Building Energy Resilience

My business partner, Matt Napolitan and I each spent 10 years working at major, international engineering firms. I worked for nationally ranked 11^th Syska Hennessy Group in their San Francisco office and Matt worked for 14^th ranked Buro Happold out of their New York office. We now operate a 10-person engineering consulting firm in Burlington, Vermont. We know both large, big-city engineering and local, Vermont engineering.

The software business and the commercial construction industry wouldn’t seem to have a lot in common. Just start with the workers: geeks in cubes versus people in hard hats and steel-toed boots. But going beyond the obvious differences, both industries operate with many of the same challenges and pressures. Let's start with the similarities and then look at how the building commissioning process may offer valuable lessons for the software industry.

Part 1: Performance Improvement and Proven Energy Savings

I recently presented at the NCBC conference in Hartford, Connecticut on the lessons we have learned from our retrocommissioning work. Retrocommissioning is a difficult process to predict, as existing systems and opportunities vary so widely depending on the equipment’s age and functional state, as well as the changes in loads since the building’s design. So while projects themselves differ in scope, size and outcome, the lessons we’ve learned about the process apply across the board. In this two-part blog post, I will discuss our experience with the performance improvements (proven benefits to the building) this week and my thoughts on the process next time.

Introduction

End users of a building want to inhabit a space that provides, among other things, a comfortable environment with respect to ventilation and thermal comfort. Thermal comfort is typically comprised of two things: temperature and moisture content (aka relative humidity). Ventilation comfort is derived from providing enough outdoor air to a space to satisfy peoples’ need for oxygen, and mitigate buildup of odors as well as other air borne irritants and contaminants. HVAC systems can easily achieve these goals while simultaneously being energy hogs and maintenance nightmares.

We have posted several times about the importance of building control systems in achieving efficient building performance. In particular, building control graphics screens are a critical interface for understanding, operating, and maintaining building systems. Through my work in commissioning building systems, I have found opportunities to improve the effectiveness of the control graphics screens provided to clients. The following are a few observations and recommendations that I would like to share:

In May I attended (and presented at – more on that in another post) the National Building Commissioning Association’s annual conference in Hartford, Connecticut. It was my first time at this organization’s gathering and I was pleasantly surprised by a few turns in the commissioning field that I hadn’t expected - mainly the extensive focus on energy efficiency and energy analysis.

Building commissioning (Cx) can be a useful risk management tool for facility managers and owners. Incorporating risk management in building Cx requires an understanding of three basic elements: threats, vulnerabilities, and associated risks. Risks characterize the likelihood of vulnerabilities being affected by threats. In a risk management process, once risks are defined they are prioritized for the development of risk reduction strategies. Building Cx provides unique risk reduction and risk management opportunities for facility managers and owners.

Although I have commissioned a number of LEED New Construction projects, I have recently become involved in the LEED accreditation process for Existing Buildings (LEED EB). As part of the energy prerequisite, one requirement is to conduct an Energy Audit that is equivalent to ASHRAE Level 1 Energy Audit. This is the first of three levels of audits that ASHRAE has designed and more and more existing buildings are turning to this process to define energy savings opportunities within their buildings. Whether you are striving for LEED EB energy credit, or are focused on improving the longevity and operation of your building, a Level 1 Audit is a good place to define the roadmap to realizing these goals.

In my last blog post, I described the fact that there are a number of energy professionals, each with their own credentials and each of whom brings a different skill to the table. For a business owner, the variety of these professions may be a bit daunting. What type of professional do I hire to address my energy concerns?

Here at Cx Associates, we are actively searching for ways to use less paper in our commissioning process and around the office. When it is feasible, I try to complete any and all reading, researching, or note taking directly on my computer. My pursuit of going paperless is never entirely successful, but utilizing a tablet in the field has been helpful. Rather than print out drawings, specifications and other project documents, I generally download everything to one of the office iPads prior to my visit. If you haven’t already, check out my colleague Ben Fowler’s blog posts about popular apps we use on a regular basis. There are specific apps designed for reading and marking up PDF documents, as well as many others that can make a paperless approach more appealing.