Newsletter

Winter 2008 News from NBI

NBI Completes LEED Energy Performance Project
NBI recently completed the broadest study to date of measured energy performance of LEED buildings. Undertaken on behalf of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), this study was aimed at better quantifying the actual energy performance levels of green building.

Whole building energy data was gathered from 121 LEED NC buildings that had been occupied for at least one year and analyzed. The results were first presented by Cathy Turner and Mark Frankel of NBI and Brendan Owens of USGBC at GreenBuild last November. The study showed that on average LEED buildings are delivering anticipated energy savings, with three different views of building performance consistently showing savings of 25 to 30 percent. However, the study also revealed wide variability among individual buildings results, indicating significant potential for further improvement. Key findings and recommendations include:

• Need for better feedback to the design community to help calibrate modeling results to post-occupancy metrics and conditions
• Need for improved guidance on designing and modeling buildings with high energy activities such as labs and data centers
• Need for further study and calibration of the LEED energy performance baseline, which appears to be less aggressive than anticipated
• Continue improvements to the LEED program in the areas of quality control, follow-up to maintain savings, and rework of credits such as advanced Measurement and Verification to provide more directly useful information to owners.

The full written report will be available soon.

Experts Gather to Discuss Measured Performance of Buildings
In early December, NBI brought together a group of 45 energy experts in Washington D.C. to identify and prioritize strategies for making building performance feedback available to building owners, architects, financial decision makers and others. This workshop had its origins at NBI’s March 2007 Getting to Fifty Summit, where owners, developers, designers and program managers said that case studies, feedback to designers and performance reporting were essential to improving the breadth and quality of building energy efficiency. The December event was co-hosted by the U.S. Green Building Council and ASHRAE and supported by the EPA’s ENERGY STAR program.

The priority needs and suggested activities developed during last month's Workshop were carried to a roundtable meeting of key policymakers the following day. That discussion focused on what can be done now to address those needs, with particular emphasis on metrics standardization and alignment, benchmark data collection, and a “way-finding” structure and tools to facilitate effective performance measurement and communication. The roundtable attendees agreed that a steering committee should be formed to develop and guide a more specific agenda for actions to improve measured performance.

Be sure to visit our Measured Performance section at www.newbuildings.org which will be updated with further information on the workshop, related materials and follow-up activities.

NBI Opens Offices in Vancouver, Washington
NBI’s new second home is a small brick building in downtown Vancouver, Washington. This new office, located at 1331 Washington Street, will accommodate our employees living in the Portland metropolitan area and serve as a central meeting location. Built in the 1880’s by the Hidden family, who ran a brick-making operation next door, the Barn (as we’ve come to call it) once housed four Percheron horses used to pull brick and hay wagons. The building shares the block with the Hidden House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Barn was converted into offices in the 1970’s, preserving the brick interior, sliding barn doors and exposed beam ceilings. We’ll be redoing the lighting and have updated the HVAC system to high-efficiency heat pumps with variable speed drives (SEER 16). We are also implementing an interval monitoring system (every 15 minutes) as a test-bed for the Measurement and Verification protocols recommended in Advanced Buildings Core Performance. This new office provides us an excellent opportunity to showcase energy efficiency and will be a wonderful creative space. Our Vancouver phone number is 360-567-0950.

Welcome NBI’s New Lighting Manager, Barb Hamilton
We are very pleased to announce that Barbara Hamilton will be joining NBI in January to manage lighting-related activities. Barb has bachelor degrees in Marketing and Interior Architecture, and earned a Masters of Science in Lighting from the Lighting Research Center of Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. She has over a decade of experience working as a lighting designer and as a manufacturer’s representative connecting the advanced lighting practice of the Portland architectural market with some of the country’s top manufacturers. Barb’s mix of skills and experience will help NBI keep moving the bar on lighting technologies and lighting practices, and we welcome her to the team. She will be working out of the Barn in Vancouver, which desperately needs some lighting design assistance as part of its energy renovation.

USGBC Adopts Core Performance as a Prescription Option for LEED-NC
The U.S. Green Building Council has adopted NBI’s Advanced Buildings™ Core Performance™ program as a prescriptive option worth up to five points under LEED-NC v2.2 Energy and Atmosphere Credit 1: Optimize Energy Performance. The prescriptive path is offered as an alternative to energy modeling requirements in LEED-NC. The program outlined in our Core Performance Guide is based on extensive analysis of multiple building prototypes and system configurations in climate zones across the country. Ideal for the vast majority of commercial projects with simpler mechanical designs, LEED will accept Core Performance as a prescriptive option for most building types up to 100,000 square feet.

Core Performance Training Offered in the Northwest
In 2008, BetterBricks, in conjunction with Northwest utilities, will host a series of half-day workshops on Advanced Buildings Core Performance. The trainings will present information on the benefits of using Core Performance including energy savings, improved productivity and occupant satisfaction, better risk management and environmental stewardship. Case study examples will focus on real-life application of Core Performance strategies. The cost of the training is $99 and includes a copy of the Guide and access to Advanced Buildings Core Performance online resources for one year. Check our continually updated list of upcoming dates and locations for a workshop in your area.

Hot Dry Air Conditioning Shows Promise
The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) look at the state of hot dry air conditioning has found that existing single compressor, single-speed air conditioners could produce annual cooling energy savings of 20 percent or more. These units represent the vast majority of the air conditioner market. In addition, residential cooling units showed a potential for up to 35 percent peak reduction at system critical peak times. The units studied included outdoor equipment, indoor coils and furnaces selected to meet a new performance standard at a higher outdoor temperature. NBI was part of the Market Connections team for this project, acting as a liaison with HVAC industry and utility project partners, along with efficiency advocates in California, the Southwest and Washington, D.C.

The full study, conducted under the CEC’s Hot Dry Air Conditioning (HDAC) project, included design, fabrication and testing of cost-effective HDAC units, development of new engineering design methodologies for hot dry climates and evaluation of the impact of various control strategies for residential and small commercial units on peak electrical demand and energy use.

Significant recommendations for follow-up include formal California Public Utility Commission support for pursuing climate optimized cooling standards at the regional and national levels; consideration of climate optimized standards for the California Title 24 Standards revision in 2011; development of a system for qualifying evaporator coils and complete indoor units, preferably requiring manufacturers to test and submit qualifying data for their products and using an impartial laboratory to review and spot-test submittals; and consideration of a National Cooling Initiative to address multiple issues with compressor-based cooling equipment across all market segments. NBI will continue to work with the Western Cooling Efficiency Center ( http://wcec.ucdavis.edu/) on promoting climate optimized efficiency standards.

The final report on this work is currently being reviewed by CEC and will soon be posted at http://wcec.ucdavis.edu/content/view/80/98/.

New Buildings Institute Turns 10!
Since December 1997, New Buildings Institute has worked with national, regional, state and utility groups to improve energy efficiency in commercial new construction. By advancing technologies and design practices, advocating for better codes and providing national leadership, our efforts have contributed to making buildings better for people and the environment. We’ll be sharing with you some of our accomplishments during the coming year. Stay tuned!

To catch up on earlier news, check out our previous newsletters.