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Title: A Simplified Methodology to Estimate Energy Savings in Commercial Buildings from Improvements in Airtightness

Journal Article · · Energies (Basel)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/en11123322· OSTI ID:1489580
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
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Air leakage through the envelope of commercial buildings in the United States accounts for approximately 6% of their energy use. Various simulation approaches have been proposed to estimate the impact of air leakage on building energy use. Although approaches that are based on detailed airflow modeling appear to be the most accurate to calculate infiltration heat transfer in simulation models, these approaches tend to require significant modeling expertise and effort. To make these energy savings estimates more readily available to building owners and designers, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Air Barrier Association of America, and the US Department of Energy (DOE) are developing a user-friendly online calculator that applies a detailed airflow modeling approach to examine energy savings due to airtightness in commercial buildings. The calculator, however, is limited to 52 US cities and a few cities in Canada and China. This paper describes the development of an alternative, simplified method to estimate energy savings from improved airtightness. The proposed method uses the same detailed approach for hourly infiltration calculations as the online calculator but it expands the ability to estimate energy savings to all US cities using hourly outdoor air temperature as the only input. The new simple regression model-based approach was developed and tested with DOE’s standalone retail prototype building model. Results from the new approach and the calculator show good agreement. In addition, a simple approach to estimate percent energy savings for retrofitted buildings was also developed; results were within 5% of the energy saving estimates from the online calculator.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1489580
Journal Information:
Energies (Basel), Vol. 11, Issue 12; ISSN 1996-1073
Publisher:
MDPI AGCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 7 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (10)

Contrasting the capabilities of building energy performance simulation programs journal April 2008
Different modeling strategies of infiltration rates for an office building to improve accuracy of building energy simulations journal January 2015
Multizone airflow models for calculating infiltration rates in commercial reference buildings journal March 2013
Analysis of U.S. Commercial Building Envelope Air Leakage Database to Support Sustainable Building Design journal March 2014
Airtightness in New and Retrofitted U.S. Army Buildings journal March 2014
Weather correlations to calculate infiltration rates for U. S. commercial building energy models journal January 2018
A novel method for measuring air infiltration rate in buildings journal June 2018
CO2 tracer gas concentration decay method for measuring air change rate journal January 2015
Feasibility of building envelope air leakage measurement using combination of air-handler and blower door journal July 2013
Field measurements of infiltration rate in high rise residential buildings using the constant concentration method journal February 2016

Cited By (2)

A Parametric Study and Performance Evaluation of Energy Retrofit Solutions for Buildings Located in the Hot-Humid Climate of Paraguay—Sensitivity Analysis journal January 2019
Energy Modelling and Calibration of Building Simulations: A Case Study of a Domestic Building with Natural Ventilation journal August 2019

Figures / Tables (12)

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Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
air leakage
infiltration
airtightness
commercial prototype buildings
energy savings
retrofits
EnergyPlus
stand-alone retail building