Ronald M. Underhill

Small- and Medium-Sized Commercial Building Monitoring and Controls Needs: A Scoping Study

Buildings consume over 40% of the total energy consumption in the U.S. A significant portion of the energy consumed in buildings is wasted because of the lack of controls or the inability to use existing building automation systems (BASs) properly. Much of the waste occurs because of our inability to manage and controls buildings efficiently. Over 90% of the buildings are either small-size ( 100,000 sf). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) were asked by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Program (BTP) to identify monitoring and control needs for small- and medium-sized commercial buildings and recommend possible solutions. This study documents the needs and solutions for small- and medium-sized buildings.

Success of Commercial Building Retuning in Federal Buildings: Results and Case Studies

AbstractRetuning is a form of scaled-down retrocomissioning for commercial buildings that targets low- and no-cost control changes to building automation systems (BASs) to achieve immediate energy savings. A retrospective analysis of retuning for a set of 26 federal office buildings and courthouses is presented, detailing the retuning process that was employed, the types of retuning measures that were commonly implemented, the most effective of those measures, and the energy and cost savings achieved as a result of the process. The buildings that participated in these retuning efforts were benchmarked as having, on average, very efficient baselines. However, these buildings achieved, on average, 12.1% annual energy savings as a result of the retuning efforts, with an associated cost savings of

Rooftop unit embedded diagnostics: Automated fault detection and diagnostics (AFDD) development, field testing and validation

1.62/year per square meter (

Optimizing Control of Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems with Energy Recovery in Commercial Buildings

0.151/year per ft2) of floor space. Several key factors that are observed to promote successful retuning outcomes are discussed as well.

Field Evaluation of the Performance of the RTU Challenge Unit. Daikin Rebel

This report documents the development, testing and field validation of the integrated AFDD and advanced rooftop unit (RTU) controls using a single controller in buildings.

Targeted Energy Efficiency Expert Evaluation Report: Neal Smith Federal Building, Des Moines, IA

AbstractDedicated outdoor air systems (DOASs) with energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) are increasingly popular in new buildings and have the potential to greatly reduce building energy consumption through elimination of zone-level summer reheat and free preconditioning of outdoor ventilation air through energy recovery with building exhaust air, often using an enthalpy wheel heat exchanger. In practice, many of these systems, however, are run suboptimally or are designed with complex and counterintuitive configurations that require detailed engineering analysis to understand optimal control sequences. Three real-world case studies from commercial building retuning are presented where control deficiencies in DOASs with ERVs led to excess energy consumption. An analysis of the potential energy savings from correcting these deficiencies as well as a discussion of how each analysis was performed during the retuning audit is included. Energy savings can vary significantly based on the climate and the baseline ...

Targeted Energy Efficiency Expert Evaluation (E4) Report: Bannister Federal Complex, Kansas City, MO

This report documents the testing of a state-of-art packaged rooftop unit (RTU) (HVAC) and a standard reference unit in the field and compares the seasonal efficiency of the two unit.

Targeted Energy Efficiency Expert Evaluation (E4) Report: Iowa City Federal Building and U.S. Post Office, Iowa City, IA

This report summarizes the energy efficiency measures identified and implemented, and an analysis of the energy savings realized using low-cost/no-cost control system measures identified.

Impact of E4 Training and Field Auditing of GSA Heartland Region Facilities

This is a final report summarizing the efficiency measures identified, implemented and the analysis of energy savings after implementation.

Field evaluation of advanced controls for the retrofit of packaged air conditioners and heat pumps

Final report summarizing Targeted E4 measures and energy savings analysis for the Iowa City Federal Building and Post Office.