Nicholas Long

Evaluation of the Low-Energy Design Process and Energy Performance of the Zion National Park Visitor Center: Preprint

In line with the mission of the National Park Service, the Zion National Park Visitor Center was designed to use 70% less energy than a comparable visitor center built to Federal Energy Code 10 CFR 435 (DOE 1995). The authors and NFS staff used an integrated design process, including extensive simulations, to minimize the energy consumption. The result was a passive solar commercial building that has a good thermal envelope, daylighting, and natural ventilation. Passive downdraft cooltowers provide all the cooling. Two Trombe walls provide a significant amount of the heating. After two years of metering, the results show a net energy use intensity of 24.7 kBtu/ft2 (280.5 MJ/m 2 ) and a 67% energy cost saving. Low energy use and aggressive demand management result in an energy cost intensity of

Development of building energy asset rating using stock modelling in the USA

0.43/ft 2 (

Control Limits for Building Energy End Use Based on Engineering Judgment, Frequency Analysis, and Quantile Regression

4.63/m 2 ). The paper discusses lessons learned related to the design process, daylighting, PV system, and HVAC system.

Automated Multivariate Optimization Tool for Energy Analysis

The US Building Energy Asset Score helps building stakeholders quickly gain insight into the efficiency of building systems (envelope, electrical and mechanical systems). A robust, easy-to-understand 10-point scoring system was developed to facilitate an unbiased comparison of similar building types across the country. The Asset Score does not rely on a database or specific building baselines to establish a rating. Rather, distributions of energy use intensity (EUI) for various building use types were constructed using Latin hypercube sampling and converted to a series of stepped linear scales to score buildings. A score is calculated based on the modelled source EUI after adjusting for climate. A web-based scoring tool, which incorporates an analytical engine and a simulation engine, was developed to standardize energy modelling and reduce implementation cost. This paper discusses the methodology used to perform several hundred thousand building simulation runs and develop the scoring scales.

BUILDING ENERGY ANALYSIS TOOL

Approaches are needed to continuously characterize the energy performance of commercial buildings to allow for (1) timely response to excess energy use by building operators; and (2) building occupants to develop energy awareness and to actively engage in reducing energy use. Energy information systems, often involving graphical dashboards, are gaining popularity in presenting energy performance metrics to occupants and operators in a (near) real-time fashion. Such an energy information system, called Building Agent, has been developed at NREL and incorporates a dashboard for public display. Each building is, by virtue of its purpose, location, and construction, unique. Thus, assessing building energy performance is possible only in a relative sense, as comparison of absolute energy use out of context is not meaningful. In some cases, performance can be judged relative to average performance of comparable buildings. However, in cases of high-performance building designs, such as NRELs Research Support Facility (RSF) discussed in this report, relative performance is meaningful only when compared to historical performance of the facility or to a theoretical maximum performance of the facility as estimated through detailed building energy modeling.