Calibration and Collaboration: Important Tools to Design high-Performance Affordable Buildings

Conference · Mon Mar 31 04:00:00 EDT 2008

OSTI ID:1013317

Jiang, Wei; Liu, Bing; Snell, John; Helmes, Dan

When new technologies are installed in a building, it is difficult to know how various systems will interact and if the building will perform as well as expected. A widely used technique to verify and quantify the actual energy savings from the energy-efficient features in high-performance buildings is to use the calibrated energy simulation approach. Maverick Gardens Mid-Rise A is a six-story apartment building located in East Boston, Massachusetts. The building was designed and constructed to meet the ENERGY STAR Homes Program rating and the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. During the design phase, DOE-2.1E energy models for both budget building design and proposed building design were developed by the design team to demonstrate energy savings potential from various energy efficient technologies installed in this high-performance building. When comparing the energy use predicted by the proposed design energy model with utility bills, the design team observed that this building’s actual energy consumption was about one-third of what was estimated from the proposed design model, and therefore requested help from the authors through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Rebuild America Program to calibrate the proposed design energy model. This paper describes the energy simulation calibration approach using short-term metering data and utility bills. Details of the analysis, calibration results and the actual building energy performance are presented. This study also discusses lessons learned during the simulation calibration process and demonstrates the importance of collaboration among design professionals throughout the design, building, and commissioning process, as a way to ensure that high-performing building goals are met.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1013317
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-59688; WI0501000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
APARTMENT BUILDINGS
CALIBRATION
COMMISSIONING
DESIGN
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
ENERGY MODELS
METERING
PERFORMANCE
SIMULATION