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Review of California and National Methods for Energy-Performance Benchmarking of Commercial Buildings Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Nance E. Matson and Mary Ann Piette September 5 th , 2005 LBNL No. 57364

A prototype archive for a selection of building energy data on thermal distribution systems in commercial buildings was developed and pilot tested. While the pilot demonstrated the successful development of the data archive prototype, several questions remain about the usefulness of such an archive. Specifically, questions on the audience, frequency of use, maintenance, and updating of the archive would need to be addressed before this prototype is taken to the next level.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the variability of duct leakage impacts on air distribution system performance for typical large commercial buildings in California. Specifically, a hybrid DOE-2/TRNSYS sequential simulation approach was used to model the energy use of a low-pressure terminal-reheat variable-air-volume (VAV) HVAC system with six duct leakage configurations (tight to leaky) in nine prototypical large office buildings (representing three construction eras in three California climates where these types of buildings are common). Combined fan power for the variable-speed-controlled supply and return fans at design conditions was assumed to be 0.8 W/cfm. Based on our analyses of the 54 simulation cases, the increase in annual fan energy is estimated to be 40 to 50% for a system with a total leakage of 19% at design conditions compared to a tight system with 5% leakage. Annual cooling plant energy also increases by about 7 to 10%, but reheat energy decreases (about 3 to 10%). In combination, the increase in total annual HVAC site energy is 2 to 14%. The total HVAC site energy use includes supply and return fan electricity consumption, chiller and cooling tower electricity consumption, boiler electricity consumption, and boiler natural gas consumption. Using year 2000 average commercial sector energy prices for California ($0.0986/kWh and $7.71/Million Btu), the energy increases result in 9 to 18% ($7,400 to $9,500) increases in HVAC system annual operating costs. Normalized by duct surface area, the increases in annual operating costs are 0.14 to 0.18 $/ft{sup 2}. Using a suggested one-time duct sealing cost of $0.20 per square foot of duct surface area, these results indicate that sealing leaky ducts in VAV systems has a simple payback period of about 1.3 years. Even with total leakage rates as low as 10%, duct sealing is still cost effective. This suggests that duct sealing should be considered at least for VAV systems with 10% or more total duct leakage. The VAV system that we simulated had perfectly insulated ducts, and maintained constant static pressure in the ducts upstream of the VAV boxes and a constant supply air temperature at the airhandler. Further evaluations of duct leakage impacts should be carried out in the future after methodologies are developed to deal with duct surface heat transfer effects, to deal with airflows entering VAV boxes from ceiling return plenums (e.g., to model parallel fan-powered VAV boxes), and to deal with static pressure reset and supply air temperature reset strategies.

The basic strategy for providing indoor air quality in residences is to dilute indoor sources with outdoor air. This strategy assumes that the outdoor air does not have pollutants at harmful levels or that the outdoor air is, at least, less polluted than the indoor air. When this is not the case, different strategies need to be employed to ensure adequate air quality in the indoor environment. These strategies include ventilation systems, filtration and other measures. These strategies can be used for several types of outdoor pollution, including smog, particulates and toxic air pollutants. This report reviews the impacts that typical outdoor air pollutants can have on the indoor environment and provides design and operational guidance for mitigating them. Poor quality air cannot be used for diluting indoor contaminants, but more generally it can become an indoor contaminant itself. This paper discusses strategies that use the building as protection against potentially hazardous outdoor pollutants, including widespread pollutants, accidental events, and potential attacks.

Most dwellings in the United States are ventilated primarily through leaks in the building shell (i.e., infiltration) rather than by whole-house mechanical ventilation systems. Consequently, quantification of envelope air-tightness is critical to determining how much energy is being lost through infiltration and how much infiltration is contributing toward ventilation requirements. Envelope air tightness and air leakage can be determined from fan pressurization measurements with a blower door. Tens of thousands of unique fan pressurization measurements have been made of U.S. dwellings over the past decades. LBNL has collected the available data on residential infiltration into its Residential Diagnostics Database, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy. This report documents the envelope air leakage section of the LBNL database, with particular emphasis on new construction. The work reported here is an update of similar efforts carried out a decade ago, which used available data largely focused on the housing stock, rather than on new construction. The current effort emphasizes shell tightness measurements made on houses soon after they are built. These newer data come from over two dozen datasets, including over 73,000 measurements spread throughout a majority of the U.S. Roughly one-third of the measurements are for houses identified as energy-efficient through participation in a government or utility program. As a result, the characteristics reported here provide a quantitative estimate of the impact that energy-efficiency programs have on envelope tightness in the US, as well as on trends in construction.

LBNL-48258 Potential Benefits of Commissioning California Homes Nance Matson, Craig Wray, Iain Walker, Max Sherman Environmental Energy Technologies Division Energy Performance of Buildings Group Indoor Environment Department Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley, CA 94720 January 2002 This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs, Office of Research and Development, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098. This report was prepared as a result of work sponsored by the California Energy Commission. It does not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its employees, or the State of California. The Commission, the State of California, its employees, contractors and subcontractors make no warranty, express or implied, and assume no legal liability for the information in this report, nor does any party represent that the use of this information will not infringe upon privately owned rights. This report has not been approved or disapproved by the Commission nor has the Commission passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the information in this report.