DOE Commercial Building Energy Asset Rating: Market Research and Program Direction

Conference · Sun Aug 12 04:00:00 EDT 2012

OSTI ID:1111249

Wang, Na; Taylor, Cody; McCabe, Molly J.

This paper presents the development of a voluntary energy asset rating system, to evaluate the physical characteristics and as-built energy efficiency of new and existing commercial buildings. The energy asset rating system is intended to enable commercial building stakeholders to directly compare expected as-built energy performance among similar buildings and to analyze the potential for capital improvements to increase energy efficiency cost-effectively. Market research has been performed to understand the market demand and how to communicate energy and cost savings to owners, investors, financiers, and others to overcome market barriers and motivate capital investment in building energy efficiency. The paper discusses the findings of the market research. Building owners are concerned about redundancy, conflicting requirements, and cost. They also pointed out a data gap and desire a rating program that identifies improvement opportunities. A meaningful linkage between the energy asset rating and other rating systems is essential. Based on the findings, criteria for a successful energy asset rating program have been developed to direct the program design, including validity of ratings, actionable, cost effective recommendations, effective quality control, integration with other rating systems, and necessary training and education. In addition to the rating system, an asset rating tool is being developed to reduce cost and increase standardization, allowing for consistent and reliable comparisons among and between buildings. The asset rating tool is the first step in the process by which owners can enter information about their building structure and receive information on the building’s modeled performance and recommended efficiency measures.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1111249
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-87850; BT0201000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

commercial building
energy asset rating
market research