Getting More From Building Energy Codes: These Digital Solutions Are Like Steroids for Efficiency

Progressive Building Energy Codes Push the Envelope, But Do They Get the Job Done?

In 2014 the state of Massachusetts adopted a new building energy code aimed at improving energy efficiency. In the years since, the fruits of that labor have been on display throughout Boston as the city experiences a building boom. Energy saving insulation, ultra-efficient windows and weather sealing technologies are being installed at building sites across the metro area, but are they getting the job done?

One major problem with spurring progress in efficiency with a code update is that installation is only the first step on the way to achieving savings. Proper operation and monitoring performance after the fact are also critical stages in what should be regarded as a process. Unfortunately, it would seem that there's a substantial gap between improvements that enhance the performance of building exteriors and innovative new construction techniques, and the type of ongoing results that properly managed HVAC, building automation systems and lighting controls can yield.

Any new building energy codes dwell in potential represented through comprehensive specification guidelines and spreadsheet after spreadsheet detailing minimum requirements. Yet as a troubling number of recently LEED-certified facilities demonstrate, specs and operational testing requirements do little to ensure that the most energy intensive systems in a new or renovated building are performing to their enhanced potential.

In real-world applications, many systems simply do not function as anticipated, despite the best intentions of the engineers responsible for commissioning them. As we all know, problems tend to pile up as buildings and equipment are actually used. System components interact in unforeseen ways and overlooked variables play an outsized roll in the actual day-to-day inner workings of large buildings.

As time has passed since the updated building energy codes were put in place, it seems increasingly unrealistic to expect that the operational testing and validation required therein will catch the volume of energy intensive deficiencies that affect many new buildings.

That's in part because of the high rate of innovation in the current market. Every year, hundreds-if not thousands-of new technologies enter in the building mechanical and electrical systems fray. Adjusting to the subtleties of just one addition to a building can take weeks. And as the number of configurable settings on high efficiency equipment proliferates, the mistakes can impact not only the system at hand, but also hamper the performance of other systems throughout the building.

A project in Cambridge, Massachusetts is a case study of the depth and breadth of this challenge. A 2013 audit of the LEED-certified Cambridge City Hall Annex indicated that high-efficiency equipment installed delivered only marginally better performance than electric resistance heat. A new ground source heat pump installed specifically to demonstrate significantly improved efficiency was in fact consuming almost as much as the old "meter spinning" systems from decades past. At the same time, significant portions of a roof-mounted solar PV installation were not operational, and the high-dollar networked lighting control system had been essentially disabled.

From commissioning to installation, this project was realized to the highest standards possible. Included in the scope was a comprehensive simulation software model for the building's energy use, designed to guaranty that the installed systems actually delivered on the lofty sustainability targets set forth.

With building systems tested and an impressive validation report assembled, the plan proceeded on towards occupancy. Later, when the building was commissioned again in order to address mechanical and electrical issues that emerged, all settings were confirmed to be in alignment with the original engineering specifications. So why was actual energy consumption all over the map? Electrical spikes during cold weather proved to be emblematic of an all-too-common scenario in which commissioning alone cannon ensure efficient operation in real-world applications.

The Inspection Sticker: Not Just for Cars Anymore

A solution to this problem already exists, albeit in a different sector all together. Just as citizens of many states bring their car in for an annual emissions inspection, a similar system could be put into place for buildings. If you've done this recently, you know that cars no longer idle with a probe in the tailpipe for pollution testing. That's because manufacturers learned they could game the complex electronic combustion controls in modern automobiles to cheat the test.

The EPA actually caught companies optimizing idling emissions while programming setting for other speeds without regard for what was coming out of the tailpipe. The solution was to require all cars to run and record standard emissions testing while out on the road. That's to sophisticated new onboard emissions equipment, cars now use standardized software to monitor efficiency.

A number of simple enhancements to computerized building automation systems could allow for a similar solution to be put into place. The software identifies deficiencies, the first step towards automating the optimization of building performance in addition to simply monitoring it.

The graphic below was produced by this kind of basic equipment tracking software. The building in question had serious issues with heating and cooling areas simultaneously. In this scenario there happened to be more than 400 elderly heating/cooling units in use. It turned out that the heat was running to compensate for cooling valves that had failed, causing the air conditioning system to default to its highest setting.

Once installed, the software helped building staff to quickly identify the issue at hand. The simple, intuitive representation of the diagnostics in graphic form ensures that even junior staff can better understand the main drivers of consumption within the facility.

Unfortunately, heating and cooling spaces at the same time is a common problem. The fact that today's building controls are designed to be adaptive (defaulting to full air conditioning), the actual causes of the problem make diagnosing the underlying issues more challenging.

Progressive graphical representation of concurrent of system components into easy-to-read snapshots is almost universally beneficial across building types. The diagram above shows how all of the components of a given HVAC unit are operating.

Contrast that with a more typical graphic below, commonly used to represent fan systems on most computerized control platforms, and you'll see what I'm getting at. Whereas the former provides an easily digestible histogram of operation over time and even accounts for weather conditions, the latter is anything but simple or easy to read.

Without this kind of progressive solution engineering, resolving even the most common energy deficiencies requires a sophisticated understanding of the system components in place and how they affect each other. At best, diagnosing problems is extremely inefficient and time consuming.

In today's competitive real estate market, onsite staffing for active troubleshooting is limited in the first place. And even when resources are committed to resolving issues like the ones found in the Cambridge City Hall Annex, it's rarely enough. A number of days to establish what equipment and data points need to be monitored. Then, once trend tracking is initiated, months of data collection are required to produce relevant and actionable historical records of what is causing problems. Even still, an auditor's time onsite is limited, so either the trends are not initiated or data compiled after the site visit is not acted on. Thus, it is common for multiple energy audits to report similar deficiencies that are never resolved.

 "You can't change what you don't see," as the old saying goes. That's certainly true in the building efficiency industry, where the leading cause of wasted energy in facilities is often that stake holders at all levels do not know of and fully grasp common problems. Adding low cost optimization software to the building energy codes will increase the transparency of building energy use and enable efficiency legislation to meet its potential.

At present, a number of powerful software offerings exist on the market that offer capacity in excess of what is needed to address this problem across the industry. Ultimately though, the solution lies in the standardization of optimization software, not the proliferation of it. That's where additions to the energy code come into play. If "canned code" could be included that gives a meaningful, consistent overview of how building systems are operating, then the ramp up to actual, full-functioning efficiency would happen much more quickly.