in common, that the most efficient versions would benefit from a direct current supply. Additionally the local producers of electric energy like photovoltaic systems usually generate DC-current. A Direct Current distribution grid within buildings would avoid the repeating conversion from DC and AC an vice versa and therefore reduce conversion losses. Important components of a direct current distribution grid are central, smart, high efficient, bidirectional rectifiers replacing the large number of small, less efficient rectifiers used today. Such large central rectifiers units could additionally be used to actively improve the power quality of the smart local AC distribution grid. One major part of the described activities is to show energy savings of about 5 % of electrical energy with a 2-phase direct current distribution grid using a voltage level of {+-} 380 V. (orig.)

POST OCCUPANCY EVALUATION OF ENERGY-EFFICIENT BUILDINGS IN TROPICAL CLIMATES – MALAYSIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ban-Huat Ng

2013-07-01

Full Text Available There exists a well-known gap between occupants and building’s energy-efficient designs. A comprehensive building performance diagnostic technique, Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE may surpass the current evaluation method by reducing the gap between occupants and building’s energy-efficient design. Due to these reasons, the aim of this research is to identify the problems with respect to energy-efficient design which affect occupants’ comfort. This research focuses on the application of energy-efficient design in office building and was conducted on energy-efficient buildings in Malaysia. A building performance survey framework, Energy-efficient Building Environmental Quality Questionnaire (EBEQ2, was  used to identify the problems affecting occupants’ comfort and buildings’ Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ. The result was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS. The research outcome shows that majority of occupants are not satisfied  with the thermal comfort and lighting condition of  the buildings. Building certified with sustainable building rating tools does not guarantee better IEQ performance. Thus  continuous research is needed to ensure energy-efficient building concept is applied effectively in each type of building.

Consumer Central Energy Flexibility in Office Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Billanes, Joy Dalmacio; Ma, Zheng; Jørgensen, Bo Nørregaard

2017-01-01

Energy flexibility in buildings will play an important role in the smart energy system. Office buildings have more potentials to provide energy flexibility to the grid compared to other types of buildings, due to the existing building management, control systems and large energy consumption....... Consumers in office buildings (building owners/managers and occupants) take a main role for adopting and engaging in building energy flexibility. In this paper provides a systematic review of consumer central energy flexibility in office buildings with the discussion of social, technical and business...... can boost energy flexibility in the office buildings....

Sustainable Skyscrapers: Designing the Net Zero Energy Building of the Future

Science.gov (United States)

Kothari, S.; Bartsch, A.

2016-12-01

Cities of the future will need to increase population density in order to keep up with the rising populations in the limited available land area. In order to provide sufficient power as the population grows, cities must become more energy efficient. Fossil fuels and grid energy will continue to become more expensive as nonrenewable resources deplete. The obvious solution to increase population density while decreasing the reliance on fossil fuels is to build taller skyscrapers that are energy neutral, i.e. self-sustaining. However, current skyscrapers are not energy efficient, and therefore cannot provide a sustainable solution to the problem of increasing population density in the face of depleting energy resources. The design of a net zero energy building that includes both residential and commercial space is presented. Alternative energy systems such as wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, and a waste-to-fuel conversion plant have been incorporated into the design of a 50 story skyscraper that is not reliant on fossil fuels and has a payback time of about six years. Although the current building was designed to be located in San Francisco, simple modifications to the design would allow this building to fit the needs of any city around the world.

Commercial Building Energy Asset Score Program Overview and Technical Protocol (Version 1.1)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Na; Goel, Supriya; Makhmalbaf, Atefe

2013-08-09

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is developing a voluntary national scoring system for commercial buildings to help building owners and managers assess a building’s energy-related systems independent of operations. The goal of the score is to facilitate cost-effective investment in energy efficiency improvements of commercial buildings. The system, known as the Commercial Building Energy Asset Score, will allow building owners and managers to compare their building infrastructure against peers and track building upgrades over time. The system will also help other building stakeholders (e.g., building investors, tenants, financiers, and appraisers) understand the relative efficiency of different buildings in a way that is independent from operations and occupancy. This report outlines the technical protocol used to generate the energy asset score, explains the scoring methodology, and provides additional details regarding the energy asset scoring tool. The alternative methods that were considered prior to developing the current approach are described in the Program Overview and Technical Protocol Version 1.0.

Building energy, building leadership : recommendations for the adoption, development, and implementation of a commercial building energy code in Manitoba

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Akerstream, T. [Manitoba Hydro, Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Allard, K. [City of Thompson, Thompson, MB (Canada); Anderson, N.; Beacham, D. [Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner, Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Andrich, R. [The Forks North Portage Partnership, MB (Canada); Auger, A. [Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada). Office of Energy Efficiency; Downs, R.G. [Shindico Realty Inc., Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Eastwood, R. [Number Ten Architectural Group, Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Hewitt, C. [SMS Engineering Ltd., Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Joshi, D. [City of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Klassen, K. [Manitoba Dept. of Energy Science and Technology, Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Phillips, B. [Unies Ltd., Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Wiebe, R. [Ben Wiebe Construction Ltd., Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Woelk, D. [Bockstael Construction Ltd., Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Ziemski, S. [CREIT Management LLP, Winnipeg, MB (Canada)

2006-09-15

This report presented a strategy and a set of recommendations for the adoption, development and implementation of an energy code for new commercial construction in Manitoba. The report was compiled by an advisory committee comprised of industry representatives and government agency representatives. Recommendations were divided into 4 categories: (1) advisory committee recommendations; (2) code adoption recommendations; (3) code development recommendations; and (4) code implementation recommendations. It was suggested that Manitoba should adopt an amended version of the Model National Energy Code for Buildings (1997) as a regulation under the Buildings and Mobile Homes Act. Participation in a national initiative to update the Model National Energy Code for Buildings was also advised. It was suggested that the energy code should be considered as the first step in a longer-term process towards a sustainable commercial building code. However, the code should be adopted within the context of a complete market transformation approach. Other recommendations included: the establishment of a multi-stakeholder energy code task group; the provision of information and technical resources to help build industry capacity; the establishment of a process for energy code compliance; and an ongoing review of the energy code to assess impacts and progress. Supplemental recommendations for future discussion included the need for integrated design by building design teams in Manitoba; the development of a program to provide technical assistance to building design teams; and collaboration between post-secondary institutions to develop and deliver courses on integrated building design to students and professionals. 17 refs.

Problems of Technology of Energy-Saving Buildings and Their Impact on Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Kwasnowski, Pawel; Fedorczak-Cisak, Malgorzata; Knap, Katarzyna

2017-10-01

Introduction of EPBD in legislation of the EU member states caused that buildings must meet very stringent requirements of thermal protection and energy efficiency. On the basis of EPBD provisions, EU Member States introduce standard of NZEB (Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings). Such activities cause a need for new, innovative materials and technologies, and new approaches to design, construction and retrofitting of buildings. Indispensable is the precise coordination of the design of structure and technical installations of building, which may be provided in an integrated design process in the system BIM. Good coordination and cooperation of all contractors during the construction phase is also necessary. The article presents the problems and the new methodology for the design, construction and use of energy efficient buildings in terms of energy saving technologies, including discussion of the significant impact of the automation of technical installations on the building energy efficiency.

Potential for the Use of Energy Savings Performance Contracts to Reduce Energy Consumption and Provide Energy and Cost Savings in Non-Building Applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Williams, Charles; Green, Andrew S.; Dahle, Douglas; Barnett, John; Butler, Pat; Kerner, David

2013-08-01

The findings of this study indicate that potential exists in non-building applications to save energy and costs. This potential could save billions of federal dollars, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, increase energy independence and security, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Federal Government has nearly twenty years of experience with achieving similar energy cost reductions, and letting the energy costs savings pay for themselves, by applying energy savings performance contracts (ESPC) inits buildings. Currently, the application of ESPCs is limited by statute to federal buildings. This study indicates that ESPCs can be a compatible and effective contracting tool for achieving savings in non-building applications.

BizWatts: A modular socio-technical energy management system for empowering commercial building occupants to conserve energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gulbinas, R.; Jain, R.K.; Taylor, J.E.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We developed a socio-technical commercial building energy management system. • It was designed for directly engaging and connecting building occupants via feedback. • We collected an array of clickstream data for internal design validation. • A pilot study validated its ability to drive energy savings in commercial buildings. - Abstract: Commercial buildings represent a significant portion of energy consumption and environmental emissions worldwide. To help mitigate the environmental impact of building operations, building energy management systems and behavior-based campaigns designed to reduce energy consumption are becoming increasingly popular. In this paper, we describe the development of a modular socio-technical energy management system, BizWatts, which combines the two approaches by providing real-time, appliance-level power management and socially contextualized energy consumption feedback. We describe in detail the physical and virtual architecture of the system, which simultaneously engages building occupants and facility managers, as well as the main principles behind the interface design and component functionalities. A discussion about how the data collection capabilities of the system enable insightful commercial building energy efficiency studies and quantitative network analysis is also included. We conclude by commenting on the validation of the system, identifying current system limitations and introducing new research avenues that the development and deployment of BizWatts enables

Indoor air quality in energy efficient buildings. A literature review

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thomsen, Judith; Berge, Magnar

2012-07-01

There is currently a major focus on measures to reduce global warming. Several international studies show that the energy efficiency of buildings is the easiest and most cost-effective climate action. Passive houses are characterized of that the buildings are more airtight, have more insulation and has balanced mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. This report discusses about this one-sided focus on energy conservation, and if {sup c}hange{sup }in building methods can have a negative impact on indoor air quality and people's health. (Author)

Smart energy control systems for sustainable buildings

CERN Document Server

Spataru, Catalina; Howlett, Robert; Jain, Lakhmi

2017-01-01

There is widespread interest in the way that smart energy control systems, such as assessment and monitoring techniques for low carbon, nearly-zero energy and net positive buildings can contribute to a Sustainable future, for current and future generations. There is a turning point on the horizon for the supply of energy from finite resources such as natural gas and oil become less reliable in economic terms and extraction become more challenging, and more unacceptable socially, such as adverse public reaction to ‘fracking’. Thus, in 2016 these challenges are having a major influence on the design, optimisation, performance measurements, operation and preservation of: buildings, neighbourhoods, cities, regions, countries and continents. The source and nature of energy, the security of supply and the equity of distribution, the environmental impact of its supply and utilization, are all crucial matters to be addressed by suppliers, consumers, governments, industry, academia, and financial institutions. Thi...

Smart buildings: Energy efficient conditioning of building occupants

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zeiler, W.; Houten, van M.A.; Boxem, G.; Vehler, R.; Verhoeven, M.; Fremouw, M.

2009-01-01

To further optimize energy performance of buildings, intelligent building control offers new possibilities. Intelligent Software Agents (ISA) can be implemented at different levels of building automation. Individual agents for individual climate control for each user of the building in combination

Renewable energy and conservation measures for non-residential buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Grossman, Andrew James

The energy demand in most countries is growing at an alarming rate and identifying economically feasible building retrofit solutions to decrease the need for fossil fuels so as to mitigate their environmental and societal impacts has become imperative. Two approaches are available for identifying feasible retrofit solutions: 1) the implementation of energy conservation measures; and 2) the production of energy from renewable sources. This thesis focuses on the development of retrofit software planning tools for the implementation of solar photovoltaic systems, and lighting system retrofits for mid-Michigan institutional buildings. The solar planning tool exploits the existing blueprint of a building's rooftop, and via image processing, the layouts of the solar photovoltaic arrays are developed based on the building's geographical location and typical weather patterns. The resulting energy generation of a PV system is estimated and is utilized to determine levelized energy costs. The lighting system retrofit analysis starts by a current utilization assessment of a building to determine the amount of energy used by the lighting system. Several LED lighting options are evaluated on the basis of color correlation temperature, color rendering index, energy consumption, and financial feasibility, to determine a retrofit solution. Solar photovoltaic installations in mid-Michigan are not yet financially feasible, but with the anticipated growth and dynamic complexity of the solar photovoltaic market, this solar planning tool is able to assist building proprietors make executive decisions regarding their energy usage. Additionally, a lighting system retrofit is shown to have significant financial and health benefits.

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) - Better Buildings Neighborhood Program at Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance: Home Performance with Energy Star® and Better Buildings Performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holzhauser, Andy; Jones, Chris; Faust, Jeremy; Meyer, Chris; Van Divender, Lisa

2013-12-30

Center, a program that was developed and funded by the Energy Alliance and housed at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. Nearly 100 residential and commercial contractors currently participate in the Energy Alliance’s two major programs, which have together served over 2,800 residential and 100 commercial customers. Additionally, the Energy Alliance established loan programs for homeowners, nonprofits and commercial businesses. The GC-HELP program was established to provide up to ten year low interest, unsecured loans to homeowners to cover the energy efficiency products they purchased through the Energy Alliance approved contractor base. To date the Energy Alliance has financed over $1 million in energy efficiency loans for homeowners, without any loans written off. The nonprofit business community is offered five year, fixed-interest rate loans through the Building Communities Loan Fund of $250,000. Additionally, the Energy Alliance has developed GC-PACE, a commercial financing tool that enables buildings owners to finance their energy upgrades through voluntary property assessments deploying low-interest extended-term capital from the bond market. The Energy Alliance and its partners are actively evaluating additional market-based financing solutions.

Energy requirements for new buildings in Finland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Airaksinen, M., Email: miimu.airaksinen@vtt.fi

2012-06-15

Buildings account for circa 40% of the total energy use in Europe [1] and for about 36% of the EU's total CO{sub 2} emissions [2], including the existing energy conservation in buildings [3]. Key features of the Finnish energy policy are improved energy efficiency and increased use of renewable energy sources. To achieve a sustainable shift in the energy system, a target set by the authorities, both energy savings and increased use of low-pollution energy sources are therefore priority areas. Building low-energy buildings is in accordance with the declared national aim of reducing energy use and thus reducing CO{sub 2} emissions. The main motivation in renewing building codes for new buildings was to build more energy efficiently, encourage the use the most efficient energy sources and to enhance the use of renewable energy sources. In addition the aim was to give more freedom to fi nd the real optimal solutions for energy efficiency by optimising all aspects including the building architecture and different systems with demand controls. However, in order to ensure the good quality of buildings certain minimum requirements for structure U-values are given. (orig.)

NASA Net Zero Energy Buildings Roadmap

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pless, S.; Scheib, J.; Torcellini, P.; Hendron, B.; Slovensky, M.

2014-10-01

In preparation for the time-phased net zero energy requirement for new federal buildings starting in 2020, set forth in Executive Order 13514, NASA requested that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop a roadmap for NASA's compliance. NASA detailed a Statement of Work that requested information on strategic, organizational, and tactical aspects of net zero energy buildings. In response, this document presents a high-level approach to net zero energy planning, design, construction, and operations, based on NREL's first-hand experience procuring net zero energy construction, and based on NREL and other industry research on net zero energy feasibility. The strategic approach to net zero energy starts with an interpretation of the executive order language relating to net zero energy. Specifically, this roadmap defines a net zero energy acquisition process as one that sets an aggressive energy use intensity goal for the building in project planning, meets the reduced demand goal through energy efficiency strategies and technologies, then adds renewable energy in a prioritized manner, using building-associated, emission- free sources first, to offset the annual energy use required at the building; the net zero energy process extends through the life of the building, requiring a balance of energy use and production in each calendar year.

Office of Codes and Standards resource book. Section 1, Building energy codes and standards

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hattrup, M.P.

1995-01-01

The US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) Office of Codes and Standards has developed this Resource Book to provide: A discussion of DOE involvement in building codes and standards; a current and accurate set of descriptions of residential, commercial, and Federal building codes and standards; information on State contacts, State code status, State building construction unit volume, and State needs; and a list of stakeholders in the building energy codes and standards arena. The Resource Book is considered an evolving document and will be updated occasionally. Users are requested to submit additional data (e.g., more current, widely accepted, and/or documented data) and suggested changes to the address listed below. Please provide sources for all data provided.

Low energy current accumulator for high-energy proton rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Month, M.

1977-01-01

Building current in high-energy p-p colliding beam machines is most appropriately done in a low-energy (small circumference) current accumulator. Three significant factors favor such a procedure: First, large rings tend to be susceptible to unstable longitudinal density oscillations. These can be avoided by pumping up the beam in the accumulator. When the current stack is injected into the storage ring, potentially harmful instability is essentially neutralized. Second, high-field magnets characteristic of future high energy proton rings are designed with superconducting coils within the iron magnetic shield. This means coil construction and placement errors propagate rapidly within the beam aperture. An intermediate ''stacking ring'' allows the minimum use of the superconducting ring aperture. Finally, the coils are vulnerable to radiation heating and possible magnet quenching. By minimizing beam manipulaion in the superconducting environment and using only the central portion of the beam aperture, coil vulnerability can be put at a minimum

Energy research program: energy in buildings for the years 2008-2011; Energieforschungsprogramm. Energie in Gebaeuden fuer die Jahre 2008-2011

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Filleux, Ch.

2009-08-15

In Switzerland, existing buildings account for approximately 50% of primary energy consumption. Climate change, as well as the demand on supply, require that Swiss construction practices be immediately adapted. For new buildings, innovative technologies are now widely available. However, their integration into new construction is still too slow due to the fact that current construction practices still lack a holistic approach. Today there also lacks practical solutions for renovations of existing buildings. Therefore, the great challenge for research and development today are 1.5 million pre-existing buildings, which will dictate the future energy consumption for decades. The Federal Energy Research Commission (CORE) has recognized the situation and has considered these issues in its 2008 - 2011 concept for federal energy research. The present research programme Energy in Buildings of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy focuses on the long-term objectives of CORE. This results in the following actions in the building sector: (a) Reducing energy consumption and improving energy efficiency; (b) Integration of renewable energy sources; (c) Reduction of CO{sub 2} emissions through the use of improved technologies. The research programme is therefore focused on concepts and technologies that have long-term objectives, without neglecting the short and medium term goals. The objectives for the period 2008 - 2011 are: (i) Concepts for buildings and housing developments concerning the development of construction methods that are compatible with the goal of a 2,000-watt society (preservation of architectural diversity, use of passive solar energy and daylight); (ii) Concepts, technologies and planning tools for the improvement of energy systems in buildings; (iii) Heating, cooling and ventilation systems in buildings that are compatible with the goal of a 2,000-watt society (efficient cooling systems, heat pumps, etc.); (iv) Increase in efficient use of electricity in

Optimizing Energy Consumption in Building Designs Using Building Information Model (BIM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Egwunatum Samuel

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Given the ability of a Building Information Model (BIM to serve as a multi-disciplinary data repository, this paper seeks to explore and exploit the sustainability value of Building Information Modelling/models in delivering buildings that require less energy for their operation, emit less CO2 and at the same time provide a comfortable living environment for their occupants. This objective was achieved by a critical and extensive review of the literature covering: (1 building energy consumption, (2 building energy performance and analysis, and (3 building information modeling and energy assessment. The literature cited in this paper showed that linking an energy analysis tool with a BIM model helped project design teams to predict and create optimized energy consumption. To validate this finding, an in-depth analysis was carried out on a completed BIM integrated construction project using the Arboleda Project in the Dominican Republic. The findings showed that the BIM-based energy analysis helped the design team achieve the world’s first 103% positive energy building. From the research findings, the paper concludes that linking an energy analysis tool with a BIM model helps to expedite the energy analysis process, provide more detailed and accurate results as well as deliver energy-efficient buildings. The study further recommends that the adoption of a level 2 BIM and the integration of BIM in energy optimization analyse should be made compulsory for all projects irrespective of the method of procurement (government-funded or otherwise or its size.

Demand Response Technology Readiness Levels for Energy Management in Blocks of Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tracey Crosbie

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Fossil fuels deliver most of the flexibility in contemporary electricity systems. The pressing need to reduce CO2 emissions requires new methods to provide this flexibility. Demand response (DR offers consumers a significant role in the delivery of flexibility by reducing or shifting their electricity usage during periods of stress or constraint. Blocks of buildings offer more flexibility in the timing and use of energy than single buildings, however, and a lack of relevant scalable ICT tools hampers DR in blocks of buildings. To ameliorate this problem, a current innovation project called “Demand Response in Blocks of Buildings” (DR-BoB: www.dr-bob.eu has integrated existing technologies into a scalable cloud-based solution for DR in blocks of buildings. The degree to which the DR-BoB energy management solution can increase the ability of any given site to participate in DR is dependent upon its current energy systems, i.e., the energy metering, the telemetry and control technologies in building management systems, and the existence/capacity of local power generation and storage plants. To encourage the owners and managers of blocks of buildings to participate in DR, a method of assessing and validating the technological readiness to participate in DR energy management solutions at any given site is required. This paper describes the DR-BoB energy management solution and outlines what we have called the demand response technology readiness levels (DRTRLs for the implementation of such a solution in blocks of buildings.

Energy modelling and capacity building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

provide MS with such up to date and coherent statistics. Training/capacity building in data collection includes assuring data consistency, statistical analysis and interpretation of results. In addition the IAEA offers several sets of indicators relevant to current topics of interest: energy for sustainable development, technological innovation including nuclear fuel cycle characteristics, and corporate social responsibility as it relates to questions of public acceptance. Several capacity building projects marry scenarios modelling with indicator analysis to provide comprehensive assessments of different policy and energy or electricity sector development options

Energy and electricity use in buildings. Pre-study; Energi- och Elanvaendning i byggnader. Foerstudie

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dalenbaeck, Jan-Olof; Goeransson, Anders; Jagemar, Lennart [Chalmers EnergiCentrum CEC, Goeteborg (Sweden)

2006-05-15

The built environment accounts for 40 % of energy use and 50 % of electricity use in Sweden. Sweden uses more than twice as much electrical energy as the mean value for EU-15 and the principal reason for this is good access to relatively inexpensive electricity. This pre-study summarises the current use of electricity, the prerequisites and potential for reducing the use of electricity and current RDandD projects focusing on the use of energy. It also gives a brief description of a couple of visions for the future. The proposed research projects focus on describing the use of electricity (energy, output, voltage etc) and analysing the way different control mechanisms influence the opportunity to realise sustainable developments. The heated areas in houses and buildings are distributed as follows: 45 % in detached or semi-detached houses, 30 % in blocks of flats (including some business premises) and 25 % in business premises. About 80 % of these areas were erected before 1980. A large percentage of the energy that is supplied to these houses and buildings, around 65 %, is used for various heating purposes, first and foremost in older detached or semi-detached houses and blocks of flats. The heating for detached or semi-detached houses is supplied in many different ways, while district heating is primarily responsible for the heating that is supplied to blocks of flats and business premises. A large percentage of the electricity usage is accounted for by heating, primarily in new detached or semi-detached houses, and electricity for operations in business premises - around 35% and 28% respectively. In addition to heating, electricity is used first and foremost for lighting and different types of electrical equipment, but most of the existing statistics relating to the distribution of electricity usage between different applications are based on old surveys and studies and need to be updated. It is estimated that the techno-economic potential for saving energy in

Life Cycle Cost optimization of a BOLIG+ Zero Energy Building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marszal, A.J.

2011-12-15

-connected ZEBs - Net ZEBs, and the annual primary energy balance. The Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis conducted with a study case of a multi-storey residential Net ZEB aimed to determine the cost-optimal ''zero'' energy balance, minimum energy performance requirements and options of supplying renewable energy. The calculation encompassed three levels of energy frames, which mirrored the Danish low-energy building classes included in the current building code, and ten renewable energy supply systems including both on-site and off-site options. The results indicated that although the off-site options have lower life cycle costs than the on-site alternatives, their application would promote renewable technologies over energy efficiency measures. Thus, they oppose the Danish plans to gradually make the energy performance requirements stricter. Moreover, the results showed that district heating is a less cost-attractive solution than a ground source heat pump for a private building owner. Finally, with 2010-level of energy prices, cost-optimal ''zero'' energy balance accounts only for the building related energy use. (Author)

Vision-based building energy diagnostics and retrofit analysis using 3D thermography and building information modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Ham, Youngjib

associated BIM elements and update their corresponding thermal properties in the gbXML schema. By reflecting the as-is building condition in the BIM-based energy modeling process, this method bridges over the gap between the architectural information in the as-designed BIM and the as-is building condition for accurate energy performance analysis. The performance of each method was validated on ten case studies from interiors and exteriors of existing residential and instructional buildings in IL and VA. The extensive experimental results show the promise of the proposed methods in addressing the fundamental challenges of (1) visual sensing : scaling 2D visual assessments to real-world building environments and localizing energy problems; (2) analytics: subjective and qualitative assessments; and (3) BIM-based building energy analysis : a lack of procedures for reflecting the as-is building condition in the energy modeling process. Beyond the technical contributions, the domain expert surveys conducted in this dissertation show that the proposed methods have potential to improve the quality of thermographic inspection processes and complement the current building energy analysis tools.

Data and analytics to inform energy retrofit of high performance buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong, Tianzhen; Yang, Le; Hill, David; Feng, Wei

2014-01-01

Highlights: • High performance buildings can be retrofitted using measured data and analytics. • Data of energy use, systems operating and environmental conditions are needed. • An energy data model based on the ISO Standard 12655 is key for energy benchmarking. • Three types of analytics are used: energy profiling, benchmarking, and diagnostics. • The case study shows 20% of electricity can be saved by retrofit. - Abstract: Buildings consume more than one-third of the world’s primary energy. Reducing energy use in buildings with energy efficient technologies is feasible and also driven by energy policies such as energy benchmarking, disclosure, rating, and labeling in both the developed and developing countries. Current energy retrofits focus on the existing building stocks, especially older buildings, but the growing number of new high performance buildings built around the world raises a question that how these buildings perform and whether there are retrofit opportunities to further reduce their energy use. This is a new and unique problem for the building industry. Traditional energy audit or analysis methods are inadequate to look deep into the energy use of the high performance buildings. This study aims to tackle this problem with a new holistic approach powered by building performance data and analytics. First, three types of measured data are introduced, including the time series energy use, building systems operating conditions, and indoor and outdoor environmental parameters. An energy data model based on the ISO Standard 12655 is used to represent the energy use in buildings in a three-level hierarchy. Secondly, a suite of analytics were proposed to analyze energy use and to identify retrofit measures for high performance buildings. The data-driven analytics are based on monitored data at short time intervals, and cover three levels of analysis – energy profiling, benchmarking and diagnostics. Thirdly, the analytics were applied to a high

Energy usage and technical potential for energy saving measures in the Swedish residential building stock

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mata, Érika; Sasic Kalagasidis, Angela; Johnsson, Filip

2013-01-01

This paper provides an analysis of the current energy usage (net energy and final energy by fuels) and associated carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions of the Swedish residential building stock, which includes single-family dwellings and multi-family dwellings. Twelve energy saving measures (ESMs) are assessed using a bottom–up modeling methodology, in which the Swedish residential stock is represented by a sample of 1400 buildings (based on data from the year 2005). Application of the ESMs studied gives a maximum technical reduction potential in energy demand of 53%, corresponding to a 63% reduction in CO 2 emissions. Although application of the investigated ESMs would reduce CO 2 emissions, the measures that reduce electricity consumption for lighting and appliances (LA) will increase CO 2 emissions, since the saved electricity production is less CO 2 -intensive than the fuel mix used for the increased space heating required to make up for the loss in indirect heating obtained from LA. - Highlights: ► Analysis of year 2005energy use and CO2 emissions of Swedish residential buildings. ► Includes all single-family dwellings and multi-family dwellings. ► Bottom–up modeling of building stock represented by 1400 buildings. ► Technical effects of 12 energy saving measures are assessed. ► Energy demand can be reduced by53% and associated CO 2 emissions by 63%

Understanding Net Zero Energy Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Salom, Jaume; Widén, Joakim; Candanedo, José

2011-01-01

Although several alternative definitions exist, a Net-Zero Energy Building (Net ZEB) can be succinctly described as a grid-connected building that generates as much energy as it uses over a year. The “net-zero” balance is attained by applying energy conservation and efficiency measures...... and by incorporating renewable energy systems. While based on annual balances, a complete description of a Net ZEB requires examining the system at smaller time-scales. This assessment should address: (a) the relationship between power generation and building loads and (b) the resulting interaction with the power grid...

Energy retrofit of an office building by substitution of the generation system: performance evaluation via dynamic simulation versus current technical standards

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Testi, D; Schito, E; Grassi, W; Menchetti, E

2014-01-01

Constructions built in Italy before 1945 (about 30% of the total built stock) feature low energy efficiency. Retrofit actions in this field can lead to valuable energetic and economic savings. In this work, we ran a dynamic simulation of a historical building of the University of Pisa during the heating season. We firstly evaluated the energy requirements of the building and the performance of the existing natural gas boiler, validated with past billings of natural gas. We also verified the energetic savings obtainable by the substitution of the boiler with an air-to-water electrically-driven modulating heat pump, simulated through a cycle-based model, evaluating the main economic metrics. The cycle-based model of the heat pump, validated with manufacturers' data available only at specified temperature and load conditions, can provide more accurate results than the simplified models adopted by current technical standards, thus increasing the effectiveness of energy audits

Implementation of Energy Code Controls Requirements in New Commercial Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosenberg, Michael I. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Hart, Philip R. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Hatten, Mike [Solarc Energy Group, LLC, Seattle, WA (United States); Jones, Dennis [Group 14 Engineering, Inc., Denver, CO (United States); Cooper, Matthew [Group 14 Engineering, Inc., Denver, CO (United States)

2017-03-24

Most state energy codes in the United States are based on one of two national model codes; ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.1 (Standard 90.1) or the International Code Council (ICC) International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Since 2004, covering the last four cycles of Standard 90.1 updates, about 30% of all new requirements have been related to building controls. These requirements can be difficult to implement and verification is beyond the expertise of most building code officials, yet the assumption in studies that measure the savings from energy codes is that they are implemented and working correctly. The objective of the current research is to evaluate the degree to which high impact controls requirements included in commercial energy codes are properly designed, commissioned and implemented in new buildings. This study also evaluates the degree to which these control requirements are realizing their savings potential. This was done using a three-step process. The first step involved interviewing commissioning agents to get a better understanding of their activities as they relate to energy code required controls measures. The second involved field audits of a sample of commercial buildings to determine whether the code required control measures are being designed, commissioned and correctly implemented and functioning in new buildings. The third step includes compilation and analysis of the information gather during the first two steps. Information gathered during these activities could be valuable to code developers, energy planners, designers, building owners, and building officials.

Commercial Buildings Energy Performance within Context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lazarova-Molnar, Sanja; Kjærgaard, Mikkel Baun; Shaker, Hamid Reza

2015-01-01

Existing commercial buildings represent a challenge in the energy efficiency domain. Energy efficiency of a building, very often equalized to a building’s performance should not be observed as a standalone issue. For commercial buildings, energy efficiency needs to be observed and assessed within...

Energy retrofit of commercial buildings. Case study and applied methodology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aste, N.; Del Pero, C. [Department of Building Environment Science and Technology (BEST), Politecnico di Milano, Via Bonardi 3, 20133 Milan (Italy)

2013-05-15

Commercial buildings are responsible for a significant share of the energy requirements of European Union countries. Related consumptions due to heating, cooling, and lighting appear, in most cases, very high and expensive. Since the real estate is renewed with a very small percentage each year and current trends suggest reusing the old structures, strategies for improving energy efficiency and sustainability should focus not only on new buildings, but also and especially on existing ones. Architectural renovation of existing buildings could provide an opportunity to enhance their energy efficiency, by working on the improvement of envelopes and energy supply systems. It has also to be noted that the measures aimed to improve the energy performance of buildings should pay particular attention to the cost-effectiveness of the interventions. In general, there is a lack of well-established methods for retrofitting, but if a case study achieves effective results, the adopted strategies and methodologies can be successfully replicated for similar kinds of buildings. In this paper, an iterative methodology for energy retrofit of commercial buildings is presented, together with a specific application on an existing office building. The case study is particularly significant as it is placed in an urban climatic context characterized by cold winters and hot summers; consequently, HVAC energy consumption is considerable throughout the year. The analysis and simulations of energy performance before and after the intervention, along with measured data on real energy performance, demonstrate the validity of the applied approach. The specifically developed design and refurbishment methodology, presented in this work, could be also assumed as a reference in similar operations.

Development of a Mobile Application for Building Energy Prediction Using Performance Prediction Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu-Ri Kim

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Recently, the Korean government has enforced disclosure of building energy performance, so that such information can help owners and prospective buyers to make suitable investment plans. Such a building energy performance policy of the government makes it mandatory for the building owners to obtain engineering audits and thereby evaluate the energy performance levels of their buildings. However, to calculate energy performance levels (i.e., asset rating methodology, a qualified expert needs to have access to at least the full project documentation and/or conduct an on-site inspection of the buildings. Energy performance certification costs a lot of time and money. Moreover, the database of certified buildings is still actually quite small. A need, therefore, is increasing for a simplified and user-friendly energy performance prediction tool for non-specialists. Also, a database which allows building owners and users to compare best practices is required. In this regard, the current study developed a simplified performance prediction model through experimental design, energy simulations and ANOVA (analysis of variance. Furthermore, using the new prediction model, a related mobile application was also developed.

Energy conservation: policy issues and end-use scenarios of savings potential. Part V. Energy efficient buildings: the causes of litigation against energy conservation building codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benenson, P.; Codina, R.; Cornwall, B.

1978-09-01

The guidelines laid out for the five subjects investigated in this series are to take a holistic view of energy conservation policies by describing the overall system in which they are implemented; provide analytical tools and sufficiently disagregated data bases that can be adapted to answer a variety of questions by the users; identify and discuss some of the important issues behind successful energy conservation policy; and develop an energy conservation policy in depth. Three specific cases reviewed are: the California nonresidential code (1976); the California residential code (1978); and the Farmers Home Administration code (1978). Although these three suits were brought by the building industry, this report also discusses considerations relevant to architects, bankers, and building inspectors. These cases are discussed from three perspectives: (1) objections to the codes explicitly stated in court, (2) industry conditions and practices behind objections stated in court, and (3) general beliefs not stated in court. This discussion focuses on suits intended to limit those building codes which the building industry sees as too strong. However, some energy conservation industries may sue to strengthen codes which they consider too weak. An example of such a case is Polarized Corporation's current suit against the Lighting section of ASHRAE 90-75 (Los Angeles Federal District Court, see Murnane, 1978). (MCW)

Energy-efficient window systems. Effects on energy use and daylight in buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Buelow-Huebe, H.

2001-11-01

This thesis deals with energy-efficient windows in Swedish buildings. Parametric studies were performed in the dynamic energy simulation tool Derob-LTH in order to study the effects of window choices on energy use and indoor climate for both residential and office buildings. A steady-state program was used to evaluate two years of measurements of energy use and indoor temperatures of an energy-efficient row-house. Two behavioural studies regarding (1) daylight transmittance, view and room perception using super-insulated windows and (2) the satisfaction with the daylight environment and the use of shading devices in response to daylight/sunlight were conducted in full-scale laboratory environments exposed to the natural climate. Results show that as the energy-efficiency of buildings increase, window U-values must decrease in order not to increase the annual heating demand, since the heating season is shortened, and useful solar gains become smaller. For single-family houses with a window-to-floor area ratio of 15 % and insulated according the current Swedish building code, the U-values should thus on average be lower than 1.0 W/m{sup 2}K. For houses insulated according to 1960s standard, the U-value may on average be 1.6 W/m{sup 2}K. For colder climates (northern Sweden), the U-values should be somewhat lower, while slightly higher U-values can be tolerated in milder climates of south Sweden. Thermal comfort during winter is improved for energy-efficient windows. However, overheating problems exist for both super-insulated houses and highly glazed office buildings showing a need for very low U-values in combination with low g-values. Daylight experiments indicate that the use of two low-emittance coatings tints the transmitted daylight enough to be appreciated, and colours may be perceived as more drab and rooms more enclosed. A compromise between energy-efficiency and daylighting may be needed, and it is suggested that only one coating be used except when very

Environmental issues in planning building energy efficiency R and D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farhar, B.C.

1990-01-01

The US Department of Energy's Office of Building Technologies (OBT) has initiated analyses on the relationship and impact of buildings energy conservation on the environment. A plethora of activities involving DOE, its national laboratories and other organizations are addressing various aspects of global climate change, acid rain, stratospheric ozone depletion, and indoor air quality. Elements of the current task include (1) a literature review of buildings' contribution to these problems; (2) inventories of OBT studies directly and indirectly related to these environmental problems, and other germane DOE and non-DOE projects; (3) identifying OBT projects that should be done; and (4) analyzing differential impacts on the environment of alternative OBT planning strategies and varying National Energy Strategy scenarios. The success of this project relies, at least in part, on suggestions from the buildings research community on information sources, literature, and ideas that OBT should consider

Energy in buildings: Efficiency, renewables and storage

Science.gov (United States)

Koebel, Matthias M.

2017-07-01

This lecture summary provides a short but comprehensive overview on the "energy and buildings" topic. Buildings account for roughly 40% of the global energy demands. Thus, an increased adoption of existing and upcoming materials and solutions for the building sector represents an enormous potential to reduce building related energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions. The central question is how the building envelope (insulation, fenestration, construction style, solar control) affects building energy demands. Compared to conventional insulation materials, superinsulation materials such as vacuum insulation panels and silica aerogel achieve the same thermal performance with significantly thinner insulation layers. With low-emissivity coatings and appropriate filler gasses, double and triple glazing reduce thermal losses by up to an order of magnitude compared to old single pane windows, while vacuum insulation and aerogel filled glazing could reduce these even further. Electrochromic and other switchable glazing solutions maximize solar gains during wintertime and minimize illumination demands whilst avoiding overheating in summer. Upon integration of renewable energy systems into the building energy supply, buildings can become both producers and consumers of energy. Combined with dynamic user behavior, temporal variations in the production of renewable energy require appropriate storage solutions, both thermal and electrical, and the integration of buildings into smart grids and energy district networks. The combination of these measures allows a reduction of the existing building stock by roughly a factor of three —a promising, but cost intensive way, to prepare our buildings for the energy turnaround.

Energy Cloud: Services for Smart Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mohamed, Nader; Al-Jaroodi, Jameela; Lazarova-Molnar, Sanja

2018-01-01

, and network technologies. Using smart building energy management systems provides intelligent procedures to control buildings’ equipment such as HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning) systems, home and office appliances, and lighting systems to reduce energy consumption while maintaining......Energy consumption in buildings is responsible for a significant portion of the total energy use and carbon emissions in large cities. One of the main approaches to reduce energy consumption and its environmental impact is to convert buildings into smart buildings using computer, software, sensor...... the required quality of living in all of the building’s spaces. This chapter discusses and reviews utilizing cloud computing to provide energy-related services to enhance the operations of smart buildings’ energy management systems. Cloud computing can provide many advantages for smart buildings’ energy...

Commercial Building Energy Asset Score System: Program Overview and Technical Protocol (Version 1.0)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Na; Gorrissen, Willy J.

2013-01-11

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is developing a national voluntary energy asset score system that includes an energy asset score tool to help building owners evaluate their buildings with respect to the score system. The goal of the energy asset score system is to facilitate cost-effective investment in energy efficiency improvements of commercial buildings. The system will allow building owners and managers to compare their building infrastructure against peers and track building upgrade progress over time. The system can also help other building stakeholders (e.g., building operators, tenants, financiers, and appraisers) understand the relative efficiency of different buildings in a way that is independent from their operations and occupancy. This report outlines the technical protocol used to generate the energy asset score, explains the scoring methodology, and provides additional details regarding the energy asset score tool. This report also describes alternative methods that were considered prior to developing the current approach. Finally, this report describes a few features of the program where alternative approaches are still under evaluation.

Building energy demand aggregation and simulation tools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gianniou, Panagiota; Heller, Alfred; Rode, Carsten

2015-01-01

to neighbourhoods and cities. Buildings occupy a key place in the development of smart cities as they represent an important potential to integrate smart energy solutions. Building energy consumption affects significantly the performance of the entire energy network. Therefore, a realistic estimation...... of the aggregated building energy use will not only ensure security of supply but also enhance the stabilization of national energy balances. In this study, the aggregation of building energy demand was investigated for a real case in Sønderborg, Denmark. Sixteen single-family houses -mainly built in the 1960s......- were examined, all connected to the regional district heating network. The aggregation of building energy demands was carried out according to typologies, being represented by archetype buildings. These houses were modelled with dynamic energy simulation software and with a simplified simulation tool...

Advanced Energy Retrofit Guide Office Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Guopeng; Liu, Bing; Wang, Weimin; Zhang, Jian; Athalye, Rahul A.; Moser, Dave; Crowe, Eliot; Bengtson, Nick; Effinger, Mark; Webster, Lia; Hatten, Mike

2011-09-27

The Advanced Energy Retrofit Guide for Office Buildings is a component of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Energy Retrofit Guides for Existing Buildings series. The aim of the guides is to facilitate a rapid escalation in the number of energy efficiency projects in existing buildings and to enhance the quality and depth of those projects. By presenting general project planning guidance as well as financial payback metrics for the most common energy efficiency measures, these guides provide a practical roadmap to effectively planning and implementing performance improvements for existing buildings.

Advanced Energy Retrofit Guide Retail Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Guopeng; Liu, Bing; Zhang, Jian; Wang, Weimin; Athalye, Rahul A.; Moser, Dave; Crowe, Eliot; Bengtson, Nick; Effinger, Mark; Webster, Lia; Hatten, Mike

2011-09-19

The Advanced Energy Retrofit Guide for Retail Buildings is a component of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Energy Retrofit Guides for Existing Buildings series. The aim of the guides is to facilitate a rapid escalation in the number of energy efficiency projects in existing buildings and to enhance the quality and depth of those projects. By presenting general project planning guidance as well as financial payback metrics for the most common energy efficiency measures, these guides provide a practical roadmap to effectively planning and implementing performance improvements for existing buildings.

A Perspective of Energy Codes and Regulations for the Buildings of the Future

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosenberg, Michael [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,2032 Todd Street,Eugene, OR 97405e-mail: michael.rosenberg@pnnl.gov; Jonlin, Duane [Seattle Department ofConstruction and Inspections,P.O. Box 34019,Seattle, WA 98124e-mail: duane.jonlin@seattle.gov; Nadel, Steven [American Council for anEnergy-Efficient Economy,529 14th Street NW #600,Washington, DC 20045e-mail: snadel@aceee.org

2016-10-13

Today’s building energy codes focus on prescriptive requirements for features of buildings that are directly controlled by the design and construction teams and verifiable by municipal inspectors. Although these code requirements have had a significant impact, they fail to influence a large slice of the building energy use pie – including not only miscellaneous plug loads, cooking equipment and commercial/industrial processes, but the maintenance and optimization of the code-mandated systems as well. Currently, code compliance is verified only through the end of construction, and there are no limits or consequences for the actual energy use in an occupied building. In the future, our suite of energy regulations will likely expand to include building efficiency, energy use or carbon emission budgets over their full life cycle. Intelligent building systems, extensive renewable energy, and a transition from fossil fuel to electric heating systems will likely be required to meet ultra-low-energy targets. This paper lays out the authors’ perspectives on how buildings may evolve over the course of the 21st century and the roles that codes and regulations will play in shaping those buildings of the future.

Building Evidence for Health: Green Buildings, Current Science, and Future Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Cedeño-Laurent, J G; Williams, A; MacNaughton, P; Cao, X; Eitland, E; Spengler, J; Allen, J

2018-04-01

Civilizational challenges have questioned the status quo of energy and material consumption by humans. From the built environment perspective, a response to these challenges was the creation of green buildings. Although the revolutionary capacity of the green building movement has elevated the expectations of new commercial construction, its rate of implementation has secluded the majority of the population from its benefits. Beyond reductions in energy usage and increases in market value, the main strength of green buildings may be the procurement of healthier building environments. Further pursuing the right to healthy indoor environments could help the green building movement to attain its full potential as a transformational public health tool. On the basis of 40 years of research on indoor environmental quality, we present a summary of nine environment elements that are foundational to human health. We posit the role of green buildings as a critical research platform within a novel sustainability framework based on social-environmental capital assets.

Energy Efficiency Building Code for Commercial Buildings in Sri Lanka

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Busch, John; Greenberg, Steve; Rubinstein, Francis; Denver, Andrea; Rawner, Esther; Franconi, Ellen; Huang, Joe; Neils, Danielle

2000-09-30

1.1.1 To encourage energy efficient design or retrofit of commercial buildings so that they may be constructed, operated, and maintained in a manner that reduces the use of energy without constraining the building function, the comfort, health, or the productivity of the occupants and with appropriate regard for economic considerations. 1.1.2 To provide criterion and minimum standards for energy efficiency in the design or retrofit of commercial buildings and provide methods for determining compliance with them. 1.1.3 To encourage energy efficient designs that exceed these criterion and minimum standards.

Energy Efficiency Building Code for Commercial Buildings in Sri Lanka

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Busch, John; Greenberg, Steve; Rubinstein, Francis; Denver, Andrea; Rawner, Esther; Franconi, Ellen; Huang, Joe; Neils, Danielle

2000-01-01

1.1.1 To encourage energy efficient design or retrofit of commercial buildings so that they may be constructed, operated, and maintained in a manner that reduces the use of energy without constraining the building function, the comfort, health, or the productivity of the occupants and with appropriate regard for economic considerations. 1.1.2 To provide criterion and minimum standards for energy efficiency in the design or retrofit of commercial buildings and provide methods for determining compliance with them. 1.1.3 To encourage energy efficient designs that exceed these criterion and minimum standards

Building Energy Management Open Source Software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rahman, Saifur [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)

2017-08-25

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy in November 2013, a Building Energy Management Open Source Software (BEMOSS) platform was engineered to improve sensing and control of equipment in small- and medium-sized commercial buildings. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), small- (5,000 square feet or smaller) and medium-sized (between 5,001 to 50,000 square feet) commercial buildings constitute about 95% of all commercial buildings in the U.S. These buildings typically do not have Building Automation Systems (BAS) to monitor and control building operation. While commercial BAS solutions exist, including those from Siemens, Honeywell, Johnsons Controls and many more, they are not cost effective in the context of small- and medium-sized commercial buildings, and typically work with specific controller products from the same company. BEMOSS targets small and medium-sized commercial buildings to address this gap.

Energy options for residential buildings assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rezaie, Behnaz; Dincer, Ibrahim; Esmailzadeh, Ebrahim

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Studying various building energy options. ► Assessing these options from various points. ► Comparing these options for better environment and sustainability. ► Proposing renewable energy options as potential solutions. - Abstract: The building sector, as one of the major energy consumers, demands most of the energy research to assess different energy options from various aspects. In this paper, two similar residential buildings, with either low or high energy consumption patterns, are chosen as case studies. For these case studies, three different renewable energy technology and three different hybrid systems are designed for a specified size. Then, the environmental impact indices, renewable energy indices, and the renewable exergy indices have been estimated for every energy options. Results obtained show that the hybrid systems (without considering the economics factors) are superior and having top indices. The importance of the energy consumption patterns in buildings are proven by the indices. By cutting the energy consumption to about 40% the environment index would increase by more than twice (2.1). Utilization of the non-fossil fuels is one part of the solution to environmental problems while energy conservation being the other. It has been shown that the re-design of the energy consumption model is less complex but more achievable for buildings.

ENERGY DEMANDS OF THE EXISTING COLLECTIVE BUILDINGS WITH BEARING STRUCTURE OF LARGE PRECAST CONCRETE PANELS FROM TIMISOARA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pescari S.

2015-05-01

Full Text Available One of the targets of EU Directives on the energy performance of buildings is to reduce the energy consumption of the existing buildings by finding efficient solutions for thermal rehabilitation. In order to find the adequate solutions, the first step is to establish the current state of the buildings and to determine their actual energy consumption. The current paper aims to present the energy demands of the existing buildings with bearing structure of large precast concrete panels in the city of Timisoara. Timisoara is one of the most important cities in the west side of Romania, being on the third place in terms of size and economic development. The Census of Population and Housing of 2011 states that Timisoara has about 127841 private dwellings and 60 percent of them are collective buildings. Energy demand values of the existing buildings with bearing structure of large precast concrete panels in Timisoara, in their current condition, are higher than the accepted values provided in the Romanian normative, C107. The difference between these two values can reach up to 300 percent.

Assessment of the Technical Potential for Achieving Net Zero-Energy Buildings in the Commercial Sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Griffith, B.; Long, N.; Torcellini, P.; Judkoff, R.; Crawley, D.; Ryan, J.

2007-12-01

This report summarizes the findings from research conducted at NREL to assess the technical potential for zero-energy building technologies and practices to reduce the impact of commercial buildings on the U.S. energy system. Commercial buildings currently account for 18% of annual U.S. energy consumption, and energy use is growing along with overall floor area. Reducing the energy use of this sector will require aggressive research goals and rapid implementation of the research results.

Overview of rural building energy efficiency in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He, Bao-jie; Yang, Li; Ye, Miao; Mou, Ben; Zhou, Yanan

2014-01-01

Over the past three decades, people's living standard in China has been greatly improved, accompanied by the rapid increasing building energy consumption. Rural building energy consumption has become one of the most important parts of the total energy consumption in China, which deserves to be paid much attention. It is of vital importance to promote building energy efficiency for the New Socialist Countryside and energy conservation and emission reduction. This paper provides an overview of building energy consumption in the countryside, which figures out the situation and challenges in energy-saving work. The government has worked for years on rural building code system aimed at narrowing the energy gap between urban areas, but it is in the beginning phase. This paper has analyzed the only special issues about rural building energy efficiency and the mandatory standards for urban buildings, which can facilitate the development of rural building energy efficiency. Based on the above analysis, some recommendations regarding the improvement of rural building energy efficiency are given. - Highlights: • Situation of rural energy consumption in China. • Challenges in rural building energy-saving work. • Design standard, special plan and some pilot projects are analyzed. • Effects of existing energy policies for urban buildings. • Some recommendations are given

Sault Tribe Building Efficiency Energy Audits

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holt, Jeffrey W.

2013-09-26

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is working to reduce energy consumption and expense in Tribally-owned governmental buildings. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians will conduct energy audits of nine Tribally-owned governmental buildings in three counties in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to provide a basis for evaluating and selecting the technical and economic viability of energy efficiency improvement options. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians will follow established Tribal procurement policies and procedures to secure the services of a qualified provider to conduct energy audits of nine designated buildings. The contracted provider will be required to provide a progress schedule to the Tribe prior to commencing the project and submit an updated schedule with their monthly billings. Findings and analysis reports will be required for buildings as completed, and a complete Energy Audit Summary Report will be required to be submitted with the provider?s final billing. Conducting energy audits of the nine governmental buildings will disclose building inefficiencies to prioritize and address, resulting in reduced energy consumption and expense. These savings will allow Tribal resources to be reallocated to direct services, which will benefit Tribal members and families.

Policy Pathways: Energy Performance Certification of Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2010-07-01

Improving energy efficiency is one of the most effective measures to address energy security, climate change and economic objectives. The Policy Pathways series can help countries capture this potential by assisting with the implementation of the 25 energy efficiency policy recommendations that were published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2008. This policy pathway on energy performance certification of buildings is the second in the series. It aims to provide a 'how-to' guide to policy makers and relevant stakeholders on the essential elements in implementing energy performance certification of buildings programmes. Energy performance certification of buildings is a way to rate the energy efficiency of individual buildings -- whether they be residential, commercial or public. It is a key policy instrument that can assist governments in reducing energy consumption in buildings. This policy pathway showcases experiences from countries around the world to show examples of good practice and delivers a pathway of ten critical steps to implement energy performance certification of buildings programmes.

Energy Efficiency Potential in Existing Commercial Buildings: Review of Selected Recent Studies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belzer, David B.

2009-04-03

This report reviews six recent studies (from 2002 through 2006) by states and utilities to assess the energy saving potential in existing commercial buildings. The studies cover all or portions of California, Connecticut, Vermont, Colorado, Illinois, and the Pacific Northwest. The studies clearly reveal that lighting remains the single largest and most cost effective end use that can be reduced to save energy. Overall the study indicated that with existing technologies and costs, a reasonable range of economic savings potential in existing commercial buildings is between 10 and 20 percent of current energy use. While not a focus of the study, an additional conclusion is that implementation of commercial building monitoring and controls would also play an important role in the nation’s efforts to improve energy efficiency of existing buildings.

BUILDING DESIGN INFLUENCE ON THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moga Ligia

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Energy efficient design is a high priority in the national energy strategy of European countries considering the latest requirements of the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings. The residential sector is responsible for a significant quantity of energy consumptions from the total amount of consumptions on a worldwide level. In residential building most of the energy consumptions are given mainly by heating, domestic hot water and lighting. Retrofitting the existing building stock offers great opportunities for reducing global energy consumptions and greenhouse gas emissions. The first part of the paper will address the need of thermal and energy retrofit of existing buildings. The second part will provide an overview on how various variables can influence the energy performance of a building that is placed in all four climatic zones from Romania. The paper is useful for specialist and designers from the construction field in understanding that buildings behave differently from the energy point of view in different climatic regions, even if the building characteristic remain the same.

The effect of building regulations and energy conservation measures in domestic sector on national energy consumption

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Samo, S.R.; Akhund, M.A.; Brohi, K.M.

2004-01-01

In England, housing accounts for some 30% of total fuel consumption and a similar proportion of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO/sub 2/) emission. A study has been conducted to analyse the effect of the legislations and UK thermal building regulations on national energy consumption in housing. This research paper presents data on the percentage of dwelling stock, the energy consumption, energy cost and carbon dioxide (CO/sub 2/) emission in different types of dwellings, which comply different building regulations from 1965 to 1995. It was found that. 66% of the dwelling stock, which comply the building Regulations before 1965, consumes 73% of total energy used in housing. This dwelling stock is also responsible for 75% of carbon dioxide (CO/sub 2/) emission. Whereas currently only 4% of the dwelling stock complies the latest building regulations 1995 which consume 2 % of energy and produce a similar percentage of carbon dioxide (CO/sub 2/) emission in housing. Since the large portion of the dwelling stock is comprised of old dwellings, therefore the greatest potential for energy conservation measures can be found in improving these dwellings instead of constructing new dwellings. (author)

BLAST: Building energy simulation in Hong Kong

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Sai-Keung

1999-11-01

The characteristics of energy use in buildings under local weather conditions were studied and evaluated using the energy simulation program BLAST-3.0. The parameters used in the energy simulation for the study and evaluation include the architectural features, different internal building heat load settings and weather data. In this study, mathematical equations and the associated coefficients useful to the industry were established. A technology for estimating energy use in buildings under local weather conditions was developed by using the results of this study. A weather data file of Typical Meteorological Years (TMY) has been compiled for building energy studies by analyzing and evaluating the weather of Hong Kong from the year 1979 to 1988. The weather data file TMY and the example weather years 1980 and 1988 were used by BLAST-3.0 to evaluate and study the energy use in different buildings. BLAST-3.0 was compared with other building energy simulation and approximation methods: Bin method and Degree Days method. Energy use in rectangular compartments of different volumes varying from 4,000 m3 to 40,000 m3 with different aspect ratios were analyzed. The use of energy in buildings with concrete roofs was compared with those with glass roofs at indoor temperature 21°C, 23°C and 25°C. Correlation relationships among building energy, space volume, monthly mean temperature and solar radiation were derived and investigated. The effects of space volume, monthly mean temperature and solar radiation on building energy were evaluated. The coefficients of the mathematical relationships between space volume and energy use in a building were computed and found satisfactory. The calculated coefficients can be used for quick estimation of energy use in buildings under similar situations. To study energy use in buildings, the cooling load per floor area against room volume was investigated. The case of an air-conditioned single compartment with 5 m ceiling height was

Energy refurbishment of the Italian residential building stock: energy and cost analysis through the application of the building typology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballarini, Ilaria; Corrado, Vincenzo; Madonna, Francesco; Paduos, Simona; Ravasio, Franco

2017-01-01

The European residential building stock is largely composed of buildings with poor energy performance, therefore basic retrofit actions could lead to significant energy savings. However, energy refurbishment measures should be identified in accurate way, taking into account the technical viability and aiming both to increase the building energy performance and to restrain the costs. The present article investigates the effects of different measures applied to the Italian residential building stock by using the building typology, which consists of 120 building types, representative of six construction ages, four building sizes and five climatic zones. A quasi-steady state model has been used to calculate the energy performance; the economic evaluation has been carried out as specified in the EU cost-optimal comparative methodology (Directive 2010/31/EU). The most effective measures and packages of measures, in terms of energy saving and global cost reduction, are identified and discussed. The results are addressed to important purposes for energy policy, as for instance: (a) to provide political authorities with the most effective energy efficiency measures as to encourage retrofit processes through the allocation of financial incentives, (b) to offer a knowledge-base for developing energy refurbishment scenarios of residential building stocks and forecasting future energy resource demand. - Highlights: • Investigation of energy savings and cost effectiveness of the Italian housing stock refurbishments. • Application of the building typology approach of the IEE-TABULA project. • Knowledge-base for bottom-up models of the building stock energy performance. • Supporting the political authorities to promote effective refurbishment measures.

Low-energy buildings on mainstream market terms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quitzau, Maj-Britt; Elle, Morten; Hoffmann, Birgitte

2008-01-01

implementation of strict energy performance requirements in mainstream building. The paper describes how the municipality of Egedal experienced a collapse in regulation for low-energy buildings and what struggles it had to take on in order to convince the mainstream building industry and their customers......This paper looks into the challenge of actually implementing energy efficient technologies and concepts in mainstream new build. The aim of the paper is to point out some of the provisos of promoting low-energy buildings on mainstream market terms, emphasising the need to understand forces working...... against implementation of low-energy buildings. The study is based on actor-network theory, emphasising the relations and struggles that form the basis for pushing for low-energy buildings. The paper is based on a case study of the proactive attempt of a Danish municipality to force through an actual...

Energy savings in Danish residential building stock

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tommerup, Henrik M.; Svendsen, Svend

2006-01-01

a short account of the technical energy-saving possibilities that are present in existing dwellings and presents a financial methodology used for assessing energy-saving measures. In order to estimate the total savings potential detailed calculations have been performed in a case with two typical...... buildings representing the residential building stock and based on these calculations an assessment of the energy-saving potential is performed. A profitable savings potential of energy used for space heating of about 80% is identified over 45 years (until 2050) within the residential building stock......A large potential for energy savings exists in the Danish residential building stock due to the fact that 75% of the buildings were constructed before 1979 when the first important demands for energy performance of building were introduced. It is also a fact that many buildings in Denmark face...

Experience implementing energy standards for commercial buildings and its lessons for the Philippines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Busch, John; Deringer, Joseph

1998-10-01

Energy efficiency standards for buildings have been adopted in over forty countries. This policy mechanism is pursued by governments as a means of increasing energy efficiency in the buildings sector, which typically accounts for about a third of most nations' energy consumption and half of their electricity consumption. This study reports on experience with implementation of energy standards for commercial buildings in a number of countries and U.S. states. It is conducted from the perspective of providing useful input to the Government of the Philippines' (GOP) current effort at implementing their building energy standard. While the impetus for this work is technical assistance to the Philippines, the intent is to shed light on the broader issues attending implementation of building energy standards that would be applicable there and elsewhere. The background on the GOP building energy standard is presented, followed by the objectives for the study, the approach used to collect and analyze information about other jurisdictions' implementation experience, results, and conclusions and recommendations.

Energy efficient buildings : a plan for BC : creating a legacy of energy efficient buildings in British Columbia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-10-01

A plan to conserve energy and improve energy efficiency in homes and buildings in British Columbia was presented. Benefits of the plan included savings for consumers throughout BC; an increase in the value of homes and buildings; a return on investment after an average of 5 years; improved comfort and indoor air quality in buildings; creation of equipment manufacturing, building design, development and trades jobs across the province; and reduced environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) and smog-creating air emissions. An outline of cost-effective energy efficiency targets was presented to complement ongoing local, provincial and federal programs. A number of market challenges were reviewed, such as the lack of information available to consumers on energy efficiency, the increased initial cost of energy efficient buildings, and the fact that opportunities to reduce energy consumption after construction are limited and expensive. It was suggested that energy consumers are not often aware of the environmental and social costs of over-consumption of energy. Details of existing programs that support energy efficiency were presented, as well as information concerning sales tax exemptions for high efficiency heating equipment and other materials used to conserve energy. Various provincial policies and incentives supporting energy conservation were outlined. Cost-effective targets for energy efficiency for new and existing buildings were presented, as well as details of rebates for homeowners. Capital costs for new construction standards were presented, as well as details of incentives and provincial sales tax exemptions

Life-cycle energy of residential buildings in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, Yuan; Ries, Robert J.; Wang, Yaowu

2013-01-01

In the context of rapid urbanization and new construction in rural China, residential building energy consumption has the potential to increase with the expected increase in demand. A process-based hybrid life-cycle assessment model is used to quantify the life-cycle energy use for both urban and rural residential buildings in China and determine the energy use characteristics of each life cycle phase. An input–output model for the pre-use phases is based on 2007 Chinese economic benchmark data. A process-based life-cycle assessment model for estimating the operation and demolition phases uses historical energy-intensity data. Results show that operation energy in both urban and rural residential buildings is dominant and varies from 75% to 86% of life cycle energy respectively. Gaps in living standards as well as differences in building structure and materials result in a life-cycle energy intensity of urban residential buildings that is 20% higher than that of rural residential buildings. The life-cycle energy of urban residential buildings is most sensitive to the reduction of operational energy intensity excluding heating energy which depends on both the occupants' energy-saving behavior as well as the performance of the building itself. -- Highlights: •We developed a hybrid LCA model to quantify the life-cycle energy for urban and rural residential buildings in China. •Operation energy in urban and rural residential buildings is dominant, varying from 75% to 86% of life cycle energy respectively. •Compared with rural residential buildings, the life-cycle energy intensity of urban residential buildings is 20% higher. •The life-cycle energy of urban residential buildings is most sensitive to the reduction of daily activity energy

Energy consumption of building related energy functions in houses and utility buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Arkel, W.G.; Jeeninga, H.; Menkveld, M.; Ruijg, G.J.

1999-11-01

This study investigates the development of the use of electricity and natural gas in houses and buildings until 2010. For the domestic sector it is studied how much energy is used now and will be used in future for heating, for production of hot water, for lighting, for ventilation and for cooling. For different sorts of buildings (shops, hospitals, schools, offices, restaurants) it has been determined how much gas will be used for heating, for hot water production and by humidifiers. It has also been calculated how much electricity will be used for lighting, ventilation, cooling and humidifying. The influence of higher and lower energy prices on the amount of use has been studied. Experts have been asked to give their opinions on trends in the use of buildings and the role of new technologies. The influence of these ideas on the use of energy has been calculated. 44 refs

Building energy modeling for green architecture and intelligent dashboard applications

Science.gov (United States)

DeBlois, Justin

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the carbon emissions in the United States. Energy efficiency in this sector is key to reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions. This work studied the passive technique called the roof solar chimney for reducing the cooling load in homes architecturally. Three models of the chimney were created: a zonal building energy model, computational fluid dynamics model, and numerical analytic model. The study estimated the error introduced to the building energy model (BEM) through key assumptions, and then used a sensitivity analysis to examine the impact on the model outputs. The conclusion was that the error in the building energy model is small enough to use it for building simulation reliably. Further studies simulated the roof solar chimney in a whole building, integrated into one side of the roof. Comparisons were made between high and low efficiency constructions, and three ventilation strategies. The results showed that in four US climates, the roof solar chimney results in significant cooling load energy savings of up to 90%. After developing this new method for the small scale representation of a passive architecture technique in BEM, the study expanded the scope to address a fundamental issue in modeling - the implementation of the uncertainty from and improvement of occupant behavior. This is believed to be one of the weakest links in both accurate modeling and proper, energy efficient building operation. A calibrated model of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation's LEED Gold, 3,400 m2 building was created. Then algorithms were developed for integration to the building's dashboard application that show the occupant the energy savings for a variety of behaviors in real time. An approach using neural networks to act on real-time building automation system data was found to be the most accurate and efficient way to predict the current energy savings for each scenario. A stochastic study examined the impact of the

Fuzzy Linguistic Knowledge Based Behavior Extraction for Building Energy Management Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dumidu Wijayasekara; Milos Manic

2013-08-01

Significant portion of world energy production is consumed by building Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) units. Thus along with occupant comfort, energy efficiency is also an important factor in HVAC control. Modern buildings use advanced Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) control schemes to realize these goals. However, since the performance of HVAC units is dependent on many criteria including uncertainties in weather, number of occupants, and thermal state, the performance of current state of the art systems are sub-optimal. Furthermore, because of the large number of sensors in buildings, and the high frequency of data collection, large amount of information is available. Therefore, important behavior of buildings that compromise energy efficiency or occupant comfort is difficult to identify. This paper presents an easy to use and understandable framework for identifying such behavior. The presented framework uses human understandable knowledge-base to extract important behavior of buildings and present it to users via a graphical user interface. The presented framework was tested on a building in the Pacific Northwest and was shown to be able to identify important behavior that relates to energy efficiency and occupant comfort.

Building energy efficiency in different climates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lam, Joseph C.; Wan, Kevin K.W.; Tsang, C.L.; Yang Liu

2008-01-01

Energy simulation was conducted for office buildings in the five major climate zones - severe cold, cold, hot summer and cold winter, mild, and hot summer and warm winter - in China using DOE-2.1E. The primary aim was to investigate the thermal and energy performance of office buildings with centralised heating, ventilation and air conditioning plants in the major climatic zones in China. The computed results were analysed in three aspects - heating load, cooling load and the corresponding building energy consumption. The building peak monthly heating load varied from 142 MW h (1033 MW h cooling) in Hong Kong to 447 MW h (832 MW h cooling) in Harbin. It was also found that passive solar designs could have large energy savings potential in the severe cold and cold climates. In Harbin, the window solar component helped lower the annual building heating load by 650 MW h. Internal loads (lighting and office equipment) and part load operations of fans and pumps also played a significant role in the overall building energy efficiency. This paper presents the work, its findings and energy efficiency implications

Indoor air quality in a multifamily apartment building before and after energy renovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bekö, Gabriel; Földváry, Veronika; Langer, Sarka

2016-01-01

Buildings are responsible for a substantial portion of global energy consumption. Most of the multifamily residential buildings in central Europe built in the 20th century do not satisfy the current requirements on energy efficiency. Nationwide remedial measures are taken to improve the energy ef...... exchange rates and acceptable and healthy IAQ. Without these considerations, energy reconstruction can adversely affect the quality of the indoor environment....... efficiency of these buildings and reduce their energy consumption. Since the impact of these measures on the indoor air quality is rarely considered, they often compromise indoor air quality due to decreased ventilation and infiltration rate. We compared the indoor air quality in a multifamily apartment...... building in Slovakia before and after energy renovation, during two subsequent winters. Measurements of temperature, relative humidity, concentrations of CO2, formaldehyde, NO2, and volatile organic compounds were performed during one week in January 2015 in 20 apartments in one multifamily building...

IEA EBC Annex 57 ‘Evaluation of Embodied Energy and CO2eq for Building Construction’

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birgisdottir, Harpa; Moncaster, Alice; Houlihan Wiberg, Aoife

2017-01-01

The current regulations to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from buildings have focused on operational energy consumption. Thus legislation excludes measurement and reduction of the embodied energy and embodied GHG emissions over the building life cycle. Embodied impac...

IEA EBC Annex 57 ‘Evaluation of Embodied Energy and CO2eq for Building Construction’

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birgisdottir, Harpa; Moncaster, Alice; Houlihan Wiberg, Aoife

2017-01-01

The current regulations to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from buildings have focused on operational energy consumption. Thus legislation excludes measurement and reduction of the embodied energy and embodied GHG emissions over the building life cycle. Embodied impacts...

Federal R&D Agenda for Net Zero Energy, High-Performance Green Buildings

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2008-01-01

.... greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). If current trends continue, buildings worldwide will become the top energy consumers by 2025, and are likely to use as much energy as industry and transportation combined by 2050...

Towards Energy Demand Reduction in Social Housing Buildings: Envelope System Optimization Strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paula M. Esquivias

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This work evaluates the potential for the reduction of energy demand in residential buildings by acting on the exterior envelope, both in newly constructed buildings and in the retrofitting of existing stock. It focuses on analysing social housing buildings in Mediterranean areas and on quantifying the scope of that reduction in the application of different envelope design strategies, with the purpose of prioritizing their application based on their energy efficiency. The analyses and quantifications were made by means of the generation of energy models with the TRNSYS tool for simple or combined solutions, identifying possible potentials for reduction of the energy demand from 20% to 25%, basically by acting on the windows. The case study was a newly built social housing building of a closed block type located in Seville (Spain. Its constructive techniques and the insulation level of its envelope are standardized for current buildings widespread across Mediterranean Europe.

Energy Signal Tool for Decision Support in Building Energy Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Henze, G. P.; Pavlak, G. S.; Florita, A. R.; Dodier, R. H.; Hirsch, A. I.

2014-12-01

A prototype energy signal tool is demonstrated for operational whole-building and system-level energy use evaluation. The purpose of the tool is to give a summary of building energy use which allows a building operator to quickly distinguish normal and abnormal energy use. Toward that end, energy use status is displayed as a traffic light, which is a visual metaphor for energy use that is either substantially different from expected (red and yellow lights) or approximately the same as expected (green light). Which light to display for a given energy end use is determined by comparing expected to actual energy use. As expected, energy use is necessarily uncertain; we cannot choose the appropriate light with certainty. Instead, the energy signal tool chooses the light by minimizing the expected cost of displaying the wrong light. The expected energy use is represented by a probability distribution. Energy use is modeled by a low-order lumped parameter model. Uncertainty in energy use is quantified by a Monte Carlo exploration of the influence of model parameters on energy use. Distributions over model parameters are updated over time via Bayes' theorem. The simulation study was devised to assess whole-building energy signal accuracy in the presence of uncertainty and faults at the submetered level, which may lead to tradeoffs at the whole-building level that are not detectable without submetering.

Trends in energy use in commercial buildings -- Sixteen years of EIA's commercial buildings energy consumption survey

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, J.; Swenson, A.

1998-07-01

The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) collects basic statistical information on energy consumption and energy-related characteristics of commercial buildings in the US. The first CBECS was conducted in 1979 and the most recent was completed in 1995. Over that period, the number of commercial bindings and total amount of floorspace increased, total consumption remained flat, and total energy intensity declined. By 1995, there were 4.6 million commercial buildings and 58.8 billion square feet of floorspace. The buildings consumed a total of 5.3 quadrillion Btu (site energy), with a total intensity of 90.5 thousand Btu per square foot per year. Electricity consumption exceeded natural gas consumption (2.6 quadrillion and 1.9 quadrillion Btu, respectively). In 1995, the two major users of energy were space heating (1.7 quadrillion Btu) and lighting (1.2 quadrillion Btu). Over the period 1979 to 1995, natural gas intensity declined from 71.4 thousand to 51.0 thousand Btu per square foot per year. Electricity intensity did not show a similar decline (44.2 thousand Btu per square foot in 1979 and 45.7 thousand Btu per square foot in 1995). Two types of commercial buildings, office buildings and mercantile and service buildings, were the largest consumers of energy in 1995 (2.0 quadrillion Btu, 38% of total consumption). Three building types, health care, food service, and food sales, had significantly higher energy intensities. Buildings constructed since 1970 accounted for half of total consumption and a majority (59%) of total electricity consumption.

Building thermography as a tool in energy audits and building commissioning procedure

Science.gov (United States)

Kauppinen, Timo

2007-04-01

A Building Commissioning-project (ToVa) was launched in Finland in the year 2003. A comprehensive commissioning procedure, including the building process and operation stage was developed in the project. This procedure will confirm the precise documentation of client's goals, definition of planning goals and the performance of the building. It is rather usual, that within 1-2 years after introduction the users complain about the defects or performance malfunctions of the building. Thermography is one important manual tool in verifying the thermal performance of the building envelope. In this paper the results of one pilot building (a school) will be presented. In surveying the condition and energy efficiency of buildings, various auxiliary means are needed. We can compare the consumption data of the target building with other, same type of buildings by benchmarking. Energy audit helps to localize and determine the energy saving potential. The most general and also most effective auxiliary means in monitoring the thermal performance of building envelopes is an infrared camera. In this presentation some examples of the use of thermography in energy audits are presented.

NET-ZERO ENERGY BUILDING OPERATOR TRAINING PROGRAM (NZEBOT)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brizendine, Anthony; Byars, Nan; Sleiti, Ahmad; Gehrig, Bruce; Lu, Na

2012-12-31

The primary objective of the Net-Zero Energy Building Operator Training Program (NZEBOT) was to develop certificate level training programs for commercial building owners, managers and operators, principally in the areas of energy / sustainability management. The expected outcome of the project was a multi-faceted mechanism for developing the skill-based competency of building operators, owners, architects/engineers, construction professionals, tenants, brokers and other interested groups in energy efficient building technologies and best practices. The training program draws heavily on DOE supported and developed materials available in the existing literature, as well as existing, modified, and newly developed curricula from the Department of Engineering Technology & Construction Management (ETCM) at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC-Charlotte). The project goal is to develop a certificate level training curriculum for commercial energy and sustainability managers and building operators that: 1) Increases the skill-based competency of building professionals in energy efficient building technologies and best practices, and 2) Increases the workforce pool of expertise in energy management and conservation techniques. The curriculum developed in this project can subsequently be used to establish a sustainable energy training program that can contribute to the creation of new “green” job opportunities in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast region, and workforce training that leads to overall reductions in commercial building energy consumption. Three energy training / education programs were developed to achieve the stated goal, namely: 1. Building Energy/Sustainability Management (BESM) Certificate Program for Building Managers and Operators (40 hours); 2. Energy Efficient Building Technologies (EEBT) Certificate Program (16 hours); and 3. Energy Efficent Buildings (EEB) Seminar (4 hours). Training Program 1 incorporates the following

A conceptual framework for future-proofing the energy performance of buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Georgiadou, Maria Christina; Hacking, Theophilus; Guthrie, Peter

2012-01-01

This paper presents a review undertaken to understand the concept of ‘future-proofing’ the energy performance of buildings. The long lifecycles of the building stock, the impacts of climate change and the requirements for low carbon development underline the need for long-term thinking from the early design stages. ‘Future-proofing’ is an emerging research agenda with currently no widely accepted definition amongst scholars and building professionals. In this paper, it refers to design processes that accommodate explicitly full lifecycle perspectives and energy trends and drivers by at least 2050, when selecting energy efficient measures and low carbon technologies. A knowledge map is introduced, which explores the key axes (or attributes) for achieving a ‘future-proofed’ energy design; namely, coverage of sustainability issues, lifecycle thinking, and accommodating risks and uncertainties that affect the energy consumption. It is concluded that further research is needed so that established building energy assessment methods are refined to better incorporate future-proofing. The study follows an interdisciplinary approach and is targeted at design teams with aspirations to achieve resilient and flexible low-energy buildings over the long-term. - Highlights: ► We examine the concept of ‘future-proofing’ the energy performance of buildings. ► It reconciles sustainability issues, lifecycle thinking, risks and uncertainties. ► A knowledge map with axes and types of ‘future-proofed’ solutions is presented. ► The energy design process should adopt full lifecycle considerations. ► Design for flexibility, use of dynamic models and futures techniques are suggested.

Lost Opportunities in the Buildings Sector: Energy-Efficiency Analysis and Results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dirks, James A.; Anderson, David M.; Hostick, Donna J.; Belzer, David B.; Cort, Katherine A.

2008-09-12

This report summarizes the results and the assumptions used in an analysis of the potential “lost efficiency opportunities” in the buildings sector. These targets of opportunity are those end-uses, applications, practices, and portions of the buildings market which are not currently being addressed, or addressed fully, by the Building Technologies Program (BTP) due to lack of resources. The lost opportunities, while a significant increase in effort and impact in the buildings sector, still represent only a small portion of the full technical potential for energy efficiency in buildings.

Dynamic integration of residential building design and green energies : the Bireth approach : building integrated renewable energy total harvest approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheung, K.P. [Hong Kong Univ., Hong Kong (China). Dept. of Architecture; Luk, C.L.P. [Chu Hai College of Higher Education, Hong Kong (China). Dept. of Architecture; Wong, S.T. [Hong Kong Univ., Hong Kong (China). Div. of Arts and Humanities, SPACE; Chung, S.L.; Fung, K.S.; Leung, M.F. [Hong Kong Inst. of Vocational Education, Hong Kong (China)

2006-07-01

Renewable energy sources that are commonly used in buildings include solar energy, wind energy and rainwater collection. High quality environmentally responsive residential buildings are designed to provide good insulation in winter and solar shading in summer. However, this study demonstrated that the green energy design in residential buildings is not usually well integrated. For example, windows with clear double or triple glazed glass, allow good penetration of sunlight during the day in winter, but are not further dynamically insulated for when the sun goes down to avoid heat loss from the building. Additionally, good solar static shading devices often block much needed daylight on cloudy winter days. These examples emphasize the lack of an integrated approach to gain the best advantage of green energies and to minimize energy costs in residential buildings. This study addressed issues facing the integrated approach with particular reference to the design of a small residential building in rural Beijing. The design included a new approach for interpreting a traditional Beijing court yard house in the modern Beijing rural context, while integrating multi-responding innovative green energy applications derived from first principles. This paper also presented a proposal for a village house in Hong Kong to harvest as much renewable energies as possible, primarily wind energy and solar energy, that come into contact with the building. The purpose was to work towards a renewable energy approach for buildings, namely the Bireth approach, which will benefit practically all houses by making them zero energy houses. The paper described the feasibility of integrating renewable energies in buildings to fulfill performance requirements such improving ventilation, providing warm interiors, drying clothes, or storing solar and wind energies into power batteries. The challenges facing the development of a proposed micro solar hot air turbine were also presented. 15 refs., 6

Analysis of the Dependence between Energy Demand Indicators in Buildings Based on Variants for Improving Energy Efficiency in a School Building

Science.gov (United States)

Skiba, Marta; Rzeszowska, Natalia

2017-09-01

One of the five far-reaching goals of the European Union is climate change and sustainable energy use. The first step in the implementation of this task is to reduce energy demand in buildings to a minimum by 2021, and in the case of public buildings by 2019. This article analyses the possibility of improving energy efficiency in public buildings, the relationship between particular indicators of the demand for usable energy (UE), final energy (FE) and primary energy (PE) in buildings and the impact of these indicators on the assessment of energy efficiency in public buildings, based on 5 variants of extensive thermal renovation of a school building. The analysis of the abovementioned variants confirms that the thermal renovation of merely the outer envelope of the building is insufficient and requires the use of additional energy sources, for example RES. Moreover, each indicator of energy demand in the building plays a key role in assessing the energy efficiency of the building. For this reason it is important to analyze each of them individually, as well as the dependencies between them.

Building Energy Codes: Policy Overview and Good Practices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cox, Sadie [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-02-19

Globally, 32% of total final energy consumption is attributed to the building sector. To reduce energy consumption, energy codes set minimum energy efficiency standards for the building sector. With effective implementation, building energy codes can support energy cost savings and complementary benefits associated with electricity reliability, air quality improvement, greenhouse gas emission reduction, increased comfort, and economic and social development. This policy brief seeks to support building code policymakers and implementers in designing effective building code programs.

Energy efficiency evaluation of hospital building office

Science.gov (United States)

Fitriani, Indah; Sangadji, Senot; Kristiawan, S. A.

2017-01-01

One of the strategy employed in building design is reducing energy consumption while maintaining the best comfort zone in building indoor climate. The first step to improve office buildings energy performance by evaluating its existing energy usage using energy consumption intensity (Intensitas Konsumsi Energi, IKE) index. Energy evaluation of office building for hospital dr. Sayidiman at Kabupaten Magetan has been carried out in the initial investigation. The office building is operated with active cooling (air conditioning, AC) and use limited daylighting which consumes 14.61 kWh/m2/month. This IKE value is attributed into a slightly inefficient category. Further investigation was carried out by modeling and simulating thermal energy load and room lighting in every building zone using of Ecotect from Autodesk. Three scenarios of building energy and lighting retrofit have been performed simulating representing energy efficiency using cross ventilation, room openings, and passive cooling. The results of the numerical simulation indicate that the third scenario by employing additional windows, reflector media and skylight exhibit the best result and in accordance with SNI 03-6575-2001 lighting standard. Total thermal load of the existing building which includes fabric gains, indirect solar gains, direct solar gains, ventilation fans, internal gains, inter-zonal gains and cooling load were 162,145.40 kWh. Based on the three scenarios, the thermal load value (kWh) obtained was lowest achieved scenario 2 with the thermal value of 117,539.08 kWh.The final results are interpreted from the total energy emissions evaluated using the Ecotect software, the heating and cooling demand value and specific design of the windows are important factors to determine the energy efficiency of the buildings.

Energy efficiency evaluation of hospital building office

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fitriani, Indah; Sangadji, Senot; Kristiawan, S.A.

2017-01-01

One of the strategy employed in building design is reducing energy consumption while maintaining the best comfort zone in building indoor climate. The first step to improve office buildings energy performance by evaluating its existing energy usage using energy consumption intensity (Intensitas Konsumsi Energi, IKE) index. Energy evaluation of office building for hospital dr. Sayidiman at Kabupaten Magetan has been carried out in the initial investigation. The office building is operated with active cooling (air conditioning, AC) and use limited daylighting which consumes 14.61 kWh/m2/month. This IKE value is attributed into a slightly inefficient category. Further investigation was carried out by modeling and simulating thermal energy load and room lighting in every building zone using of Ecotect from Autodesk. Three scenarios of building energy and lighting retrofit have been performed simulating representing energy efficiency using cross ventilation, room openings, and passive cooling. The results of the numerical simulation indicate that the third scenario by employing additional windows, reflector media and skylight exhibit the best result and in accordance with SNI 03-6575-2001 lighting standard. Total thermal load of the existing building which includes fabric gains, indirect solar gains, direct solar gains, ventilation fans, internal gains, inter-zonal gains and cooling load were 162,145.40 kWh. Based on the three scenarios, the thermal load value (kWh) obtained was lowest achieved scenario 2 with the thermal value of 117,539.08 kWh.The final results are interpreted from the total energy emissions evaluated using the Ecotect software, the heating and cooling demand value and specific design of the windows are important factors to determine the energy efficiency of the buildings. (paper)

U.S. Department of Energy Commercial Reference Building Models of the National Building Stock

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deru, M.; Field, K.; Studer, D.; Benne, K.; Griffith, B.; Torcellini, P.; Liu, B.; Halverson, M.; Winiarski, D.; Rosenberg, M.; Yazdanian, M.; Huang, J.; Crawley, D.

2011-02-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program has set the aggressive goal of producing marketable net-zero energy buildings by 2025. This goal will require collaboration between the DOE laboratories and the building industry. We developed standard or reference energy models for the most common commercial buildings to serve as starting points for energy efficiency research. These models represent fairly realistic buildings and typical construction practices. Fifteen commercial building types and one multifamily residential building were determined by consensus between DOE, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and represent approximately two-thirds of the commercial building stock.

The Brazilian energy crisis and a study to support building efficiency legislation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosa, L.P. [Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). School of Engineering; Lomardo, L.L.B. [Fluminense Federal University and Researcher of COPPE, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Dept. of Architecture

2004-02-01

Brazil has gone through an important electricity generation crisis in 2001, but the country does not have as yet a legislation to improve building energy efficiency. The energy efficiency of Brazilian buildings can well be improved, as it was shown during the energy-rationing period in 2001. This efficiency increase could usher in gains in quality for indoor environments, as well as lower investments in power generation facilities, including the emission of gases into the atmosphere, flooding arable land for reservoirs, etc. The current work briefly demonstrates the lack of planning that caused the electricity crisis, some results of multi-building studies and simulations of an existing office building of Rio de Janeiro. In this parametric case-study, we have simulated variations of the window-wall ratio (WWR) with different glasses and interior shade, using the natural light, aspects deemed to be of the utmost importance for a future Brazilian building energy efficiency legislation. The need of such legislation has been much increased as a result of the energy generation crisis and its consequences. To take advantage of the problems, in order to improve the quality of the Brazilians buildings, is one of our objectives. (author)

Energy and exergy assessments for an enhanced use of energy in buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Goncalves, Pedro Manuel Ferreira

supply options are proposed and assessed as primary energy demand and exergy efficiency, showing it as a possible benchmarking method for future legislative frameworks regarding the energy performance assessment of buildings. Case study IV proposes a set of complementary indicators for comparing cogeneration and separate heat and electricity production systems. It aims to identify the advantages of exergy analysis relative to energy analysis, giving particular examples where these advantages are significant. The results demonstrate that exergy analysis can reveal meaningful information that might not be accessible using a conventional energy analysis approach, which is particularly evident when cogeneration and separated systems provide heat at very different temperatures. Case study V follows the exergy analysis method to evaluate the energy and exergy performance of a desiccant cooling system, aiming to assess and locate irreversibilities sources. The results reveal that natural gas boiler is the most inefficient component of the plant in question, followed by the chiller and heating coil. A set of alternative heating supply options for desiccant wheel regeneration is proposed, showing that, while some renewables may effectively reduce the primary energy demand of the plant, although this may not correspond to the optimum level of exergy efficiency. The thermal and chemical exergy components of moist air are also evaluated, as well as, the influence of outdoor environmental conditions on the energy/exergy performance of the plant. This research provides knowledge that is essential for the future development of complementary energy- and exergy-based indicators, helping to improve the current methodologies on performance assessments of buildings, cogeneration and desiccant cooling systems. The significance of exergy analysis is demonstrated for different types of buildings, which may be located in different climates (reference states) and be supplied by different types

Measures for energy efficiency improvement of buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vukadinović Ana V.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The increase in energy consumption in buildings causes the need to propose energy efficiency improvement measures. Urban planning in accordance with micro location conditions can lead to energy consumption reduction in buildings through the passive solar design. While satisfying the thermal comfort to the user space purpose, energy efficiency can be achieved by optimizing the architectural and construction parameters such as shape of the building, envelope structure and the percentage of glazing. The improvement of the proposed measures, including the use of renewable energy sources, can meet requirements of Directive 2010/31 / EU of 'nearly zero energy buildings'.

Design of energy efficient building with radiant slab cooling

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Zhen

2007-12-01

Air-conditioning comprises a substantial fraction of commercial building energy use because of compressor-driven refrigeration and fan-driven air circulation. Core regions of large buildings require year-round cooling due to heat gains from people, lights and equipment. Negative environmental impacts include CO2 emissions from electric generation and leakage of ozone-depleting refrigerants. Some argue that radiant cooling simultaneously improves building efficiency and occupant thermal comfort, and that current thermal comfort models fail to reflect occupant experience with radiant thermal control systems. There is little field evidence to test these claims. The University of Calgary's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Building, is a pioneering radiant slab cooling installation in North America. Thermal comfort and energy performance were evaluated. Measurements included: (1) heating and cooling energy use, (2) electrical energy use for lighting and equipment, and (3) indoor temperatures. Accuracy of a whole building energy simulation model was evaluated with these data. Simulation was then used to compare the radiant slab design with a conventional (variable air volume) system. The radiant system energy performance was found to be poorer mainly due to: (1) simultaneous cooling by the slab and heating by other systems, (2) omission of low-exergy (e.g., groundwater) cooling possible with the high cooling water temperatures possible with radiant slabs and (3) excessive solar gain and conductive heat loss due to the wall and fenestration design. Occupant thermal comfort was evaluated through questionnaires and concurrent measurement of workstation comfort parameters. Analysis of 116 sets of data from 82 occupants showed that occupant assessment was consistent with estimates based on current thermal comfort models. The main thermal comfort improvements were reductions in (1) local discomfort from draft and (2) vertical air temperature stratification. The

Capacity building for sustainable energy development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogner, Hans-Holger

2006-01-01

Capacity Building for Sustainable Energy Development - Mission: To build capacity in Member States (MS) for comprehensive energy system, economic and environmental analyses to assist in: - making informed policy decisions for sustainable energy development; - assessing the role of nuclear power; - understanding environmental and climate change issues related to energy production and use

Energy conservation in rented buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Klingberg, T.; Broechner, J.; Forsman, J.; Gaunt, L.; Holgersson, M.

1984-08-01

The bulletin is an anthology of nine essays by different authors addressing the issue of energy conservation in buildings, where there exists a landlord/tenant relationship. After an overview of the rental market and the stock of rental buildings different types of rental contracts and energy charges are described.

Barriers to Building Energy Efficiency (BEE) promotion: A transaction costs perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Qian Kun, Queena

Worldwide, buildings account for a surprisingly high 40% of global energy consumption, and the resulting carbon footprint significantly exceeds that of all forms of transportation combined. Large and attractive opportunities exist to reduce buildings' energy use at lower costs and higher returns than in other sectors. This thesis analyzes the concerns of the market stakeholders, mainly real estate developers and end-users, in terms of transaction costs as they make decisions about investing in Building Energy Efficiency (BEE). It provides a detailed analysis of the current situation and future prospects for BEE adoption by the market's stakeholders. It delineates the market and lays out the economic and institutional barriers to the large-scale deployment of energy-efficient building techniques. The aim of this research is to investigate the barriers raised by transaction costs that hinder market stakeholders from investing in BEES. It explains interactions among stakeholders in general and in the specific case of Hong Kong as they consider transaction costs. It focuses on the influence of transaction costs on the decision-making of the stakeholders during the entire process of real estate development. The objectives are: 1) To establish an analytical framework for understanding the barriers to BEE investment with consideration of transaction costs; 2) To build a theoretical game model of decision making among the BEE market stakeholders; 3) To study the empirical data from questionnaire surveys of building designers and from focused interviews with real estate developers in Hong Kong; 4) To triangulate the study's empirical findings with those of the theoretical model and analytical framework. The study shows that a coherent institutional framework needs to be established to ensure that the design and implementation of BEE policies acknowledge the concerns of market stakeholders by taking transaction costs into consideration. Regulatory and incentive options

IEA EBC Annex 67 Energy Flexible Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marszal, Anna Joanna; Jensen, Søren Østergaard

2016-01-01

know ledge on and demonstration of the Energy Flexibility Buildings can provide for the energy grids as well of to identify critical aspects and possible solutions to manage this Energy Flexibility. The paper discusses the background, the aims and the work plan of IEA (International Energy Agency) EBC......The foreseen large deployment of renewable energy sources may seriously affect the stability of energy grids. It will be necessary to control energy consumption to match instantaneous energy production. The built-in Energy Flexibility in buildings may be utilized for stabilizing the energy grids......, allowing for a larger roll out of renewable technologies. The Energy Flexibility of a building is the ability to manage its energy demand and generation according to local climate conditions, user needs and grid requirements. Energy Flexibility of buildings will thus allow for demand side management...

Handbook of energy use for building construction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stein, R.G.; Stein, C.; Buckley, M.; Green, M.

1980-03-01

The construction industry accounts for over 11.14% of the total energy consumed in the US annually. This represents the equivalent energy value of 1 1/4 billion barrels of oil. Within the construction industry, new building construction accounts for 5.19% of national annual energy consumption. The remaining 5.95% is distributed among new nonbuilding construction (highways, ralroads, dams, bridges, etc.), building maintenance construction, and nonbuilding maintenance construction. The handbook focuses on new building construction; however, some information for the other parts of the construction industry is also included. The handbook provides building designers with information to determine the energy required for buildings construction and evaluates the energy required for alternative materials, assemblies, and methods. The handbook is also applicable to large-scale planning and policy determination in that it provides the means to estimate the energy required to carry out major building programs.

Handbook of energy use for building construction

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, R. G.; Stein, C.; Buckley, M.; Green, M.

1980-03-01

The construction industry accounts for over 11.14% of the total energy consumed in the US annually. This represents the equivalent energy value of 1 1/4 billion barrels of oil. Within the construction industry, new building construction accounts for 5.19% of national annual energy consumption. The remaining 5.95% is distributed among new nonbuilding construction (highways, railroads, dams, bridges, etc.), building maintenance construction, and nonbuilding maintenance construction. Emphasis is given to new building construction; however, some information for the other parts of the construction industry is also included. Building designers are provided with information to determine the energy required for buildings construction and to evaluate the energy required for alternative materials, assemblies, and methods. It is also applicable to large-scale planning and policy determination in that it provides the means to estimate the energy required to carry out major building programs.

Energy efficiency design strategies for buildings with grid-connected photovoltaic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Yimprayoon, Chanikarn

some states. Data from this study provides insight of impacts from applying energy efficiency design strategies in buildings with grid-connected PV systems. With the current transition from traditional electric grids to future smart grids, this information plus large database of various building conditions allow possible investigations needed by governments or utilities in large scale communities for implementing various measures and policies.

Impact of window selection on the energy performance of residential buildings in South Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ihm, Pyeongchan; Park, Lyool; Krarti, Moncef; Seo, Donghyun

2012-01-01

With rapidly increasing energy consumption attributed to residential buildings in South Korea, there is a need to update requirements of the building energy code in order to improve the energy performance of buildings. This paper provides some guidelines to improve the building energy code to better select glazing types that minimize total energy use of residential buildings in Korea. In particular, detailed energy simulation analyses coupled with economical and environmental assessments are carried out to assess the thermal, economical, and environmental impacts of glazing thermal characteristics as well as window sizes associated with housing units in various representative climates within South Korea. The results of the analyses have clearly indicated that selecting glazing with low solar heat gain coefficient is highly beneficial especially for large windows and for mild climates. In particular, it is found that using any double-pane low-e glazing would provide better performance for windows in residential buildings than the clear double-pane glazing, currently required by the Korean building energy code. - Highlights: ► Results show that windows can be energy neutral for residential buildings. ► In Korea, double-pane low-e glazing would provide better energy performance. ► Double low-e clear filled with argon gas glazing is the most cost-effective.

Social acceptance of renewable energy technologies for buildings in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area of Finland

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jung, N.; Moula, M.E.; Fang, T.; Hamdy, M.; Lahdelma, R.

2016-01-01

The application of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in the residential building sector requires acceptance of technical solutions by key stakeholders, such as building owners, real-estate developers, and energy providers. The objective of this study is to identify the current status of public

Zero Energy Building definition–a literature review

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heiselberg, Per Kvols; Marszal, Anna Joanna

2011-01-01

The worldwide CO2 emission mitigation efforts, the growing energy resource shortage and the fact that buildings are responsible for a large share of the world’s primary energy use drives research towards new building concepts, in particular Zero Energy/Emission Buildings (ZEBs). Unfortunately, th...

Modelling energy demand in the buildings sector within the EU

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

O Broin, Eoin

2012-11-01

fuel mixes are applied in three scenarios. The rates for expansion of floor area and increases in living standards are the same for all the scenarios. The model outputs predict that if energy efficiency remains at the current level, then expansion of the building floor area and other increases in living standards would increase final energy demand in the EU by almost 70 % by 2050. The other two scenarios reveal the levels of improvements in efficiency that are needed to maintain energy demand at current rates or reduce it by 20 %. The results of the modelling provide a conceptual framework for the development of fiscal and regulatory policy decisions in relation to energy prices and various categories of energy efficiency measures, with the overall objective of meeting future demand for energy services of the building sector within the EU in a sustainable manner.

Commercial Building Tenant Energy Usage Aggregation and Privacy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Livingston, Olga V.; Pulsipher, Trenton C.; Anderson, David M.; Wang, Na

2014-10-31

A growing number of building owners are benchmarking their building energy use. This requires the building owner to acquire monthly whole-building energy usage information, which can be challenging for buildings in which individual tenants have their own utility meters and accounts with the utility. Some utilities and utility regulators have turned to aggregation of customer energy use data (CEUD) as a way to give building owners whole-building energy usage data while protecting customer privacy. Meter profile aggregation adds a layer of protection that decreases the risk of revealing CEUD as the number of meters aggregated increases. The report statistically characterizes the similarity between individual energy usage patterns and whole-building totals at various levels of meter aggregation.

Municipalities as promoters of energy efficient buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quitzau, Maj-Britt; Hoffmann, Birgitte; Elle, Morten

Planning authorities generally experience difficulties in disseminating energy efficient technologies in the built environment. Although planning authorities formulate objectives to promote energy efficient build-ings, these objectives often turn out to be declarations of intent, since the author......Planning authorities generally experience difficulties in disseminating energy efficient technologies in the built environment. Although planning authorities formulate objectives to promote energy efficient build-ings, these objectives often turn out to be declarations of intent, since...... with practitioners in the building sector at the local level. The aim of this report is to look into municipal efforts to promote energy efficient buildings to learn from their experiences: What types of challenges are municipalities facing, when attempting to disseminate energy efficient technologies in local...... building projects through municipal planning practices, and how do they cope with these challenges? The report is based on an in-depth study of proactive planning practices performed by municipal partners in the Class 1 project and a series of experiences, strategies and instru-ments are identified...

Modeling Aggregate Hourly Energy Consumption in a Regional Building Stock

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Kipping

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Sound estimates of future heat and electricity demand with high temporal and spatial resolution are needed for energy system planning, grid design, and evaluating demand-side management options and polices on regional and national levels. In this study, smart meter data on electricity consumption in buildings are combined with cross-sectional building information to model hourly electricity consumption within the household and service sectors on a regional basis in Norway. The same modeling approach is applied to model aggregate hourly district heat consumption in three different consumer groups located in Oslo. A comparison of modeled and metered hourly energy consumption shows that hourly variations and aggregate consumption per county and year are reproduced well by the models. However, for some smaller regions, modeled annual electricity consumption is over- or underestimated by more than 20%. Our results indicate that the presented method is useful for modeling the current and future hourly energy consumption of a regional building stock, but that larger and more detailed training datasets are required to improve the models, and more detailed building stock statistics on regional level are needed to generate useful estimates on aggregate regional energy consumption.

Comparison of Building Energy Modeling Programs: Building Loads

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhu, Dandan [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Hong, Tianzhen [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Yan, Da [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Wang, Chuang [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)

2012-06-01

This technical report presented the methodologies, processes, and results of comparing three Building Energy Modeling Programs (BEMPs) for load calculations: EnergyPlus, DeST and DOE-2.1E. This joint effort, between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA and Tsinghua University, China, was part of research projects under the US-China Clean Energy Research Center on Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE). Energy Foundation, an industrial partner of CERC-BEE, was the co-sponsor of this study work. It is widely known that large discrepancies in simulation results can exist between different BEMPs. The result is a lack of confidence in building simulation amongst many users and stakeholders. In the fields of building energy code development and energy labeling programs where building simulation plays a key role, there are also confusing and misleading claims that some BEMPs are better than others. In order to address these problems, it is essential to identify and understand differences between widely-used BEMPs, and the impact of these differences on load simulation results, by detailed comparisons of these BEMPs from source code to results. The primary goal of this work was to research methods and processes that would allow a thorough scientific comparison of the BEMPs. The secondary goal was to provide a list of strengths and weaknesses for each BEMP, based on in-depth understandings of their modeling capabilities, mathematical algorithms, advantages and limitations. This is to guide the use of BEMPs in the design and retrofit of buildings, especially to support China’s building energy standard development and energy labeling program. The research findings could also serve as a good reference to improve the modeling capabilities and applications of the three BEMPs. The methodologies, processes, and analyses employed in the comparison work could also be used to compare other programs. The load calculation method of each program was analyzed and compared to

Regression Tree-Based Methodology for Customizing Building Energy Benchmarks to Individual Commercial Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Kaskhedikar, Apoorva Prakash

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, commercial buildings represent about 40% of the United State's energy consumption of which office buildings consume a major portion. Gauging the extent to which an individual building consumes energy in excess of its peers is the first step in initiating energy efficiency improvement. Energy Benchmarking offers initial building energy performance assessment without rigorous evaluation. Energy benchmarking tools based on the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) database are investigated in this thesis. This study proposes a new benchmarking methodology based on decision trees, where a relationship between the energy use intensities (EUI) and building parameters (continuous and categorical) is developed for different building types. This methodology was applied to medium office and school building types contained in the CBECS database. The Random Forest technique was used to find the most influential parameters that impact building energy use intensities. Subsequently, correlations which were significant were identified between EUIs and CBECS variables. Other than floor area, some of the important variables were number of workers, location, number of PCs and main cooling equipment. The coefficient of variation was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the new model. The customization technique proposed in this thesis was compared with another benchmarking model that is widely used by building owners and designers namely, the ENERGY STAR's Portfolio Manager. This tool relies on the standard Linear Regression methods which is only able to handle continuous variables. The model proposed uses data mining technique and was found to perform slightly better than the Portfolio Manager. The broader impacts of the new benchmarking methodology proposed is that it allows for identifying important categorical variables, and then incorporating them in a local, as against a global, model framework for EUI

Renewable Energy Applications for Existing Buildings: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hayter, S. J.; Kandt, A.

2011-08-01

This paper introduces technical opportunities, means, and methods for incorporating renewable energy (RE) technologies into building designs and operations. It provides an overview of RE resources and available technologies used successfully to offset building electrical and thermal energy loads. Methods for applying these technologies in buildings and the role of building energy efficiency in successful RE projects are addressed along with tips for implementing successful RE projects.

Impacts of Model Building Energy Codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Athalye, Rahul A. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Sivaraman, Deepak [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Elliott, Douglas B. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Liu, Bing [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Bartlett, Rosemarie [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2016-10-31

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program (BECP) periodically evaluates national and state-level impacts associated with energy codes in residential and commercial buildings. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), funded by DOE, conducted an assessment of the prospective impacts of national model building energy codes from 2010 through 2040. A previous PNNL study evaluated the impact of the Building Energy Codes Program; this study looked more broadly at overall code impacts. This report describes the methodology used for the assessment and presents the impacts in terms of energy savings, consumer cost savings, and reduced CO₂ emissions at the state level and at aggregated levels. This analysis does not represent all potential savings from energy codes in the U.S. because it excludes several states which have codes which are fundamentally different from the national model energy codes or which do not have state-wide codes. Energy codes follow a three-phase cycle that starts with the development of a new model code, proceeds with the adoption of the new code by states and local jurisdictions, and finishes when buildings comply with the code. The development of new model code editions creates the potential for increased energy savings. After a new model code is adopted, potential savings are realized in the field when new buildings (or additions and alterations) are constructed to comply with the new code. Delayed adoption of a model code and incomplete compliance with the code’s requirements erode potential savings. The contributions of all three phases are crucial to the overall impact of codes, and are considered in this assessment.

Unintended anchors: Building rating systems and energy performance goals for U.S. buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klotz, Leidy; Mack, Daniel; Klapthor, Brent; Tunstall, Casey; Harrison, Jennilee

2010-01-01

In the U.S., where buildings account for 40% of energy use, commercial buildings use more energy per unit area than ever before. However, exemplary buildings demonstrate the feasibility of much better energy performance at no additional first cost. This research examines one possible explanation for this inconsistency. The aim is to investigate whether the anchoring bias, which refers to our tendency to gravitate towards a pre-defined standard regardless of its relevance, influences energy performance goals in building design. The scope examines professionals who help set energy performance goals for U.S. buildings. Prior to being asked to set an energy performance goal, these professionals were randomly directed to one of three series of questions. One series set an anchor of 90% energy reduction beyond standard practice, one set a 30% anchor, and one set no anchor. Respondents exposed to the 90% anchor, and respondents exposed to no anchor at all, set higher energy performance goals than respondents exposed to the 30% anchor. These results suggest that building rating systems that only reward incremental energy improvements may inadvertently create anchors, thereby discouraging more advanced energy performance goals and inhibiting energy performance that is technically and economically feasible.

Design and development of Building energy simulation Software for prefabricated cabin type of industrial building (PCES)

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jun; Li, Ri Yi

2018-06-01

Building energy simulation is an important supporting tool for green building design and building energy consumption assessment, At present, Building energy simulation software can't meet the needs of energy consumption analysis and cabinet level micro environment control design of prefabricated building. thermal physical model of prefabricated building is proposed in this paper, based on the physical model, the energy consumption calculation software of prefabricated cabin building(PCES) is developed. we can achieve building parameter setting, energy consumption simulation and building thermal process and energy consumption analysis by PCES.

Multidisciplinary Energy Assessment of Tertiary Buildings: Automated Geomatic Inspection, Building Information Modeling Reconstruction and Building Performance Simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faustino Patiño-Cambeiro

2017-07-01

Full Text Available There is an urgent need for energy efficiency in buildings within the European framework, considering its environmental implications, and Europe’s energy dependence. Furthermore, the need for enhancing and increasing productivity in the building industry turns new technologies and building energy performance simulation environments into extremely interesting solutions towards rigorous analysis and decision making in renovation within acceptable risk levels. The present work describes a multidisciplinary approach for the estimation of the energy performance of an educational building. The research involved data acquisition with advanced geomatic tools, the development of an optimized building information model, and energy assessment in Building Performance Simulation (BPS software. Interoperability issues were observed in the different steps of the process. The inspection and diagnostic phases were conducted in a timely, accurate manner thanks to automated data acquisition and subsequent analysis using Building Information Modeling based tools (BIM-based tools. Energy simulation was performed using Design Builder, and the results obtained were compared with those yielded by the official software tool established by Spanish regulations for energy certification. The discrepancies between the results of both programs have proven that the official software program is conservative in this sense. This may cause the depreciation of the assessed buildings.

Building energy retrofit index for policy making and decision support at regional and national scales

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khayatian, Fazel; Sarto, Luca; Dall'O', Giuliano

2017-01-01

Highlights: •Machine learning is used for pre-processing, fine-tuning and post-processing data. •A new indicator is introduced to support building energy retrofit policies. •The presented indicator is evaluated by a case study of 4767 buildings. •Current energy indicators can misrepresent the building energy retrofit potential. -- Abstract: The vast data collected since the enforcement of building energy labelling in Italy has provided valuable information that is useful for planning the future of building energy efficiency. However, the indicators provided through energy certificates are not suitable to support decisions, which target building energy retrofit in a regional scale. Considering the bias of the energy performance index toward a building’s shape, decisions based on this index will favor buildings with a specific geometric characteristics. This study tends to overcome this issue by introducing a new indicator, tailored to rank buildings based on retrofitable characteristics. The proposed framework is validated by a case study, in which a large dataset of office buildings are assigned with the new index. Results indicate that the proposed indicator succeeds to extract a single index, which is representative of all building characteristics subject to energy retrofit. A new labeling procedure is also compared with the conventional classification of buildings. It is observed that the proposed labels properly partitions the dataset, according to buildings’ potential to undergo energy retrofit.

Recent Developments of the Modelica"Buildings" Library for Building Energy and Control Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wetter, Michael; Zuo, Wangda; Nouidui, Thierry Stephane

2011-04-01

At the Modelica 2009 conference, we introduced the Buildings library, a freely available Modelica library for building energy and control systems. This paper reports the updates of the library and presents example applications for a range of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Over the past two years, the library has been further developed. The number of HVAC components models has been doubled and various components have been revised to increase numerical robustness.The paper starts with an overview of the library architecture and a description of the main packages. To demonstrate the features of the Buildings library, applications that include multizone airflow simulation as well as supervisory and local loop control of a variable air volume (VAV) system are briefly described. The paper closes with a discussion of the current development.

A two-factor method for appraising building renovation and energy efficiency improvement projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martinaitis, Vytautas; Kazakevicius, Eduardas; Vitkauskas, Aloyzas

2007-01-01

The renovation of residential buildings usually involves a variety of measures aiming at reducing energy and building maintenance bills, increasing safety and market value, and improving comfort and aesthetics. A significant number of project appraisal methods in current use-such as calculations of payback time, net present value, internal rate of return or cost of conserved energy (CCE)-only quantify energy efficiency gains. These approaches are relatively easy to use, but offer a distorted view of complex modernization projects. On the other hand, various methods using multiple criteria take a much wider perspective but are usually time-consuming, based on sometimes uncertain assumptions and require sophisticated tools. A 'two-factor' appraisal method offers a compromise between these two approaches. The main idea of the method is to separate investments into those related to energy efficiency improvements, and those related to building renovation. Costs and benefits of complex measures, which both influence energy consumption and improve building constructions, are separated by using a building rehabilitation coefficient. The CCE is used for the appraisal of energy efficiency investments, while investments in building renovation are appraised using standard tools for the assessment of investments in maintenance, repair and rehabilitation

Emerging Energy-Efficient Technologies in Buildings Technology Characterizations for Energy Modeling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hadley, SW

2004-10-11

The energy use in America's commercial and residential building sectors is large and growing. Over 38 quadrillion Btus (Quads) of primary energy were consumed in 2002, representing 39% of total U.S. energy consumption. While the energy use in buildings is expected to grow to 52 Quads by 2025, a large number of energy-related technologies exist that could curtail this increase. In recent years, improvements in such items as high efficiency refrigerators, compact fluorescent lights, high-SEER air conditioners, and improved building shells have all contributed to reducing energy use. Hundreds of other technology improvements have and will continue to improve the energy use in buildings. While many technologies are well understood and are gradually penetrating the market, more advanced technologies will be introduced in the future. The pace and extent of these advances can be improved through state and federal R&D. This report focuses on the long-term potential for energy-efficiency improvement in buildings. Five promising technologies have been selected for description to give an idea of the wide range of possibilities. They address the major areas of energy use in buildings: space conditioning (33% of building use), water heating (9%), and lighting (16%). Besides describing energy-using technologies (solid-state lighting and geothermal heat pumps), the report also discusses energy-saving building shell improvements (smart roofs) and the integration of multiple energy service technologies (CHP packaged systems and triple function heat pumps) to create synergistic savings. Finally, information technologies that can improve the efficiency of building operations are discussed. The report demonstrates that the United States is not running out of technologies to improve energy efficiency and economic and environmental performance, and will not run out in the future. The five technology areas alone can potentially result in total primary energy savings of between 2 and

Energy Benchmarking in Educational Buildings through Cluster Analysis of Energy Retrofitting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paola Marrone

2018-03-01

Full Text Available A large part of the stock of Italian educational buildings have undertaken energy retrofit interventions, thanks to European funds allocated by complex technical-administrative calls. In these projects, the suggested retrofit strategies are often selected based on the common best practices (considering average energy savings but are not supported by proper energy investigations. In this paper, Italian school buildings’ stock was analyzed by cluster analysis with the aim of providing a methodology able to identify the best energy retrofit interventions from the perspective of cost-benefit, and to correlate them with the specific characteristics of the educational buildings. This research is based on the analysis of about 80 school buildings located in central Italy and characterized by different features and construction technologies. The refurbished buildings were classified in homogeneous clusters and, for each of them, the most representative building was identified. Furthermore, for each representative building a validating procedure based on dynamic simulations and a comparison with actual energy use was performed. The two buildings thus singled out provide a model that could be developed into a useful tool for Public Administrations to suggest priorities in the planning of new energy retrofits of existing school building stocks.

Success factors of energy performance contracting (EPC) for sustainable building energy efficiency retrofit (BEER) of hotel buildings in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Pengpeng; Chan, Edwin Hon-Wan; Queena Kun Qian

2011-01-01

Hotel building is a type of high-energy-consuming building and most existing hotel buildings need energy efficiency improvement in China. Energy performance contracting (EPC) is considered a win-win mechanism to organize building energy efficiency retrofit (BEER) project. However, EPC mechanism has been introduced into China relatively recently and many EPCs have not been successful in building energy efficiency retrofit projects. This research aims to develop a set of critical success factors (CSFs) of EPC for sustainable energy efficiency retrofit (BEER) of hotel buildings in China. Semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey with practitioners and other professionals were conducted. The findings reveal the relative importance of the 21 number of identified success factors. In order to explore the underlying relationship among the identified critical success factors (CSFs), factor analysis method was adopted for further investigation, which leads to grouping the 21 identified CSFs into six clusters. These are (1) project organization process, (2) EPC project financing for hotel retrofit, (3) knowledge and innovation of EPC, sustainable development (SD), and M and V, (4) implementation of sustainable development strategy, (5) contractual arrangement, and (6) external economic environment. Finally, several relevant policies were proposed to implement EPC successfully in sustainable BEER in hotel buildings. - Highlights: → EPC is a win-win mechanism to organize building energy efficiency retrofit project. → CSFs of EPC mechanism for sustainable BEER of hotel building in China are examined. → Six clusters are extracted from 21 identified CSFs based on factor analysis.

Classification of low energy houses in Danish Building Regulations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rose, Jørgen; Svendsen, Svend

2005-01-01

The new Danish Building Regulations (Building Regulations, 2005) introduces the total energy consumption, i.e. energy use for heating, ventilation, cooling and domestic hot water, for buildings as a measure for the energy efficiency of new buildings, i.e. moving away from the former U-value demands....... In addition to the minimum requirements for new buildings, the new Building Regulations also specify requirements for characterizing a building as either low energy building class 1 or low energy building class 2. This paper describes a type-house that is presently being built in Denmark. The type......-house easily meets the requirements for being categorized as a low energy building class 1, and the paper investigates how much U-values can be increased if the type-house were to fulfil the requirements for a low energy building class 2 or a building that just fulfils the minimum demands....

76 FR 64931 - Building Energy Codes Cost Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-19

...-0046] Building Energy Codes Cost Analysis AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy... reopening of the time period for submitting comments on the request for information on Building Energy Codes... the request for information on Building Energy Code Cost Analysis and provide docket number EERE-2011...

The Role of Energy Storage in Commercial Building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kintner-Meyer, Michael CW; Subbarao, Krishnappa; Prakash Kumar, Nirupama; Bandyopadhyay, Gopal K.; Finley, C.; Koritarov, V. S.; Molburg, J. C.; Wang, J.; Zhao, Fuli; Brackney, L.; Florita, A. R.

2010-09-30

Motivation and Background of Study This project was motivated by the need to understand the full value of energy storage (thermal and electric energy storage) in commercial buildings, the opportunity of benefits for building operations and the potential interactions between a building and a smart grid infrastructure. On-site or local energy storage systems are not new to the commercial building sector; they have been in place in US buildings for decades. Most building-scale storage technologies are based on thermal or electrochemical storage mechanisms. Energy storage technologies are not designed to conserve energy, and losses associated with energy conversion are inevitable. Instead, storage provides flexibility to manage load in a building or to balance load and generation in the power grid. From the building owner's perspective, storage enables load shifting to optimize energy costs while maintaining comfort. From a grid operations perspective, building storage at scale could provide additional flexibility to grid operators in managing the generation variability from intermittent renewable energy resources (wind and solar). To characterize the set of benefits, technical opportunities and challenges, and potential economic values of storage in a commercial building from both the building operation's and the grid operation's view-points is the key point of this project. The research effort was initiated in early 2010 involving Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to quantify these opportunities from a commercial buildings perspective. This report summarizes the early discussions, literature reviews, stakeholder engagements, and initial results of analyses related to the overall role of energy storage in commercial buildings. Beyond the summary of roughly eight months of effort by the laboratories, the report attempts to substantiate the importance of

Driving forces and barriers to improved energy performance of buildings: an analysis of energy performance of Swedish buildings, 2000-2006

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fuglseth, Bente Beckstroem

2008-06-15

The building sector is responsible for a substantial part of energy use and green house gas emissions in Europe. This report explores driving forces and barriers to improved energy performance of buildings, using the Swedish building sector as a case. The development of energy performance of buildings in Sweden from 2000 until 2006 is explored by applying a threefold understanding of energy performance of buildings: substitution from fossil fuels to renewable energy, conversion from electrical heating to thermal energy and reduction in energy demand. Three explanatory approaches are used to analyse driving forces and barriers to improved energy performance: the techno-economic approach stresses the physical aspects of infrastructure and technologies, the institutional approach emphasizes the role of institutional factors, while the regulative approach focuses on formal rules and laws. The study concludes that all factors have promoted substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy, while they have prevented conversion from electrical heating to thermal energy and reduction in energy demand. (author). 95 refs

Federal Research and Development Agenda for Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Green Buildings

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2008-01-01

.... greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). If current trends continue, buildings worldwide will become the top energy consumers by 2025, and are likely to use as much energy as industry and transportation combined by 2050...

Building Performance Simulation for Sustainable Energy Use in Buildings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hensen, J.L.M.

2010-01-01

This paper aims to provide a general view of the background and current state of building performance simulation, which has the potential to deliver, directly or indirectly, substantial benefits to building stakeholders and to the environment. However the building simulation community faces many

Building energy efficiency labeling programme in Singapore

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Siew Eang; Rajagopalan, Priyadarsini

2008-01-01

The use of electricity in buildings constitutes around 16% of Singapore's energy demand. In view of the fact that Singapore is an urban city with no rural base, which depends heavily on air-conditioning to cool its buildings all year round, the survival as a nation depends on its ability to excel economically. To incorporate energy efficiency measures is one of the key missions to ensure that the economy is sustainable. The recently launched building energy efficiency labelling programme is such an initiative. Buildings whose energy performance are among the nation's top 25% and maintain a healthy and productive indoor environment as well as uphold a minimum performance for different systems can qualify to attain the Energy Smart Office Label. Detailed methodologies of the labelling process as well as the performance standards are elaborated. The main strengths of this system namely a rigorous benchmarking database and an independent audit conducted by a private accredited Energy Service Company (ESCO) are highlighted. A few buildings were awarded the Energy Smart Office Label during the launching of the programme conducted in December 2005. The labeling of other types of buildings like hotels, schools, hospitals, etc. is ongoing

A District Approach to Building Renovation for the Integral Energy Redevelopment of Existing Residential Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mira Conci

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Building energy renovation quotas are not currently being met due to unfavorable conditions such as complex building regulations, limited investment incentives, historical preservation priorities, and technical limitations. The traditional strategy has been to incrementally lower the energy consumption of the building stock, instead of raising the efficiency of the energy supply through a broader use of renewable sources. This strategy requires an integral redefinition of the approach to energy building renovations. The joint project SWIVT elaborates on a district redevelopment strategy that combines a reduction in the energy demand of existing buildings and their physical interconnection within a local micro-grid and heating network. The district is equipped with energy generation and distribution technologies as well as hybrid thermal and electrical energy storage systems, steered by an optimizing energy management controller. This strategy is explored through three scenarios designed for an existing residential area in Darmstadt, Germany, and benchmarked against measured data. Presented findings show that a total primary energy balance at least 30% lower than that of a standard building renovation can be achieved by a cluster of buildings with different thermal qualities and connected energy generation, conversion, and storage systems, with only minimal physical intervention to existing buildings.

The European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Steffen; Hviid, Christian Anker

This paper investigates the actual energy use for building operation with the calculated energy use according to the Danish implementation of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). This is important to various stakeholders in the building industry as the calculated energy...... performance is used for estimating investment security, operating budgets and for policy making. A case study shows that the actual and calculated energy use is practically the same in an average scenario. In the worst-case uncertainty scenario, the actual energy use is 20 % higher than the corrected...

Tropical Zero Energy Office Building

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reimann, Gregers Peter; Kristensen, Poul Erik

2006-01-01

The new headquarter for Pusat Tenaga Malaysia is designed to be a Zero Emission Office Building (ZEO). A full range of passive and active energy efficiency measures are implemented such that the building will need no more electricity than what can be produced via its own Building Integrated PV...... lighting. These measures include the use of high efficient lighting controlled according to demand, high efficiency pumps and fans, a high efficiency chiller, and use of energy efficient office equipment. The buildings PV system is connected to the grid. Solar electricity is exported to the grid during...... of 24 – 26 oC can be maintained throughout the office hours. The PV roof of the building serves multiple purposes. During daytime, the roof becomes the powerplant of the building, and during nighttime, the PV roof becomes the “cooling tower” for the chiller. The roof will be covered by a thin water film...

Energy absorption build-up factors in teeth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manjunatha, H.C.; Rudraswamy, B.

2012-01-01

Geometric progression fitting method has been used to compute energy absorption build-up factor of teeth [enamel outer surface, enamel middle, enamel dentin junction towards enamel, enamel dentin junction towards dentin, dentin middle and dentin inner surface] for wide energy range (0.015-15 MeV) up to the penetration depth of 40 mean free path. The dependence of energy absorption build-up factor on incident photon energy, penetration depth, electron density and effective atomic number has also been studied. The energy absorption build-up factors increases with the penetration depth and electron density of teeth. So that the degree of violation of Lambert-Beer (I = I 0 e -μt ) law is less for least penetration depth and electron density. The energy absorption build-up factors for different regions of teeth are not same hence the energy absorbed by the different regions of teeth is not uniform which depends on the composition of the medium. The relative dose of gamma in different regions of teeth is also estimated. Dosimetric implication of energy absorption build-up factor in teeth has also been discussed. The estimated absorption build up factors in different regions of teeth may be useful in the electron spin resonance dosimetry. (author)

Managing carbon emissions in China through building energy efficiency.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jun; Colombier, Michel

2009-06-01

This paper attempts to analyse the role of building energy efficiency (BEE) in China in addressing climate change mitigation. It provides an analysis of the current situation and future prospects for the adoption of BEE technologies in Chinese cities. It outlines the economic and institutional barriers to large-scale deployment of the sustainable, low-carbon, and even carbon-free construction techniques. Based on a comprehensive overview of energy demand characteristics and development trends driven by economic and demographic growth, different policy tools for cost-effective CO(2) emission reduction in the Chinese construction sector are described. We propose a comprehensive approach combining building design and construction, and the urban planning and building material industries, in order to drastically improve BEE during this period of rapid urban development. A coherent institutional framework needs to be established to ensure the implementation of efficiency policies. Regulatory and incentive options should be integrated into the policy portfolios of BEE to minimise the efficiency gap and to realise sizeable carbon emissions cuts in the next decades. We analyse in detail several policies and instruments, and formulate relevant policy proposals fostering low-carbon construction technology in China. Specifically, Our analysis shows that improving building energy efficiency can generate considerable carbon emissions reduction credits with competitive price under the CDM framework.

Economic assessment of energy storage for load shifting in Positive Energy Building

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dumont, Olivier; Carmo, Carolina; Georges, Emeline

2016-01-01

Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) and Positive Energy Buildings (PEB) are gaining more and more interest. In this paper, the impact of the integration of a battery in a positive energy building is assessed in order to increase its self-consumption of electricity. Parametric studies are carried out......-in tariff and a 5 kWh battery. Finally, simple correlations (based on the feed-in tariff, the annual electrical consumption and production) to predict the optimal size of battery and the lowest payback period are proposed.......Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) and Positive Energy Buildings (PEB) are gaining more and more interest. In this paper, the impact of the integration of a battery in a positive energy building is assessed in order to increase its self-consumption of electricity. Parametric studies are carried out...... by varying the building envelope characteristics, the power supply system, the climate, the lightning and appliances profiles, the roof tilt, the battery size and the electricity tariffs, leading to 3200 cases. The analysis is performed on an annual basis in terms of self-consumption rate, shifted energy...

The Denver Federal Courthouse: Energy-efficiency in a new Federal building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jacobs, P.C.; Holtz, M.J.; Digert, N.; Starkweather, S.; Porter, F.; Clevenger, C.

1999-07-01

The US Federal Courthouse Expansion in Denver, Colorado is twelve story, 16,112 m{sup 2} project to be constructed adjacent to several existing Courthouse and Federal buildings in downtown Denver. The project has been designated a sustainable design showcase by the General Services Administration, and additional funds were made available to the project for sustainable design features. The design achieves a high level of energy efficiency through a combination of strategies that seek first to reduce building lighting and HVAC loads as low as possible, and then satisfy the remaining, loads through a combination of state-of-the-art, high-efficiency mechanical, electrical, and renewable energy systems. The unique attributes of the Denver climate--sunny skies and low humidity, are utilized throughout the design to minimize energy consumption. The resulting building provides a visible expression of sustainability through the incorporation of a set of features that are designed to work together in an integrated energy-efficient building system. Careful life-cycle assessment of materials and building practices results in minimized use of natural resources as well as a healthier environment for the occupants. The use of local materials is emphasized and the building is designed to have a 100-year life. Issues addressed in material selection include sustainability, recyclability, toxicity, and maintenance. The criteria used to establish the success of the design are contained in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Although the building is currently entering final design, a LEED gold rating is expected.

Evaluating Fenestration Products for Zero-Energy Buildings: Issuesfor Discussion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arasteh, Dariush; Curcija, Charlie; Huang, Joe; Huizenga,Charlie; Kohler, Christian

2006-07-25

Computer modeling to determine fenestration product energy properties (U-factor, SHGC, VT) has emerged as the most cost-effective and accurate means to quantify them. Fenestration product simulation tools have been effective in increasing the use of low-e coatings and gas fills in insulating glass and in the widespread use of insulating frame designs and materials. However, for more efficient fenestration products (low heat loss products, dynamic products, products with non-specular optical characteristics, light re-directing products) to achieve widespread use, fenestration modeling software needs to be improved. This paper addresses the following questions: (1) Are the current properties (U, SHGC, VT) calculated sufficient to compare and distinguish between windows suitable for Zero Energy Buildings and conventional window products? If not, what data on the thermal and optical performance, on comfort, and on peak demand of windows is needed. (2) Are the algorithms in the tools sufficient to model the thermal and optical processes? Are specific heat transfer and optical effects not accounted for? Is the existing level of accuracy enough to distinguish between products designed for Zero Energy Buildings? Is the current input data adequate?

How energy efficiency fails in the building industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ryghaug, Marianne; Sorensen, Knut H.

2009-01-01

This paper examines how energy efficiency fails in the building industry based on many years of research into the integration of energy efficiency in the construction of buildings and sustainable architecture in Norway. It argues that energy-efficient construction has been seriously restrained by three interrelated problems: (1) deficiencies in public policy to stimulate energy efficiency, (2) limited governmental efforts to regulate the building industry, and (3) a conservative building industry. The paper concludes that innovation and implementation of new, energy-efficient technologies in the building industry requires new policies, better regulations and reformed practices in the industry itself

Energy savings potential from improved building controls for the US commercial building sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fernandez, Nick; Katipamula, Srinivas; Wang, Weimin; Xie, Yulong; Zhao, Mingjie

2017-09-27

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Office (BTO) sponsored a study to determine the potential national savings achievable in the commercial building sector through widespread deployment of best practice controls, elimination of system and component faults, and use of better sensing. Detailed characterization of potential savings was one source of input to set research, development, and deployment (RD&D) goals in the field of building sensors and controls. DOE’s building energy simulation software, EnergyPlus, was employed to estimate the potential savings from 34 measures in 9 building types and across 16 climates representing almost 57% of commercial building sector energy consumption. In addition to estimating savings from individual measures, three packages of measures were created to estimate savings from the packages. These packages represented an 1) efficient building, 2) typical building, and 3) inefficient building. To scale the results from individual measures or a package to the national scale, building weights by building type and climate locations from the Energy Information Administration’s 2012 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) were used. The results showed significant potential for energy savings across all building types and climates. The total site potential savings from individual measures by building type and climate location ranged between 0% and 25%. The total site potential savings by building type aggregated across all climates (using the CBECS building weights) for each measure varied between 0% and 16%. The total site potential savings aggregated across all building types and climates for each measure varied between 0% and 11%. Some individual measures had negative savings because correcting underlying operational problems (e.g., inadequate ventilation) resulted in increased energy consumption. When combined into packages, the overall national savings potential is estimated to be 29

Quantification of Uncertainty in Predicting Building Energy Consumption

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brohus, Henrik; Frier, Christian; Heiselberg, Per

2012-01-01

Traditional building energy consumption calculation methods are characterised by rough approaches providing approximate figures with high and unknown levels of uncertainty. Lack of reliable energy resources and increasing concerns about climate change call for improved predictive tools. A new...... approach for the prediction of building energy consumption is presented. The approach quantifies the uncertainty of building energy consumption by means of stochastic differential equations. The approach is applied to a general heat balance for an arbitrary number of loads and zones in a building...... for the dynamic thermal behaviour of buildings. However, for air flow and energy consumption it is found to be much more significant due to less “damping”. Probabilistic methods establish a new approach to the prediction of building energy consumption, enabling designers to include stochastic parameters like...

Defining net zero energy buildings

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Jonker Klunne, W

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Worldwide increasing attention to energy consumption and associated environmental impacts thereof has resulted in a critical attitude towards energy usage of building. Increasing costs of energy and dependence on energy service providers add...

Long term building energy demand for India: Disaggregating end use energy services in an integrated assessment modeling framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaturvedi, Vaibhav; Eom, Jiyong; Clarke, Leon E.; Shukla, Priyadarshi R.

2014-01-01

With increasing population, income, and urbanization, meeting the energy service demands for the building sector will be a huge challenge for Indian energy policy. Although there is broad consensus that the Indian building sector will grow and evolve over the coming century, there is little understanding of the potential nature of this evolution over the longer term. The present study uses a technologically detailed, service based building energy model nested in the long term, global, integrated assessment framework, GCAM, to produce scenarios of the evolution of the Indian buildings sector up through the end of the century. The results support the idea that as India evolves toward developed country per-capita income levels, its building sector will largely evolve to resemble those of the currently developed countries (heavy reliance on electricity both for increasing cooling loads and a range of emerging appliance and other plug loads), albeit with unique characteristics based on its climate conditions (cooling dominating heating and even more so with climate change), on fuel preferences that may linger from the present (for example, a preference for gas for cooking), and vestiges of its development path (including remnants of rural poor that use substantial quantities of traditional biomass). - Highlights: ► Building sector final energy demand in India will grow to over five times by century end. ► Space cooling and appliance services will grow substantially in the future. ► Energy service demands will be met predominantly by electricity and gas. ► Urban centers will face huge demand for floor space and building energy services. ► Carbon tax policy will have little effect on reducing building energy demands

Economical optimization of building elements for use in design of nearly zero energy buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Sanne

2012-01-01

Nearly zero energy buildings are to become a requirement as part of the European energy policy. There are many ways of designing nearly zero energy buildings, but there is a lack of knowledge on how to end up with the most economical optimal solution. Therefore this paper present a method...... for finding the economical optimal solutions based on the use of the cost of conserved energy for each main building envelope part and building service system and cost of produced energy for each energy producing system. By use of information on construction cost and developed models of the yearly energy use...

Guidelines for Using Building Information Modeling for Energy Analysis of Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Reeves

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Building energy modeling (BEM, a subset of building information modeling (BIM, integrates energy analysis into the design, construction, and operation and maintenance of buildings. As there are various existing BEM tools available, there is a need to evaluate the utility of these tools in various phases of the building lifecycle. The goal of this research was to develop guidelines for evaluation and selection of BEM tools to be used in particular building lifecycle phases. The objectives of this research were to: (1 Evaluate existing BEM tools; (2 Illustrate the application of the three BEM tools; (3 Re-evaluate the three BEM tools; and (4 Develop guidelines for evaluation, selection and application of BEM tools in the design, construction and operation/maintenance phases of buildings. Twelve BEM tools were initially evaluated using four criteria: interoperability, usability, available inputs, and available outputs. Each of the top three BEM tools selected based on this initial evaluation was used in a case study to simulate and evaluate energy usage, daylighting performance, and natural ventilation for two academic buildings (LEED-certified and non-LEED-certified. The results of the case study were used to re-evaluate the three BEM tools using the initial criteria with addition of the two new criteria (speed and accuracy, and to develop guidelines for evaluating and selecting BEM tools to analyze building energy performance. The major contribution of this research is the development of these guidelines that can help potential BEM users to identify the most appropriate BEM tool for application in particular building lifecycle phases.

Energy Performance Indicators in the Swedish Building Procurement Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ingrid Allard

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In Sweden, all new buildings need to comply with the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning’s requirement on specific purchased energy (kWh/m2. Accordingly, this indicator is often used to set design criteria in the building procurement process. However, when energy use is measured in finished buildings, the measurements often deviate significantly from the design calculations. The measured specific purchased energy does not necessarily reflect the responsibility of the building contractor, as it is influenced by the building operation, user behavior and climate. Therefore, Swedish building practitioners may prefer other indicators for setting design criteria in the building procurement process. The aim of this study was twofold: (i to understand the Swedish building practitioners’ perspectives and opinions on seven building energy performance indicators (envelope air leakage, U-values for different building parts, average U-value, specific heat loss, heat loss coefficient, specific net energy, and specific purchased energy; and (ii to understand the consequences for the energy performance of multi-family buildings of using the studied indicators to set criteria in the procurement process. The study involved a Delphi approach and simulations of a multi-family case study building. The studied indicators were discussed in terms of how they may meet the needs of the building practitioners when used to set building energy performance criteria in the procurement process.

Commercial building energy use in six cities in Southern China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Peng; Huang, Joe; Shen, Pengyuan; Ma, Xiaowen; Gao, Xuefei; Xu, Qiaolin; Jiang, Han; Xiang, Yong

2013-01-01

With China’s continuing economic growth, the percentage of government offices and large commercial buildings has increased tremendously; thus, the impact of their energy usage has grown drastically. In this survey, a database with more than 400 buildings was created and analyzed. We researched energy consumption by region, building type, building size and vintage, and we determined the total energy use and performed end use breakdowns of typical buildings in six cities in southern China. The statistical analysis shows that, on average, the annual building electricity use ranged from 50 to 100 kW h/m 2 for office buildings, 120 to 250 kW h/m 2 for shopping malls and hotels, and below 40 kW h/m 2 for education facilities. Building size has no direct correlation with building energy intensity. Although modern commercial buildings built in the 1990s and 2000s did not use more energy on average than buildings built previously, the highest electricity intensive modern buildings used much more energy than those built prior to 1990. Commercial buildings in China used less energy than buildings in equivalent weather locations in the US and about the same amount of energy as buildings in India. However, commercial buildings in China provide comparatively less thermal comfort than buildings in comparable US climates. - Highlights: ► The worst modern buildings use more energy than the worst old buildings. ► Government office buildings did not use more energy than private office buildings. ► Commercial buildings in China use less energy than buildings in the US. ► Modern commercial buildings don't use more energy than old buildings.

A look at commercial buildings in 1995: Characteristics, energy consumption, and energy expenditures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-10-01

The commercial sector consists of business establishments and other organizations that provide services. The sector includes service businesses, such as retail and wholesale stores, hotels and motels, restaurants, and hospitals, as well as a wide range of facilities that would not be considered commercial in a traditional economic sense, such as public schools, correctional institutions, and religious and fraternal organizations. Nearly all energy use in the commercial sector takes place in, or is associated with, the buildings that house these commercial activities. Analysis of the structures, activities, and equipment associated with different types of buildings is the clearest way to evaluate commercial sector energy use. The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) is a national-level sample survey of commercial buildings and their energy suppliers conducted quadrennially (previously triennially) by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The target population for the 1995 CBECS consisted of all commercial buildings in the US with more than 1,000 square feet of floorspace. Decision makers, businesses, and other organizations that are concerned with the use of energy--building owners and managers, regulators, legislative bodies and executive agencies at all levels of government, utilities and other energy suppliers--are confronted with a buildings sector that is complex. Data on major characteristics (e.g., type of building, size, year constructed, location) collected from the buildings, along with the amount and types of energy the buildings consume, help answer fundamental questions about the use of energy in commercial buildings.

Global climate-oriented building energy use scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harvey, L.D. Danny

2014-01-01

This paper explores the extent to which global fuel use in buildings could be reduced, and the growth in global electricity use in buildings limited, by applying stringent (factor of 3–4) improvements to recent building codes for new buildings worldwide and large (factor of 2–3) reductions in the energy use of existing buildings through renovations. The analysis is carried out for 10 different socio-economic regions of the world, taking into account existing building stock and energy intensities in each region and projected changes in population and income, which in most parts of the world will drive large increases in building floor area. A stock turnover model is applied to project changes in heating, cooling, service hot water (SHW) and non-thermal electricity demand with various rates of improvement in standards for new and renovated buildings, and various rates of renovation and demolition of existing buildings. For a scenario in which population peaks at about 9 billion and global average per capita GDP increases to twice the 2010 value by 2100, the global fuel demand could be reduced by a factor of four while limiting maximum annual electricity demand to twice the 2010 value. - Highlights: • A detailed model for generating global scenarios of building energy use is presented. • Drivers of increasing energy use are population and per capita GDP in 10 regions. • Heating, cooling and ventilation energy uses are projected using a stock turnover model. • Global building fuel demand could decrease by 60–80% by 2100 relative to 2010. • Global building electricity demand could be limited to a 100–200% increase

Analysis of Potential Benefits and Costs of Adopting a Commercial Building Energy Standard in South Dakota

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belzer, David B.; Cort, Katherine A.; Winiarski, David W.; Richman, Eric E.

2005-03-04

The state of South Dakota is considering adopting a commercial building energy standard. This report evaluates the potential costs and benefits to South Dakota residents from requiring compliance with the most recent edition of the ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-2001 Energy Standard for Buildings except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. These standards were developed in an effort to set minimum requirements for the energy efficient design and construction of new commercial buildings. The quantitative benefits and costs of adopting a commercial building energy code are modeled by comparing the characteristics of assumed current building practices with the most recent edition of the ASHRAE Standard, 90.1-2001. Both qualitative and quantitative benefits and costs are assessed in this analysis. Energy and economic impacts are estimated using results from a detailed building simulation tool (Building Loads Analysis and System Thermodynamics [BLAST] model) combined with a Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) approach to assess corresponding economic costs and benefits.

Life cycle primary energy analysis of residential buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gustavsson, Leif; Joelsson, Anna [Ecotechnology, Department of Engineering and Sustainable Development, Mid Sweden University, SE-831 25 Oestersund (Sweden)

2010-02-15

The space heating demand of residential buildings can be decreased by improved insulation, reduced air leakage and by heat recovery from ventilation air. However, these measures result in an increased use of materials. As the energy for building operation decreases, the relative importance of the energy used in the production phase increases and influences optimization aimed at minimizing the life cycle energy use. The life cycle primary energy use of buildings also depends on the energy supply systems. In this work we analyse primary energy use and CO{sub 2} emission for the production and operation of conventional and low-energy residential buildings. Different types of energy supply systems are included in the analysis. We show that for a conventional and a low-energy building the primary energy use for production can be up to 45% and 60%, respectively, of the total, depending on the energy supply system, and with larger variations for conventional buildings. The primary energy used and the CO{sub 2} emission resulting from production are lower for wood-framed constructions than for concrete-framed constructions. The primary energy use and the CO{sub 2} emission depend strongly on the energy supply, for both conventional and low-energy buildings. For example, a single-family house from the 1970s heated with biomass-based district heating with cogeneration has 70% lower operational primary energy use than if heated with fuel-based electricity. The specific primary energy use with district heating was 40% lower than that of an electrically heated passive row house. (author)

Energy Production System Management - Renewable energy power supply integration with Building Automation System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Figueiredo, Joao; Martins, Joao

2010-01-01

Intelligent buildings, historically and technologically, refers to the integration of four distinctive systems: Building Automation Systems (BAS), Telecommunication Systems, Office Automation Systems and Computer Building Management Systems. The increasing sophisticated BAS has become the 'heart and soul' of modern intelligent buildings. Integrating energy supply and demand elements - often known as Demand-Side Management (DSM) - has became an important energy efficiency policy concept. Nowadays, European countries have diversified their power supplies, reducing the dependence on OPEC, and developing a broader mix of energy sources maximizing the use of renewable energy domestic sources. In this way it makes sense to include a fifth system into the intelligent building group: Energy Production System Management (EPSM). This paper presents a Building Automation System where the Demand-Side Management is fully integrated with the building's Energy Production System, which incorporates a complete set of renewable energy production and storage systems.

Intelligent analysis of energy consumption in school buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raatikainen, Mika; Skön, Jukka-Pekka; Leiviskä, Kauko; Kolehmainen, Mikko

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Electricity and heating energy consumptions of six school buildings were compared. • Complex multivariate data was analysed using modern computational methods. • Variation in electricity consumption cost is considerably low between study schools. • District heating variation is very slight in two new study schools. • District heating cost describes energy efficiency and state of building automation. - Abstract: Even though industry consumes nearly half of total energy production, the relative share of total energy consumption related to heating and operating buildings is growing constantly. The motivation for this study was to reveal the differences in electricity use and district heating consumption in school buildings of various ages during the working day and also during the night when human-based consumption is low. The overall aim of this study is to compare the energy (electricity and heating) consumption of six school buildings in Kuopio, Eastern Finland. The selected school buildings were built in different decades, and their ventilation and building automation systems are also inconsistent. The hourly energy consumption data was received from Kuopion Energia, the local energy supply company. In this paper, the results of data analysis on the energy consumption in these school buildings are presented. Preliminary results show that, generally speaking, new school buildings are more energy-efficient than older ones. However, concerning energy efficiency, two very new schools were exceptional because ventilation was on day and night in order to dry the building materials in the constructions. The novelty of this study is that it makes use of hourly smart metering consumption data on electricity and district heating, using modern computational methods to analyse complex multivariate data in order to increase knowledge of the buildings’ consumption profiles and energy efficiency.

ISO 50001 for US Commercial Buildings - Current Status and Opportunities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Jingjing; Sheaffer, Paul

2017-12-01

''ISO 50001: 2011 Energy management systems – Requirements with guidance for use'' is a voluntary International Standard which provides organizations a proven framework to manage energy and continuously improve their energy performance. Implementing ISO 50001 in the commercial building sector has its unique opportunities and challenges in comparison with the industrial sector. The energy footprint of a portfolio of commercial buildings can be just as significant as a large industrial facility in comparison. There are many energy-saving opportunities in commercial buildings that can be addressed without capital investments, and the perceived risks for making energy improvements can be lower than in the industrial sector. In addition, the energy-consuming systems in commercial buildings are limited in types and have many similarities across buildings, which makes it much easier to standardize many ISO 50001 required processes, 5 procedures and documents to simplify implementation. There are also some sector-unique challenges, such as less familiar with ISO systems and the certification process. Another challenge arises from the complexity in some buildings’ ownership, tenancy, and O&M responsibilities. This whitepaper discusses these opportunities and issues in detail. The paper also recommends the characteristics of organizations in the commercial building sector that can benefit the most from adopting the ISO 50001 standard – namely the “suitable market”. Eight segments (education, food sales, retail, inpatient health care, hospitality, office buildings, laboratories and data centers) within the commercial building sector are highlighted.

Energy-efficient buildings: Does the marketplace work?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, M.A.

1996-12-31

For a variety of reasons, U.S. households, businesses, manufacturers, and government agencies all fail to take full advantage of cost-effective, energy-efficiency opportunities. Despite a growing environmental ethic among Americans and a concern for energy independence, consumers in this country are underinvesting in technologies, products, and practices that would cut their energy bills. The result is a large untapped potential for improving energy productivity, economic competitiveness, environmental quality, and energy security. The thesis of this paper is that the marketplace for energy efficiency, in general, is not operating perfectly, and the marketplace for energy-efficient buildings, in particular, is flawed. The reasons for underinvestments in cost-effective, energy efficiency are numerous and complicated. They also vary from sector to sector: the principal causes of energy inefficiencies in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation are not the same as the causes of inefficiencies in homes and office buildings, although there are some similarities. One of the reasons for these differences is that the structure of marketplace for delivering new technologies and products in each sector differs. Energy-efficiency improvements in the buildings sector is critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, since most of the energy consumed in buildings comes from the burning of fossil fuels. This paper therefore begins by describing energy use and energy trends in the U.S. buildings sector. Characteristics of the marketplace for delivering energy efficiency technologies and products are then described in detail, arguing that this marketplace structure significantly inhibits rapid efficiency improvements.

Ten questions concerning future buildings beyond zero energy and carbon neutrality

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Na; Phelan, Patrick E.; Gonzalez, Jorge; Harris, Chioke; Henze, Gregor P.; Hutchinson, Robert; Langevin, Jared; Lazarus, Mary Ann; Nelson, Brent; Pyke, Chris; Roth, Kurt; Rouse, David; Sawyer, Karma; Selkowitz, Stephen

2017-07-01

Architects, planners, and building scientists have been at the forefront of envisioning a future built environment for centuries. However, fragmental views that emphasize one facet of the built environment, such as energy, environment, or groundbreaking technologies, often do not achieve expected outcomes. Buildings are responsible for approximately one-third of worldwide carbon emissions and account for over 40% of primary energy consumption in the U.S. In addition to achieving the ambitious goal of reducing building greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2050, buildings must improve their functionality and performance to meet current and future human, societal, and environmental needs in a changing world. In this article, we introduce a new framework to guide potential evolution of the building stock in the next century, based on greenhouse gas emissions as the common thread to investigate the potential implications of new design paradigms, innovative operational strategies, and disruptive technologies. This framework emphasizes integration of multidisciplinary knowledge, scalability for mainstream buildings, and proactive approaches considering constraints and unknowns. The framework integrates the interrelated aspects of the built environment through a series of quantitative metrics that aim to improve environmental outcomes while optimizing building performance to achieve healthy, adaptive, and productive buildings.

ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS PROGRAM. CHAPTER FROM THE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT DIVISION ANNUAL REPORT 1979

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Authors, Various

1979-12-01

The research reported in this volume was undertaken during FY 1979 within the Energy & Environment Division of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. This volume will comprise a section of the Energy & Environment Division 1979 Annual Report, to be published in the summer of 1980. Work reported relate to: thermal performance of building envelopes; building ventilation and indoor air quality; a computer program for predicting energy use in buildings; study focused specifically on inherently energy intensive hospital buildings; energy efficient windows and lighting; potential for energy conservation and savings in the buildings sector; and evaluation of energy performance standards for residential buildings.

Energy consumption, energy savings, and emission analysis in Malaysian office buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saidur, R.

2009-01-01

This paper is concerned with the estimation of energy use in office buildings in Malaysia and with the energy use of major equipment. Energy intensity (EI) - a measure of a building's energy performance - is estimated for Malaysia and compared with a number of selected countries. Air conditioners are shown to be the major energy users (57%) in office buildings, followed by lighting (19%), lifts and pumps (18%) and other equipment (6%). It is estimated that 77,569 MWh of energy can be saved and a huge reduction of emissions achieved through the application of advance glazing, compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), insulation, housekeeping, and by raising thermostat set point temperature of air conditioners, and reducing EI. It is also estimated that a very substantial amount of energy can be saved by making use of energy-efficient motors in building systems with different motor loading percentages. Finally, it can be shown that the use of variable speed drives (VSDs) and energy-efficient motors leads to substantial energy savings and an enormous reduction in emissions.

Potential Job Creation in Nevada as a Result of Adopting New Residential Building Energy Codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scott, Michael J.; Niemeyer, Jackie M.

2013-09-01

Are there advantages to states that adopt the most recent model building energy codes other than saving energy? For example, can the construction activity and energy savings associated with code-compliant housing units become significant sources of job creation for states if new building energy codes are adopted to cover residential construction? , The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program (BECP) asked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to research and ascertain whether jobs would be created in individual states based on their adoption of model building energy codes. Each state in the country is dealing with high levels of unemployment, so job creation has become a top priority. Many programs have been created to combat unemployment with various degrees of failure and success. At the same time, many states still have not yet adopted the most current versions of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) model building energy code, when doing so could be a very effective tool in creating jobs to assist states in recovering from this economic downturn.

Potential Job Creation in Tennessee as a Result of Adopting New Residential Building Energy Codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scott, Michael J.; Niemeyer, Jackie M.

2013-09-01

Are there advantages to states that adopt the most recent model building energy codes other than saving energy? For example, can the construction activity and energy savings associated with code-compliant housing units become significant sources of job creation for states if new building energy codes are adopted to cover residential construction? , The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program (BECP) asked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to research and ascertain whether jobs would be created in individual states based on their adoption of model building energy codes. Each state in the country is dealing with high levels of unemployment, so job creation has become a top priority. Many programs have been created to combat unemployment with various degrees of failure and success. At the same time, many states still have not yet adopted the most current versions of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) model building energy code, when doing so could be a very effective tool in creating jobs to assist states in recovering from this economic downturn.

Potential Job Creation in Minnesota as a Result of Adopting New Residential Building Energy Codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scott, Michael J.; Niemeyer, Jackie M.

2013-09-01

Are there advantages to states that adopt the most recent model building energy codes other than saving energy? For example, can the construction activity and energy savings associated with code-compliant housing units become significant sources of job creation for states if new building energy codes are adopted to cover residential construction? , The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program (BECP) asked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to research and ascertain whether jobs would be created in individual states based on their adoption of model building energy codes. Each state in the country is dealing with high levels of unemployment, so job creation has become a top priority. Many programs have been created to combat unemployment with various degrees of failure and success. At the same time, many states still have not yet adopted the most current versions of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) model building energy code, when doing so could be a very effective tool in creating jobs to assist states in recovering from this economic downturn.

Multiobjective optimisation of energy systems and building envelope retrofit in a residential community

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Raphael; Mavromatidis, Georgios; Orehounig, Kristina; Carmeliet, Jan

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Simultaneous optimisation of building envelope retrofit and energy systems. • Retrofit and energy systems change interact and should be considered simultaneously. • Case study quantifies cost-GHG emission tradeoffs for different retrofit options. - Abstract: In this paper, a method for a multi-objective and simultaneous optimisation of building energy systems and retrofit is presented. Tailored to be suitable for the diverse range of existing buildings in terms of age, size, and use, it combines dynamic energy demand simulation to explore individual retrofit scenarios with an energy hub optimisation. Implemented as an epsilon-constrained mixed integer linear program (MILP), the optimisation matches envelope retrofit with renewable and high efficiency energy supply technologies such as biomass boilers, heat pumps, photovoltaic and solar thermal panels to minimise life cycle cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Due to its multi-objective, integrated assessment of building transformation options and its ability to capture both individual building characteristics and trends within a neighbourhood, this method is aimed to provide developers, neighbourhood and town policy makers with the necessary information to make adequate decisions. Our method is deployed in a case study of typical residential buildings in the Swiss village of Zernez, simulating energy demands in EnergyPlus and solving the optimisation problem with CPLEX. Although common trade-offs in energy system and retrofit choice can be observed, optimisation results suggest that the diversity in building age and size leads to optimal strategies for retrofitting and building system solutions, which are specific to different categories. With this method, GHG emissions of the entire community can be reduced by up to 76% at a cost increase of 3% compared to the current emission levels, if an optimised solution is selected for each building category.

Nano-based PCMs for building energy efficiency

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Biswas, Kaushik [ORNL

2016-01-01

Thermal storage using phase change materials (PCMs) is seen as a viable method for improving the energy efficiency of buildings. PCMs have been used in building applications in various forms PCM slurries in heat exchangers, macro- or microencapsulated PCMs in building envelopes, bulk PCM for modulating photovoltaic temperatures, etc. In the last decade a new class of PCMs, called nano-enhanced PCM (or nanoPCM), has been extensively investigated with the goal of improving the heat transfer and thermal storage properties of PCMs. NanoPCMs can primarily be categorized as nano-encapsulated PCMs and nanoparticle-PCM composites. The former are nano-sized capsules in which the PCM forms the core and is surrounded by a high-conductivity membrane or shell. The latter consist of PCM supported within nanostructures or nanoparticles dispersed in PCMs. This article reviews the current state of nanoPCM synthesis and characterization of their heat transfer and thermal storage properties. Further, a critical review of nanoPCM applications and their potential energy benefits is performed. Nano-enhanced PCMs exhibit higher thermal conductivities than regular PCM. However, whether the higher conductivity is desirable in all applications and if the property enhancements are worth the cost and effort needed to create nanoPCMs are questions that still need to be answered.

Analysis of Energy Demand for Low-Energy Multi-Dwelling Buildings of Different Configuration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giedrė Streckienė

2014-10-01

Full Text Available To meet the goals established by Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the energy performance of buildings, the topics of energy efficiency in new and old buildings must be solved. Research and development of new energy solutions and technology are necessary for increasing energy performance of buildings. Three low-energy multi-dwelling buildings have been modelled and analyzed in the presented study. All multi-dwelling houses are made of similar single-family house cells. However, multi-dwelling buildings are of different geometry, flat number and height. DesignBuilder software was used for simulating and determining heating, cooling and electricity demand for buildings. Three different materials (silicate, ceramic and clay concrete blocks as bearing constructions of external walls have been analyzed. To decrease cooling demand for buildings, the possibility of mounting internal or external louvers has been considered. Primary energy savings for multi-dwelling buildings using passive solar measures have been determined.

Predicting energy performance of a net-zero energy building: A statistical approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kneifel, Joshua; Webb, David

2016-01-01

Highlights: • A regression model is applied to actual energy data from a net-zero energy building. • The model is validated through a rigorous statistical analysis. • Comparisons are made between model predictions and those of a physics-based model. • The model is a viable baseline for evaluating future models from the energy data. - Abstract: Performance-based building requirements have become more prevalent because it gives freedom in building design while still maintaining or exceeding the energy performance required by prescriptive-based requirements. In order to determine if building designs reach target energy efficiency improvements, it is necessary to estimate the energy performance of a building using predictive models and different weather conditions. Physics-based whole building energy simulation modeling is the most common approach. However, these physics-based models include underlying assumptions and require significant amounts of information in order to specify the input parameter values. An alternative approach to test the performance of a building is to develop a statistically derived predictive regression model using post-occupancy data that can accurately predict energy consumption and production based on a few common weather-based factors, thus requiring less information than simulation models. A regression model based on measured data should be able to predict energy performance of a building for a given day as long as the weather conditions are similar to those during the data collection time frame. This article uses data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF) to develop and validate a regression model to predict the energy performance of the NZERTF using two weather variables aggregated to the daily level, applies the model to estimate the energy performance of hypothetical NZERTFs located in different cities in the Mixed-Humid Climate Zone, and compares these

Performance evaluation of gas-power strategies for building energy conservation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gabbar, Hossam A.; Runge, Jason; Bondarenko, Daniel; Bower, Lowell; Pandya, Devarsh; Musharavati, Farayi; Pokharel, Shaligram

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Comparison of natural gas and hydrogen fuels for energy conservation in buildings. • Comparison between hydrogen and natural gas fuel cell is performed. • Simulations of building energy supply. • Performance evaluation of two potential gas-power supply scenarios in buildings. • Natural gas fuel cell showed better performance over hydrogen fuel cell. - Abstract: The work provided herein involves a comparison of natural gas and hydrogen fuels for the purpose of energy conservation for buildings via alternative energy generation methodologies. A case study simulation was developed for an average type of commercial building, a nine storey hotel located in Toronto. The two alternative energy source case studies involved the generation of hydrogen via the wind turbine for the fuel cell, and the use of natural gas directly in the steam reforming fuel cell. The simulations for both scenarios were run and the recorded results were compared to the original case study, as well as between the scenarios. To supply for the base load of the building the fuel cells were given the same kW rating for both scenarios. The identification of all existing technologies for hydrogen gas and natural gas has been carried out, and the similar technologies between the two gases were found. For the purpose of realism, only existing purchasable technologies were considered in this paper. Due to the lack of commercially available technologies for hydrogen gas, only a comparison of fuel cell systems could be accomplished. Over the course of the investigative work it was found that when there is no direct supply of hydrogen to the site of utilization, the natural gas fuel cell is beneficial to the building due to its greater efficiency and lower cost. The major drawback for the hydrogen gas fuel cell, when the on-site generation is involved, is that no thermal power extraction systems currently exist for purchase and utilization in the buildings

Energy sustainable development through energy efficient heating devices and buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bojic, M.

2006-01-01

Energy devices and buildings are sustainable if, when they operate, they use sustainable (renewable and refuse) energy and generate nega-energy. This paper covers three research examples of this type of sustainability: (1) use of air-to-earth heat exchangers, (2) computer control of heating and cooling of the building (via heat pumps and heat-recovery devices), and (3) design control of energy consumption in a house. (author)

Training program for energy conservation in new-building construction. Volume II. Energy conservation technology: for the building inspector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1977-12-01

A Model Code for Energy Conservation in New Building Construction has been developed by those national organizations primarily concerned with the development and promulgation of model codes. The technical provisions are based on ASHRAE Standard 90-75 and are intended for use by state and local officials. This training manual contains the basic information necessary to acquaint the field building inspector with the concepts of energy conservation in buildings and instructs him in the basic techniques of field inspection of energy compliance.

Enhancing energy efficiency in public buildings: The role of local energy audit programmes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Annunziata, Eleonora; Rizzi, Francesco; Frey, Marco

2014-01-01

In the objective of reaching the “nearly zero-energy buildings” target set by the European Union, municipalities cover a crucial role in advocating and implementing energy-efficient measures on a local scale. Based on a dataset of 322 municipalities in Northern Italy, we carried out a statistical analysis to investigate which factors influence the adoption of energy efficiency in municipal buildings. In particular, the analysis focuses on four categories of factors: (i) capacity building for energy efficiency, (ii) existing structure and competences for energy efficiency, (iii) technical and economic support for energy efficiency, and (iv) spill-over effect caused by adoption of “easier” energy-efficient measures. Our results show that capacity building through training courses and technical support provided by energy audits affect positively the adoption of energy efficiency in municipal buildings. The size of the municipal authority, the setting of local energy policies for residential buildings and funding for energy audits are not correlated with energy efficiency in public buildings, where the “plucking of low hanging fruit” often prevails over more cost-effective but long-term strategies. Finally, our results call for the need to promote an efficient knowledge management and a revision of the Stability and Growth Pact. - Highlights: • Public procurement supports the deployment of the energy efficiency of buildings. • Energy audits and other factors influence energy efficiency in public buildings. • Econometric analysis applied to data from 322 municipalities in Northern Italy. • Municipalities need to overtake the “plucking of low-hanging fruit”. • Knowledge management should be associated with removal of budget constraints

Net-Zero Building Technologies Create Substantial Energy Savings -

Science.gov (United States)

only an estimated 1% of commercial buildings are built to net-zero energy criteria. One reason for this Continuum Magazine | NREL Net-Zero Building Technologies Create Substantial Energy Savings Net -Zero Building Technologies Create Substantial Energy Savings Researchers work to package and share step

Optimized design of low energy buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rudbeck, Claus Christian; Esbensen, Peter Kjær; Svendsen, Sv Aa Højgaard

1999-01-01

concern which can be seen during the construction of new buildings. People want energy-friendly solutions, but they should be economical optimized. An exonomical optimized building design with respect to energy consumption is the design with the lowest total cost (investment plus operational cost over its...... to evaluate different separate solutions when they interact in the building.When trying to optimize several parameters there is a need for a method, which will show the correct price-performance of each part of a building under design. The problem with not having such a method will first be showed...

Modeling energy flexibility of low energy buildings utilizing thermal mass

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Foteinaki, Kyriaki; Heller, Alfred; Rode, Carsten

2016-01-01

In the future energy system a considerable increase in the penetration of renewable energy is expected, challenging the stability of the system, as both production and consumption will have fluctuating patterns. Hence, the concept of energy flexibility will be necessary in order for the consumption...... to match the production patterns, shifting demand from on-peak hours to off-peak hours. Buildings could act as flexibility suppliers to the energy system, through load shifting potential, provided that the large thermal mass of the building stock could be utilized for energy storage. In the present study...... the load shifting potential of an apartment of a low energy building in Copenhagen is assessed, utilizing the heat storage capacity of the thermal mass when the heating system is switched off for relieving the energy system. It is shown that when using a 4-hour preheating period before switching off...

Intelligent Controls for Net-Zero Energy Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Haorong; Cho, Yong; Peng, Dongming

2011-10-30

The goal of this project is to develop and demonstrate enabling technologies that can empower homeowners to convert their homes into net-zero energy buildings in a cost-effective manner. The project objectives and expected outcomes are as follows: • To develop rapid and scalable building information collection and modeling technologies that can obtain and process “as-built” building information in an automated or semiautomated manner. • To identify low-cost measurements and develop low-cost virtual sensors that can monitor building operations in a plug-n-play and low-cost manner. • To integrate and demonstrate low-cost building information modeling (BIM) technologies. • To develop decision support tools which can empower building owners to perform energy auditing and retrofit analysis. • To develop and demonstrate low-cost automated diagnostics and optimal control technologies which can improve building energy efficiency in a continual manner.

Energy Conservation of the Designated Government Buildings in Thailand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wangskarn Prapat

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The designated government buildings have implemented and administered energy program under the energy development and promotion Act 2007 for many years continuously until 2015. Appointment person responsible for energy, performing energy management and implementing the energy conservation work plan and measures are legal requirements for the designated buildings. Therefore, the ministry of Energy has launched the project to support the implementation of energy management. The aim of the project was to create the energy management system in the designated government buildings, and to reduce energy consumption. In this paper, the evaluation of the project has been presented from the achievements of 839 designated government buildings. The energy saving is more than 440 ktoe/year. This is about 3% of energy consumptions of buildings.

Distributed DC-UPS for energy smart buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moreno-Munoz, A.; Pallares-Lopez, V.; Real-Calvo, R.J.; Gil-de-Castro, A. [Universidad de Cordoba, Area de Electronica, Dpto. Arquitectura de Computadores, Electronica y Tecnologia Electronica, Escuela Politecnica Superior, Campus de Rabanales, E-14071 Cordoba (Spain); De la Rosa, Juan Jose Gonzalez [Universidad de Cadiz, Area de Electronica, Dpto. ISA, TE y Electronica, Escuela Politecnica Superior Avda, Ramon Puyol, S/N, E-11202 Algeciras-Cadiz (Spain)

2011-01-15

Energy efficiency (EE) improvement is one of the most important targets to be achieved on every society as a whole and in buildings in particular. Energy Smart Building aims to accelerate the uptake of EE, healthy buildings that by integrating smart technology and solutions consume radically little resources while enhancing the quality of life. This paper addresses how uninterruptible power supply (UPS), particularly when configured in distributed DC mode, can become an Energy Efficient (EE) solution in high tech buildings, especially when integrated with complimentary Power Quality (PQ) measures. The paper is based upon PQ audits conducted at different IT-intensive modern building. Some of the mayor objectives of the PQ studies were: detecting the main involved disturbances by PQ monitoring, identifying the power disturbances root causes, characterizing the electromagnetic compatibility level of equipments and installation and providing guidelines for implementing energy-efficiency solutions. It was found that the main problems for the equipment installed were harmonics and voltage sag (dip). Finally, this paper demonstrates the impacts of generalized electronic devices on the PQ of the buildings and the implications on energy uses. (author)

Analysis of the Chinese Market for Building Energy Efficiency

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Sha [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Evans, Meredydd [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Shi, Qing [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2014-03-20

China will account for about half of the new construction globally in the coming decade. Its floorspace doubled from 1996 to 2011, and Chinese rural buildings alone have as much floorspace as all of U.S. residential buildings. Building energy consumption has also grown, increasing by over 40% since 1990. To curb building energy demand, the Chinese government has launched a series of policies and programs. Combined, this growth in buildings and renovations, along with the policies to promote green buildings, are creating a large market for energy efficiency products and services. This report assesses the impact of China’s policies on building energy efficiency and on the market for energy efficiency in the future. The first chapter of this report introduces the trends in China, drawing on both historical analysis, and detailed modeling of the drivers behind changes in floorspace and building energy demand such as economic and population growth, urbanization, policy. The analysis describes the trends by region, building type and energy service. The second chapter discusses China’s policies to promote green buildings. China began developing building energy codes in the 1980s. Over time, the central government has increased the stringency of the code requirements and the extent of enforcement. The codes are mandatory in all new buildings and major renovations in China’s cities, and they have been a driving force behind the expansion of China’s markets for insulation, efficient windows, and other green building materials. China also has several other important policies to encourage efficient buildings, including the Three-Star Rating System (somewhat akin to LEED), financial incentives tied to efficiency, appliance standards, a phasing out of incandescent bulbs and promotion of efficient lighting, and several policies to encourage retrofits in existing buildings. In the third chapter, we take “deep dives” into the trends affecting key building components

North European Understanding of Zero Energy/Emission Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marszal, Anna Joanna; Bourrelle, J. S.; Nieminen, J.

2010-01-01

countries are still to adopt a national definition for these types of buildings. This results often in more than one understanding of ZEBs in each country. This study provides a concise source of information on the north European understanding of zero energy/emission buildings. It puts forward a number......The worldwide CO2 emission mitigation efforts, the growing energy resource shortage and the fact that buildings are responsible for a large share of the world’s primary energy use drives research towards new building concepts, in particular Zero Energy/Emission Buildings (ZEBs). Unfortunately...... may observe a correlation between the zero energy/emission building approach adopted by a country and this particular country’s utility grid characteristics. Moreover, it is to be noted that the ZEB concept is not well defined at the national level in northern Europe and that all of the participating...

Alternative Natural Energy Sources in Building Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Albert J.; Schubert, Robert P.

This publication provides a discussion of various energy conserving building systems and design alternatives. The information presented here covers alternative space and water heating systems, and energy conserving building designs incorporating these systems and other energy conserving techniques. Besides water, wind, solar, and bio conversion…

Design and optimization of zero-energy-consumption based solar energy residential building systems

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, D. L.; Yu, L. J.; Tan, H. W.

2017-11-01

Energy consumption of residential buildings has grown fast in recent years, thus raising a challenge on zero energy residential building (ZERB) systems, which aim at substantially reducing energy consumption of residential buildings. Thus, how to facilitate ZERB has become a hot but difficult topic. In the paper, we put forward the overall design principle of ZERB based on analysis of the systems’ energy demand. In particular, the architecture for both schematic design and passive technology is optimized and both energy simulation analysis and energy balancing analysis are implemented, followed by committing the selection of high-efficiency appliance and renewable energy sources for ZERB residential building. In addition, Chinese classical residential building has been investigated in the proposed case, in which several critical aspects such as building optimization, passive design, PV panel and HVAC system integrated with solar water heater, Phase change materials, natural ventilation, etc., have been taken into consideration.

Energy Efficiency Program Administrators and Building Energy Codes

Science.gov (United States)

Explore how energy efficiency program administrators have helped advance building energy codes at federal, state, and local levels—using technical, institutional, financial, and other resources—and discusses potential next steps.

Optimizing Existing Multistory Building Designs towards Net-Zero Energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Y. AbuGrain

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Recent global developments in awareness and concerns about environmental problems have led to reconsidering built environment approaches and construction techniques. One of the alternatives is the principle of low/zero-energy buildings. This study investigates the potentials of energy savings in an existing multi-story building in the Mediterranean region in order to achieve net-zero energy as a solution to increasing fossil fuel prices. The Colored building at the Faculty of Architecture, Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus was chosen as a target of this study to be investigated and analyzed in order to know how energy efficiency strategies could be applied to the building to reduce annual energy consumption. Since this research objective is to develop a strategy to achieve net-zero energy in existing buildings, case study and problem solving methodologies were applied in this research in order to evaluate the building design in a qualitative manner through observations, in addition to a quantitative method through an energy modeling simulation to achieve desirable results which address the problems. After optimizing the building energy performance, an alternative energy simulation was made of the building in order to make an energy comparison analysis, which leads to reliable conclusions. These methodologies and the strategies used in this research can be applied to similar buildings in order to achieve net-zero energy goals.

Energy savings in the Danish building stock until 2050

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wittchen, Kim Bjarne; Kragh, Jesper

2014-01-01

are energy upgraded according to the requirements stipulated in the Danish Building Regulations 2010. Furthermore, scenario analyses was made for the potential impact on the energy consumption of introducing different levels of tightening of the energy requirements for existing buildings in the Danish...... Building Regulations. Compliance with the requirements in the Danish Building Regulations will potentially result in energy savings for space heating and domestic hot water around 30 % until 2050. Further tightening of the component insulation level requirements will only result in marginally higher......A study has been conducted analysing the energy savings for space heating and domestic hot water in the Danish building stock due to renovation of building components at the end of their service life. The purpose of the study was to estimate the energy savings until 2050 as building components...

Computational Fluid Dynamics and Building Energy Performance Simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Peter Vilhelm; Tryggvason, T.

1998-01-01

An interconnection between a building energy performance simulation program and a Computational Fluid Dynamics program (CFD) for room air distribution will be introduced for improvement of the predictions of both the energy consumption and the indoor environment. The building energy performance...... simulation program requires a detailed description of the energy flow in the air movement which can be obtained by a CFD program. The paper describes an energy consumption calculation in a large building, where the building energy simulation program is modified by CFD predictions of the flow between three...... zones connected by open areas with pressure and buoyancy driven air flow. The two programs are interconnected in an iterative procedure. The paper shows also an evaluation of the air quality in the main area of the buildings based on CFD predictions. It is shown that an interconnection between a CFD...

Statistical models describing the energy signature of buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bacher, Peder; Madsen, Henrik; Thavlov, Anders

2010-01-01

Approximately one third of the primary energy production in Denmark is used for heating in buildings. Therefore efforts to accurately describe and improve energy performance of the building mass are very important. For this purpose statistical models describing the energy signature of a building, i...... or varying energy prices. The paper will give an overview of statistical methods and applied models based on experiments carried out in FlexHouse, which is an experimental building in SYSLAB, Risø DTU. The models are of different complexity and can provide estimates of physical quantities such as UA......-values, time constants of the building, and other parameters related to the heat dynamics. A method for selecting the most appropriate model for a given building is outlined and finally a perspective of the applications is given. Aknowledgements to the Danish Energy Saving Trust and the Interreg IV ``Vind i...

Energy plus standard in buildings constructed by housing associations?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stutterecker, Werner; Blümel, Ernst

2012-01-01

In order to achieve national, European and international energy goals, energy efficiency strategies in the building sector have to be implemented. The passive house standard and low energy standards are already successfully established in single dwelling houses. These high performance standards are starting to penetrate into the sector of housing associations. A case study about an apartment building constructed by a housing association is presented here. It describes the monitoring concept and the results of the 1st year of monitoring. Depending on the definition of the zero energy building standard (extent of loads included in the balancing), the building could be classified as an energy plus building or as a building, which uses more energy, than is supplied by on-site generation. If the building's total energy use (including user specific loads) is defined as load, only 34.5% of these loads were provided by the net energy output of the PV system. If only the heating energy demand is defined as load, the PV system even yielded a surplus of 45.6% of the energy load. -- Highlights: ► Energy monitoring of an apartment building constructed by a housing association. ► Planned as a Passive House with a semi-central ventilation system with decentralized heat pump technology. ► Total end energy demand of the building was 43 kWh/(m² a). ► Total net energy generation by the PV system was 15 kWh/(m² a). ► Apartment no. 1: 52% of the energy demand were used for heating and ventilation.

Designing of zero energy office buildings in hot arid climate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abdel-Gwad, Mohamed

2011-07-01

The designing of office buildings by using large glass areas to have a transparent building is an attractive approach in the modern office building architecture. This attitude increases the energy demand for cooling specially in the hot arid region which has long sun duration time, while the use of small glazing areas increases the energy demand for lighting. The use of uncontrolled natural ventilation increases the rate of hot ambient air flow which increases the building energy demand for cooling. At the same time, the use of mechanical ventilation to control the air change rate may increase the energy demand for fans. Some ideas such as low energy design concept are introduced for improving the building energy performance and different rating systems have been developed such as LEED, BREEAM and DGNB for evaluating building energy performance system. One of the new ideas for decreasing the dependence on fossil fuels and improving the use of renewable energy is the net zero-energy building concept in which the building generates enough renewable energy on site to equal or exceed its annual energy use. This work depends on using the potentials of mixing different energy strategies such as hybrid ventilation strategy, passive night cooling, passive chilled ceiling side by side with the integrating of photovoltaic modules into the building facade to produce energy and enrich the architectural aesthetics and finally reaching the Net Zero Energy Building. There are different definitions for zero energy buildings, however in this work the use of building-integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) to provide the building with its annual energy needs is adopted, in order to reach to a Grid-Connected Net-Zero Energy Office Building in the hot arid desert zone represented by Cairo, Egypt. (orig.)

Comparison of Energy Consumption in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Communication in a Smart Building

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Putra, Guntur; Rizky Pratama, Azkario; Lazovik, Aliaksandr; Aiello, Marco

2017-01-01

Modern Smart Buildings will utilize sensor technologies to obtain current information of the occupants and use it to provide automatic services to improve the safety, efficient use, productivity, and comfort. Energy saving is one of the promises of Smart Buildings. This can be achieved by

Pusat Tenaga Malaysia's Zero Energy Office (ZEO) Building

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tang, C.K.; Reimann, Gregers Peter; Kristensen, Poul Erik

Technical Review of the Zero Energy Office building in Malaysia. The building, which has an energy index of 50 kWh/m2/year, reaches a net annual energy of zero through the use of building integrated photovoltaic panels. For reference, ordinary offices in Malaysia consume 200 - 300 kWh/m2/year...

Towards Nearly Zero Energy Buildings in Europe: A Focus on Retrofit in Non-Residential Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Delia D’Agostino

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Buildings are the focus of European (EU policies aimed at a sustainable and competitive low-carbon economy by 2020. Reducing energy consumption of existing buildings and achieving nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs are the core of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED and the recast of the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD. To comply with these requirements, Member States have to adopt actions to exploit energy savings from the building sector. This paper describes the differences between deep, major and NZEB renovation and then it provides an overview of best practice policies and measures to target retrofit and investment related to non-residential buildings. Energy requirements defined by Member States for NZEB levels are reported comparing both new and existing residential and non-residential buildings. The paper shows how the attention given to refurbishment of NZEBs increased over the last decade, but the achievement of a comprehensive implementation of retrofit remains one of main challenges that Europe is facing.

Energy simulation in building design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hensen, J.L.M.

1992-01-01

Design decision support related to building energy consumption and / or indoor climate, should be based on an integral approach of environment, building, heating, ventilating and airconditioning (HVAC) system and occupants. The tools to achieve this are now available in the form of computer

Integration of Building energy and energy supply simulations for low-energy district heating supply to energy-efficient buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dalla Rosa, Alessandro

2012-01-01

The future will demand implementation of C02 neutral communities, the consequences being a far more complex design of the whole energy system, since the future energy infrastructures will be dynamic and climate responsive systems. Software able to work with such level of complexity is at present...... a missing link in the development. In this paper is demonstrated how a link between a dynamic Building Simulation Programme (BSP) and a simulation program for District Heating (DH) networks can give important information during the design phase. By using a BSP it is possible to analyze the influence...... of the human behaviour regarding the building and link the results to the simulation program for DH networks. The results show that human behaviour can lead to 50% higher heating demand and 60% higher peak loads than expected according to reference values in standardized calculation of energy demand...

A hybrid energy efficient building ventilation system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calay, Rajnish Kaur; Wang, Wen Chung

2013-01-01

The present paper presents a high performance cooling/heating ventilation system using a rotary heat exchanger (RHE), together with a reverse-cycle heat pump (RCHP) that can be integrated with various heat sources. Energy consumption in the building sector is largely dominated by the energy consumed in maintaining comfortable conditions indoors. For example in many developed countries the building heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems consume up to 50% of the total energy consumed in buildings. Therefore energy efficient HVAC solutions in buildings are critical for realising CO 2 targets at local and global level. There are many heating/cooling concepts that rely upon renewable energy sources and/or use natural low temperature heat sources in the winter and heat sinks in the summer. In the proposed system, waste energy from the exhaust air stream is used to precondition the outdoor air before it is supplied into the building. The hybrid system provides heating in the winter and cooling in the summer without any need for additional heating or cooling devices as required in conventional systems. Its performance is better than a typical reheat or air conditioning system in providing the same indoor air quality (IAQ) levels. It is shown that an energy saving up to 60% (heat energy) is achieved by using the proposed hybrid system in building ventilation applications. -- Highlights: • Hybrid ventilation system: the hybrid ventilation system uses a rotating regenerator and a reversible heat pump. • Heat recovery: heat recovery from exhaust air stream by rotary wheel type heat exchanger. • Reversible cycle heat pump (RCHP): additional heating or cooling of the supply air is provided by the RCHP. • Energy efficiency: energy savings of up to 60% using the proposed system are achievable

A Conversation on Zero Net Energy Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eley, Charles; Gupta, Smita; Torcellini, Paul; Mchugh, Jon; Liu, Bing; Higgins, Cathy; Iplikci, Jessica; Rosenberg, Michael I.

2017-06-30

The submitted Roundtable discussion covers zero net energy (ZNE) buildings and their expansion into the market as a more widely adopted approach for various building types and sizes. However, the market is still small, and this discussion brings together distinguished researchers, designers, policy makers, and program administrations to represent the key factors making ZNE building more widespread and mainstream from a broad perspective, including governments, utilities, energy-efficiency research institutes, and building owners. This roundtable was conducted by the ASHRAE Journal with Bing Liu, P.E., Member ASHRAE, Charles Eley, FAIA, P.E., Member ASHRAE; Smita Gupta, Itron; Cathy Higgins, New Buildings Institute; Jessica Iplikci, Energy Trust of Oregon; Jon McHugh, P.E., Member ASHRAE; Michael Rosenberg, Member ASHRAE; and Paul Torcellini, Ph.D., P.E., NREL.

Creating high performance buildings: Lower energy, better comfort

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brager, Gail; Arens, Edward

2015-01-01

Buildings play a critical role in the challenge of mitigating and adapting to climate change. It is estimated that buildings contribute 39% of the total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [1] primarily due to their operational energy use, and about 80% of this building energy use is for heating, cooling, ventilating, and lighting. An important premise of this paper is about the connection between energy and comfort. They are inseparable when one talks about high performance buildings. Worldwide data suggests that we are significantly overcooling buildings in the summer, resulting in increased energy use and problems with thermal comfort. In contrast, in naturally ventilated buildings without mechanical cooling, people are comfortable in much warmer temperatures due to shifting expectations and preferences as a result of occupants having a greater degree of personal control over their thermal environment; they have also become more accustomed to variable conditions that closely reflect the natural rhythms of outdoor climate patterns. This has resulted in an adaptive comfort zone that offers significant potential for encouraging naturally ventilated buildings to improve both energy use and comfort. Research on other forms for providing individualized control through low-energy personal comfort systems (desktop fans, foot warmed, and heated and cooled chairs) have also demonstrated enormous potential for improving both energy and comfort performance. Studies have demonstrated high levels of comfort with these systems while ambient temperatures ranged from 64–84°F. Energy and indoor environmental quality are inextricably linked, and must both be important goals of a high performance building

The effectiveness of energy management system on energy efficiency in the building

Science.gov (United States)

Julaihi, F.; Ibrahim, S. H.; Baharun, A.; Affendi, R.; Nawi, M. N. M.

2017-10-01

Energy plays a key role in achieving the desired economic growth for the country. Worldwide industries use 40 percent energy for material and consumption protection to fulfil human needs which contributes almost 37 percent of global greenhouse gases emissions. One of the approach in order to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to the environment is by conserving energy. This could be executed by implementing energy management especially in commercial and office buildings as daily electricity consumption is high in this type of building. Energy management can also increase the efficiency of energy in the building. Study has been conducted to investigate the performance on implementation of energy management system in office building. Energy management is one of the contemporary challenges, thus study adopts an exploratory approach by using a tool developed by UNIDO called EnMS or Energy Management System. Findings show that by implementing energy management can reduce electricity consumption up to 30%. However, serious initiatives by the organization are needed to promote the effectiveness of energy management.

Economic assessment of electric energy storage for load shifting in positive energy building

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dumont, Olivier; Do Carmo, Carolina Madeira Ramos; Georges, Emeline

2017-01-01

Net zero energy buildings and positive energy buildings are gaining more and more interest. This paper evaluates the impact of the integration of a battery in a positive energy building used to increase its self-consumption of electricity. Parametric studies are carried out by varying the buildin...... and a 3.7 kWh battery. Finally, simple correlations (based on the feed-in tariff, the annual electrical consumption and production) to predict the optimal size of battery and the lowest payback period are proposed.......Net zero energy buildings and positive energy buildings are gaining more and more interest. This paper evaluates the impact of the integration of a battery in a positive energy building used to increase its self-consumption of electricity. Parametric studies are carried out by varying the building...... envelope characteristics, the power supply system, the climate, the lighting and appliances profiles, the roof tilt angle, the battery size and the electricity tariffs, leading to 3200 cases. The analysis is performed on an annual basis in terms of self-consumption and self-production rate and payback...

Assessment of current Dutch energy transition policy instruments for the existing housing stock

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tambach, Milly; Hasselaar, Evert; Itard, Laure

2010-01-01

This research assesses to what extent current Dutch energy transition policy instruments for the existing housing stock can fulfil local executive actors' needs and instigate adoption of energy efficiency measures by them. This is done by studying energy policy instruments for the existing housing stock in the Netherlands and in other European countries, and by an empirical research, which analyses barriers and needs of local executive actors. We found that, despite current Dutch energy transition policy instruments for the existing housing stock seem to fulfil local executive actors' needs to a large extent, complementary policy instruments are needed to stimulate and pressure the incumbent renovation regime. A long-term oriented financial rewarding system is needed to build up a structural market for the deployment of renewables, to increase the number of specialist jobs in the building sector, and to stimulate the development of integrated, standardized, building components. Furthermore, a long-term oriented financial rewarding system for energy efficiency investments in housing renovation projects, and a low VAT rate applied to energy efficient renovation measures, are needed. Finally, enforcement possibilities and sanctions (fines) should become an integrative part of Dutch energy certification regulation to make the certificate become part of a value chain.

Impact of Moistened Bio-insulation on Whole Building Energy Use

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Latif Eshrar

2017-01-01

Full Text Available One of the key properties of hemp insulation is its moisture adsorption capacity. Adsorption of moisture can increase both thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the insulation. The current study focuses on the effect of moisture induced thermal mass of installed hemp insulation on the whole building energy use. Hygrothermal and thermal simulations were performed using the CIBSE TRY weather data of Edinburgh and Birmingham with the aid of following simulation tools: WUFI and IES. Following simplified building types were considered: building-1 with dry hemp wall and loft insulations, building-2 with moistened hemp wall and loft insulation and building-3 with stone wool insulation. It was observed that the overall conditioning load of building-1 was 1.2 to 2.3% higher than building-2 and 3. However, during the summer season, the cooling load of building-2 was 3-7.5% lower than the other buildings. It implies that, moistened insulation can potentially mitigate the effect of increasing cooling degree days induced by global warming.

Potential Job Creation in Rhode Island as a Result of Adopting New Residential Building Energy Codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scott, Michael J.; Niemeyer, Jackie M.

2013-09-01

Are there advantages to states that adopt the most recent model building energy codes other than saving energy? For example, can the construction activity and energy savings associated with code-compliant housing units become significant sources of job creation for states if new building energy codes are adopted to cover residential construction? , The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program (BECP) asked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to research and ascertain whether jobs would be created in individual states based on their adoption of model building energy codes. Each state in the country is dealing with high levels of unemployment, so job creation has become a top priority. Many programs have been created to combat unemployment with various degrees of failure and success. At the same time, many states still have not yet adopted the most current versions of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) model building energy code, when doing so could be a very effective tool in creating jobs to assist states in recovering from this economic downturn.

A review of building energy regulation and policy for energy conservation in developing countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iwaro, Joseph; Mwasha, Abraham

2010-01-01

The rapid growth of energy use, worldwide, hfs raised concerns over problems of energy supply and exhaustion of energy resources. Most of the developed countries are implementing building energy regulations such as energy standards, codes etc., to reduce building energy consumption. The position of developing countries with respect to energy regulations implementation and enforcement is either poorly documented or not documented at all. In addition, there is a lack of consistent data, which makes it difficult to understand the underlying changes that affect energy regulation implementation in developing countries. In that respect, this paper investigates the progress of building energy regulations in developing countries and its implication for energy conservation and efficiency. The present status of building energy regulations in 60 developing countries around the world was analysed through a survey of building energy regulations using online survey. The study revealed the present progress made on building energy regulations in relation to implementation, development and compliance; at the same time the study recommends possible solutions to the barriers facing building energy regulation implementation in the developing world. - Research Highlights: →Progress and implications of energy regulations in developing countries. →Investigation assessed the progress made on energy regulations using online survey. →Energy regulation activities is progressively increasing in developing countries. →The study identified 25 developing countries without energy regulatory standards. →The study shows relationship between energy regulation and energy consumption.

Towards nearly zero-energy buildings: The state-of-art of national regulations in Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Annunziata, Eleonora; Frey, Marco; Rizzi, Francesco

2013-01-01

Energy efficiency in buildings is an important objective of energy policy and strategy in Europe. A survey questionnaire was conducted among the 27 European Union Member States. This study aims to provide an overview of the current national regulatory framework focusing on three aspects: 1) integration of energy efficiency and renewable energy requirements, 2) translation of investments in energy saving into economic value, 3) commitment towards “nearly zero-energy” target. The study shows that European countries have adopted different approaches in the design of their national regulatory framework. This heterogeneity consists of four main factors: different authorities involved in energy regulations, traditional building regulations and enforcement models, different contextual characteristics, and maturity of the country in the implementation of energy efficiency measures. These differences are important to take into account country's profile in order to improve the sharing of best-practices and energy efficiency governance among European Union Member States. - Highlights: ► We analyze the legal status for energy efficient buildings in 27 European Countries. ► We examine building markets, renewable technology and “nearly zero-energy” targets. ► European Member States provide a heterogeneous environment to the recast of EPBD. ► National regulatory frameworks have evolved different structures and responsibilities. ► We provide directions in further enforcing energy efficiency in buildings regulation

Joint China-United States Report for Year 1 Insulation Materials and Systems Project Area Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stovall, Therese K [ORNL; Biswas, Kaushik [ORNL; Song, Bo [China Academy of Building Research; Zhang, Sisi [China Academy of Building Research

2012-08-01

In November of 2009, the presidents of China and the U.S. announced the establishment of the Clean Energy Research Center (CERC). This broad research effort is co-funded by both countries and involves a large number of research centers and universities in both countries. One part of this program is focused on improving the energy efficiency of buildings. One portion of the CERC-BEE was focused on building insulation systems. The research objective of this effort was to Identify and investigate candidate high performance fire resistant building insulation technologies that meet the goal of building code compliance for exterior wall applications in green buildings in multiple climate zones. A Joint Work Plan was established between researchers at the China Academy of Building Research and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Efforts in the first year under this plan focused on information gathering. The objective of this research program is to reduce building energy use in China via improved building insulation technology. In cold regions in China, residents often use inefficient heating systems to provide a minimal comfort level within inefficient buildings. In warmer regions, air conditioning has not been commonly used. As living standards rise, energy consumption in these regions will increase dramatically unless significant improvements are made in building energy performance. Previous efforts that defined the current state of the built environment in China and in the U.S. will be used in this research. In countries around the world, building improvements have typically followed the implementation of more stringent building codes. There have been several changes in building codes in both the U.S. and China within the last few years. New U.S. building codes have increased the amount of wall insulation required in new buildings. New government statements from multiple agencies in China have recently changed the requirements for buildings in terms of energy efficiency and

Building-owners energy-education program. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1981-12-01

The objectives of the program are to develop and test market a cogent education program aimed specifically at building owners to help them be more decisive and knowledgeable, and to motivate them to direct their managers and professionals to implement a rational plan for achieving energy conservation in their commercial office buildings and to establish a plan, sponsored by the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) to implement this educational program on a nation-wide basis. San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta were chosen for test marketing a model program. The procedure used in making the energy survey is described. Energy survey results of participating buildings in San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta are summarized. (MCW)

Energy and architecture: improvement of energy performance in existing buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haase, Matthias; Wycmans, Annemie; Solbraa, Anne; Grytli, Eir

2011-07-01

This book aims to give an overview of different aspects of retrofitting existing buildings. The target group is students of architecture and building engineering as well as building professionals. Eight out of ten buildings which we will inhabit in 2050 already exist. This means that a great potential for reducing our carbon footprint lies in the existing building stock. Students from NTNU have used the renovation of a 1950s school building at Linesoeya in Soer-Trondelag as a case to increase their awareness and knowledge about the challenges building professionals need to overcome to unite technical details and high user quality into good environmental performance. The students were invited by the building owners and initiators of LIPA Eco Project to contribute to its development: By retrofitting an existing building to passive house standards and combining this with energy generated on site, LIPA Eco Project aims to provide a hands-on example with regard to energy efficiency, architectural design and craftsmanship for a low carbon society. The overall goal for this project is to raise awareness regarding resource efficiency measures in architecture and particularly in existing building mass.(au)

Energy management handbook for building operating engineers student workbook

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1979-09-01

The handbook provides operating engineers with the basic information needed to implement specific energy conservation opportunities, and additional information is presented relative to the formulation and development of the energy management plan. Chapters are entitled: The Need for Energy Management (International Factors, The US Energy Situation, Energy and the Building Owner); The Fundamentals of Energy Consumption in Buildings (Energy Basics, Heat Basics, Heat Flow and the Building Envelope, Air and Comfort, Factors Affecting Energy Use In Buildings); Principles of Energy Conservation (Building Energy Consumption Characteristics); Planning the Energy Management Program (Obtaining Commitment and Support, Establishing the Energy Use Index, Organizing to Develop the Plan, Developing and Implementing the Plan); Conducting a Survey of Facilities and Operations (The Energy Audit, Preparation of Building and Systems Profile, Measurement and Instrumentation); Guidelines for Energy Conservation (Operator ECO's, Owner ECO'S); Developing the Draft Final Plan (Analyze Survey Findings, Putting the Plan on Paper, Review and Submit); Implementing the Program (Developing the Final Plan, Implementing the Plan, Monitoring and Updating the Program). A glossary is included and specific information on degree days and cooling hours for some selected cities and a computer energy study data for the New York Hilton are included in appendices. (MCW)

Solar Heating/Cooling of Buildings: Current Building Community Projects. An Interim Report.

Science.gov (United States)

National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, Washington, DC. Building Research Advisory Board.

Projects being carried out by the private sector involving the use of solar energy for heating and cooling buildings are profiled in this report. A substantial portion of the data were collected from a broad cross-section of the building community. Data collection efforts also involved the canvassing of the nearly 200 trade and professional…

Home and Building Energy Management Systems | Grid Modernization | NREL

Science.gov (United States)

Home and Building Energy Management Systems Home and Building Energy Management Systems NREL researchers are developing tools to understand the impact of changes in home and building energy use and how researchers who received a record of invention for a home energy management system in a smart home laboratory

Energy efficiency in buildings. Yearbook 2016

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poeschk, Juergen

2016-01-01

Viewpoints, concepts and projects of policy and practice are the main focus of the Yearbook, which has become the standard work of housing and real estate sector in Germany in the 2016th. The energy transition has long been only a electricity transition. ''Building'' has become a topic of increasing concern to the political and public debate - and quite controversial. In this yearbook attempt is made to illuminate the topic of energy efficiency in buildings in its complexity. The more than 30 contributions by renowned specialist authors are divided into the following chapters: Political strategies and positions; studies and concepts; energy research for buildings and districts; models from practice; tenant electricity: concepts and projects, human factor: information - motivation - behavior change. [de

Review of California and National Methods for Energy PerformanceBenchmarking of Commercial Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Matson, Nance E.; Piette, Mary Ann

2005-09-05

This benchmarking review has been developed to support benchmarking planning and tool development under discussion by the California Energy Commission (CEC), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and others in response to the Governor's Executive Order S-20-04 (2004). The Executive Order sets a goal of benchmarking and improving the energy efficiency of California's existing commercial building stock. The Executive Order requires the CEC to propose ''a simple building efficiency benchmarking system for all commercial buildings in the state''. This report summarizes and compares two currently available commercial building energy-benchmarking tools. One tool is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star National Energy Performance Rating System, which is a national regression-based benchmarking model (referred to in this report as Energy Star). The second is Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Cal-Arch, which is a California-based distributional model (referred to as Cal-Arch). Prior to the time Cal-Arch was developed in 2002, there were several other benchmarking tools available to California consumers but none that were based solely on California data. The Energy Star and Cal-Arch benchmarking tools both provide California with unique and useful methods to benchmark the energy performance of California's buildings. Rather than determine which model is ''better'', the purpose of this report is to understand and compare the underlying data, information systems, assumptions, and outcomes of each model.

Investigation of building energy autonomy in the sahelian environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coulibaly, O; Koulidiati, J; Ouedraogo, A; Kuznik, F; Baillis, D

2012-01-01

In this study, the energy generation of a set of photovoltaic panels is compared with the energy load of a building in order to analyse its autonomy in the sahelian environment when taking into account, the orientation, the insulation and the energy transfer optimisation of its windows. The Type 56 TRNSYS multizone building model is utilized for the energy load simulation and the Type 94 model of the same code enables the coupling of photovoltaic (PV) panels with the building. Without insulation, the PV energy generation represents 73.52 and 111.79% of the building electric energy load, respectively for poly-crystalline and mono-crystalline panels. For the same PV characteristics and when we insulate the roof and the floor, the energy generation increases to represent successively 121.09 and 184.13%. In the meantime, for building without insulation and with insulate the roof, the floor and 2 cm insulated walls, the energy consumption ratios decrease respectively from 201.13 to 105.20 kWh/m 2 /year. The investigations finally show that it is even possible to generate excess energy (positive energy building) and reduce the number and incident surface area of the PV panels if we conjugate the previous model with building passive architectural design mode (orientation, solar protection ...).

Barriers' and policies' analysis of China's building energy efficiency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)