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.
Between 2012 and 2015, Better Buildings Energy Data Accelerator partners Boston, Cambridge, and Eversource successfully completed an extensive process of stakeholder engagement to enable whole building data access for multi-family and commercial building owners in their jurisdiction.
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.
The Pattern Matching Principal Component Analysis (PCA)-based fault detection method developed by CBEI consistently detected faults at a detection rate of 94% with no false alarms.
The integrative design and delivery process includes establishing a new and different governance structure to guide a retrofit construction project, and a collaborative team that works together to make decisions for the design of the buildings.
Buildings consume over 40% of the total energy in the U.S. Over 90% of the buildings are less than 50,000 square feet in size. These buildings currently do not use building automation systems to monitor and control their building systems.
Mandatory commercial building rating and disclosure policies, which require the energy performance of buildings to be measured and disclosed, have the potential to transform the real estate sector. These policies could drive demand for and investment in strategies and technologies that reduce energy use in buildings.
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.
RTUs serve 60% of commercial floor space and account for about 150 Terawatt hours of annual electrical usage (~1.56 Quads of primary energy) and about $15B in electric bills in the US.
Energy efficiency in existing buildings is most often addressed by upgrading outdated lighting equipment and adding efficient equipment to the heating and cooling systems because of low risk and short financial payback.
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.
As much as 20 percent of energy consumed in commercial buildings is due to inefficient operations. This is energy that can be saved with operational improvements and does not require major capital investments.
CBEI researchers have moved into their new home in November of 2014 at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The new headquarters building was designed as a living laboratory for building science researchers to test the real-world application of a number of energy conservation measures.
CBEI researchers have moved into their new home in November of 2014 at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The new headquarters building was designed as a living laboratory for building science researchers to test the real-world application of a number of energy conservation measures.
As much as 20 percent of energy consumed in commercial buildings is due to inefficient operations. This is energy that can be saved with operational improvements and does not require major capital investments.