Applying Building Standard Could Slash Energy Use
02/09/2011
By Nadine M. Post
Text size: A A
Code crafters are lauding a significant process change in reference-standard development that provides markers for progress along the way, directional signals for reaching goals and validation of the standard’s potential impact on energy use and cost. The process, based on energy modeling and analysis, helped the developers of the 2010 edition of the commercial-building energy standard reach their goal of providing a standard that, if followed, could result in a whopping 30% reduction in both energy use and costs compared with use of the standard’s 2004 edition.
Crafters of the next edition of the energy standard already are using the process again, this time to reach an even more ambitious “50% goal.” Crafters of the next two editions of the model residential energy code—targeting a 30% goal and then a 50% goal, respectively—also are using the process.
Use of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2010, published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, can result in buildings that use more than 30% less energy than those designed to the 2004 standard, according to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which performed the energy modeling analyses under contract with the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Building Energy Codes Program (BECP).
“The 30% goal, set by DOE, was very challenging to reach,” says Bing Liu, senior research engineer at the Richland, Wash.-based PNNL and the one credited with the idea of the progress indicators. “It’s a huge change that has changed the expectation of other building energy-efficiency codes,” adds Liu, who also served on 90.1’s mechanical subcommittee.
PNNL analyzed the impact of the 109 changes to the standard during the 2007-2010 development period, reporting quarterly to ASHRAE committees, as well as after 90.1’s publication in October (ENR 11/15/10 p. 7). PNNL is also under contract with DOE to provide progress indicators for the 90.1-2013 and the International Energy Conservation Code.
PNNL modeled 16 building types in 17 climate zones for a total of 272 building types and climate-zone combinations, representing 80% of U.S. commercial buildings constructed annually. On a nationally aggregated level, compared with 90.1-2004, building-type energy savings ranged from 8.8% to 38.3% and energy-cost savings from 7.9% to 33.6%.
PNNL’s work was “important and essential to enable us to measure progress,” says Steve Skalko, manager of regional codes, in Macon, Ga., for the Portland Cement Association and chairman of 90.1 committee. Without PNNL’s final analysis, “we would never have known if we had reached our goal,” adds Skalko, vice chairman of the 90.1 committee until July.
The analysis was a big help when, in January of last year—only nine months before the standard’s publication—the PNNL team informed the committee it had reached only half of its 30% goal. “When we heard the “15% report,” we did not panic,” says Skalko, because addenda still in process hadn’t been counted.
But the committee decided to prioritize remaining addenda according to energy impact, and give the high-impact ones special care, so they would win approval. One given extra attention, called the “title, purpose and scope” change, would allow the standard, for the first time, to address plug and process loads, which offered big conservation potential, especially in data centers. “We realized how important that particular addendum was to get savings in 2010 and future standards,” says Skalko.
The next challenge for DOE is getting the states, especially the reluctant ones, to adopt 90.1-2010, says Diana Shankle, manager of DOE’s BECP at PNNL. “We have a strategy for how to target each state,” she says.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Published on GreenBiz.com (http://www.greenbiz.com)
Deep Building Retrofits Drive Big Gains in Energy, Cost Savings
By Rebecca Cole
Created 2011-02-07 11:24
Since the economic collapse, real estate owners have sought ways to cut costs, retain tenants, increase market performance and gain competitive advantage. A deep retrofit can achieve these objectives by turning business-as-usual upgrades into profit centers.
Existing buildings are full of energy efficiency opportunities waiting to be realized. While some savings are obvious and easy to reach via one-off upgrades of windows, lighting and appliances, by using an integrated, whole-buildings design approach, profoundly larger energy savings can often be gained at little or no added capital cost.
President Obama's announcement last week of plans to reduce energy use in the commercial building sector 20 percent by 2020 underscored the economic opportunity that retrofitting the U.S. commercial building stock presents -- both to business owners looking to cut down on energy costs, and energy service providers trying to get a leg up in a competitive market.
Jump-Starting a Constrained Industry
Estimated to eventually save business owners up to $40 billion a year in offset electricity costs, Obama's Better Buildings program could provide the jump-start the industry needs through proposed tax incentives and creative financing mechanisms to drive job creation and increase building valuation -- while reducing the country's dependence on fossil fuels.
"With 80 billion square feet of commercial space that needs to be retired or retrofitted over the next 20 to 30 years, there is an enormous market opportunity right in front of us," said Victor Olgyay, a principal with Rocky Mountain Institute's buildings practice.
While the Obama administration's proposed initiative is a step in the right direction, deep energy retrofits -- those that save at least 50 percent of energy operating costs with positive financial returns -- offer greater opportunities for cost savings by recognizing how efficiency gains in one system can affect other building systems and attributes. These interrelationships often let many small improvements combine to create substantially larger benefits.
Here is a video of highlighting the deep energy retrofit of the Empire State Building:
<!--pagebreak-->
"Many people assume that it is too hard to do deep energy retrofits and instead invest just enough to deliver a return in the shortest amount of time," Olgyay said. "But in reality, it may be much more prudent to go for a deeper level of investment in order to reap greater energy cost savings for the lifetime of the building."
Going Deep: Making the Right Investment
Rocky Mountain Institute's RetroFit initiative, part of the nonprofit organization's larger goal to drive the transition from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables, aims to encourage the retrofit of the U.S commercial building stock to use, on average, at least 50 percent less energy by 2050, via the wide adoption of deep energy retrofits.
Work is nearly complete to carry out the award-winning retrofit design of the Empire State Building by RMI and our partners -- the Clinton Climate Initiative, Johnson Controls and Jones Lang LaSalle. The landmark will be 38 percent more efficient and save $4.4 million in annual energy costs and now many other large commercial properties are lining up to follow in the Empire State Building's footsteps, such as the Byron Rogers Federal Building in downtown Denver.
On track to reduce the building's energy use by 70 percent, the project -- led by the General Services Administration and in conjunction with the design-build team -- will create more than 2,000 jobs while saving taxpayer money through greatly reduced utility costs. Funded with nearly $140 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the building is slated for a series of efficiency measures designed to surpass the federal goals outlined in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
By targeting diverse projects, RMI aims to better understand the strengths, weaknesses and applicability of various approach to deep retrofits, share these lessons with the industry and ultimately bring deep retrofits to scale. Online resources like RMI's new RetroFit Depot, for example, are available to detail the entire design and execution process, offering case studies, tools and best practices for both building owners and energy service providers.
"Although RMI has several high-impact pilot projects under our belt," Olgyay said, "reducing energy use on a large-scale in commercial buildings requires widespread industry momentum. Obama's initiative has the potential to move us in the right direction by bringing this opportunity to the public's attention. Now, it's up to the industry as whole to capitalize on it."
Top image CC licensed by Flickr user paul (dex). Video courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Institute.
