Real data is the key to successful energy efficiency measures
At the core of the new high-performance building is the notion of a continual, adjustable feedback loop between the building and its occupants. Beyond even design and technology, it’s the building’s controls and performance monitoring systems that allow a building to continue to evolve in its efficiency.
As a first step, benchmarking is a way that data can reduce energy use. Over the last decade, benchmarking has gained traction as a viable first step toward systematically reducing energy use in buildings. Benchmarking’s success identifies a need for even more data, as larger data sets on building characteristics, energy use, and case studies would be highly valuable as a comparative design and performance resource.
In the case of University of California, Merced, performance data measures very intentionally determined the design. They began by benchmarking the campus, using assessments of real world energy use of similar buildings to inform their modeling. They made use of a data-driven design process that allowed for more accurate performance estimates—and was instrumental to the optimization of the campus’s design. Merced’s case study write up explains, “The project team incorporated the energy performance targets into the design specifications for each building. This ensured the design and construction team would make decisions within this constraint and reduced the risk of having energy efficiency measures compromised through value engineering.”
Data plays an ongoing role in the life of the campus’s buildings, especially when it comes to meeting Merced’s continually evolving efficiency goals.
For all high-performance buildings, constant measurement and feedback are foundational. Controls and energy information systems that monitor building energy use and performance, diagnose problems, and provide detailed data and high-level dashboards for operators and occupants are the new standard. Real-time monitoring provides indicators by hour or 15-minute increments in order to identify schedule-related control issues. Other key controls that influence a building’s whole performance are evening and night setbacks for lighting and HVAC. All these systems help establish the key performance indicators appropriate to the building size, systems, and audience. Along with a routine of data review and action, the result is buildings that are incredibly responsive to weather, occupancy, and other variables.
Above all it’s the feedback loop, with its ability to fine-tune energy consumption, that enables the aspiration of net zero energy to become a reality.
Data begets data. A key ingredient on the path to super efficiency is information. Whether as success or failure, information links design to performance. As the paper “Getting to 50: Drivers and Data of Measured Energy Performance” points out,
“Nothing makes the case as eloquently as real buildings backed by real data. As we bootstrap our way from energy wasters to high efficiency, we need to measure performance and use it as our yardstick for success.”