The presentations, news, research summaries, reports, and technology overviews are collected here by focus area and represent the body of work developed by the CBEI partners during the 5-year project period. For additional information on market challenges, approach, and impacts, see each focus area overview.
A BIM Planning Guide for Retrofit Projects was developed that enables design teams to quickly plan the use of energy and other model adoption process early in a project.
Masonry buildings constitute a significant portion of the existing building stock built prior to the 1980s in the north-east region of U.S. These buildings often have uninsulated or under-insulated walls which offer a good potential to achieve energy efficiency through improved wall retrofit strategies on the inside of the wall assembly.
The goal of this project was to demonstrate and evaluate a practical business case for implementation of the RTU Coordinator across multiple locations. This report provides a summary of the PnP algorithm, a description of the savings estimates for previous PnP evaluations, a description of site selection processes and savings results for the BoA sites, and a description of the final demonstration sites, implementations and preliminary results.
Recent developments in building controls and diagnostics techniques promise to improve occupant comfort while minimizing energy consumption. A new generation of Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) for building automation systems is needed to allow facility managers to leverage the potential of advanced controls and diagnostics. In this paper we will describe a design process and the end product, a novel HMI prototype and the system that supports it. The system is an integration of advanced algorithms, an underlying software architecture, building equipment, and the human operators that use it.
This project develops a calibrated occupant behavior module that aids building design & operation by simulating user impacts on energy use.
For the past two years, the Better Buildings Energy Data Accelerator has been supporting pairs of local governments and their local utility companies to help building owners gain access to their building energy data.
As a member of the Subtask 5.4 Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) assessment team, the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) at Carnegie Mellon University conducted a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) for Building 661 in Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA, on July 10th, 2015.
Designed for energy optimization of building retrofit projects. Applicable to new buildings and other projects. Empire State Building Example: Display the relevant metrics (here it’s NPV and CO2 savings). Include uncertainty and sensitivity about future projections.
We still think of buildings as investments in things: real estate, land, technology. Yet, we build to provide an environment for people to work, live, learn, play and recover from illness. Investing in people requires a dual approach of reducing risks and promoting positive experience.
Implementing a deep energy retrofit, to achieve a 40 to 50% building level efficiency improvement, on a small to medium sized building is not financially viable as a single project. Therefore, creating an energy asset management plan that manages “deep energy retrofit triggers” over time is very important to consider.
The Asset Score Tool (AST) is a quick and easy way to determine the overall energy efficiency of your building's physical characteristics and corresponding energy consumption independent of occupant behavior.
The energy use in commercial buildings is not constant. It changes with the seasons, from year to year, as tenants come and go, and with changes to building components. Building science researchers know that the energy performance of commercial buildings declines over time – different parts of the system start to age and building occupants invariably alter the “optimal” settings.