Large-scale CFD analysis requires extended time and computing resource, and in recent years reduced order modeling techniques are developed. Among many of these techniques, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) stands out as a preferable method. POD allows the processing of large amounts of high-dimensional data with the aim of obtaining low-dimensional descriptions that capture much of the analyzed phenomena. Here, we discuss how POD is used to overcome the issues addressed from the traditional CFD method and show how POD can be used for data center analyses. Both CFD and POD methods are compared in terms of running time and accuracy.

It is challenging to properly control the ventilation in a complex built environment, such as a data center room and aircraft cabin. The ventilation effects depend on both an indoor airflow distribution and HVAC system. This presentation introduces a coupled simulation of three-dimensional indoor airflow and building HVAC system. The indoor airflow is simulated by a fast fluid dynamics program, while the HVAC and control system is modeled with a Modelica language. We will introduce the principle of the coupled simulation and demonstrate its usage for the ventilation control.

Traditional CFD methods have proven useful, though slow and complex, for data center applications.  Alternative, simpler technologies are becoming available which trade varying degrees of accuracy for speed and simplicity.  Potential flow modeling (PFM) offers nearly real-time steady-state modeling for practical applications and is best suited for estimates early in the data center design cycle.   The fast fluid dynamics (FFD) approach includes all of the physics of traditional CFD methods while being simpler to code and delivering an order of magnitude speed improvement for transient applications.   This presentation discusses PFM and FFD in the context of data center applications.

Major CFD computational penalty is caused by high requirement on spatial mesh resolution and this presentation shows the theory and practical feasibility of using coarse-grid CFD. It utilizes numerical viscosity induced by coarse CFD grid, coupled with simplest turbulence model. Case studies show that a uniform coarse grid can be applied, along with a constant turbulence viscosity model, to reasonably predict general airflow patterns. Such predictions is not as precise as fine-grid CFDs, but the accuracy is acceptable for indoor environment study at an early stage of a project. The computing speed is about 100 times faster than  fine-grid CFD.

High-efficiency equipment does not automatically mean high performance.  A brand-new multifamily building in New York City had all the bells and whistles: condensing boilers, multi-sensor BMS, and photovoltaics, among others.  Unfortunately, the building was not able to reap any of the benefits. This presentation will answer the following questions: 1. Why is advanced technology alone insufficient to deliver energy? 2. Is it possible to obtain acceptable energy savings with less-advanced technology? 3. When does it make the most sense to use advanced technology? 4. How can I increase the probability of obtaining promised performance out of advanced technology?

A mixed-use NYC high-rise was built in 2000 with advanced technology. An energy audit revealed that the BMS had unsupported controllers, an inadequate graphics card, sensors out of calibration and settings errors.  Benchmarking confirmed that O&M was inadequate and equipment was not operating as designed.  Additionally, staff were not adequately trained in the use of the equipment or the BMS.  As a result, the building's energy performance was worse than that of many 100-year-old steam-heated buildings. This presentation will cover the lessons learned from this case study.  Moving forward, what options are the most cost-effective way to achieve the intended performance of this building?

Over the last twenty years, variable frequency drives have become a widely accepted technology, consistently installed in new projects and retrofitted into many old buildings.  However, the energy savings potential of this technology is greatly limited by lack of training on their capabilities at the building level.  Especially where VFDs have been retrofitted onto old buildings, we often find them being used only for softstart or not at all. This presentation provides examples of a number of cases in which the potential of VFDs has not been maximized, and recommends adjustments to installation, training and operational practices that could address these issues.

Renewables integration into the electric grid was relatively inconsequential when the percentage was small.  With the penetration of solar PV and wind growing, the impacts of unpredictable availability are starting to show and the need for storage on both sides of the electric meter is becoming very apparent. A situational overview and a few case studies will be shared.

This presentation provides an overview of the impact of intermittent renewable energy technologies (notably solar and, especially, wind power) on the electric power grid.  Multi-hour energy storage (ES) technology options are described; and their technical and economical characteristics are compared.  The use of cool thermal energy storage (TES), in both demand-side (electricity user) and supply-side (electric utility generator) applications, is examined, with performance and economic results highlighted.  Examples illustrate the varied means by which TES can expand the use of renewable energy resources.

The demand for electricity in many locations is strongly driven by building air conditioning systems, which experience their peak in the afternoon period during hot humid days.  It seems reasonable to assume that utilities would benefit from increased renewable energy deployment to meet electric loads from air conditioning because solar energy output is high when air conditioning demands are high.  This presentation explores this thesis in more depth and describes why renewable energy technologies alone cannot cost-effectively meet utility loads.  Thermal energy storage is shelf-ready technology that will be instrumental in shifting electric loads from air conditioning to periods of time when renewable energy is available.

Grid-interactive electric thermal storage (GETS) space and water heaters have an innovative communication and control system, when aggregated; provide ISO’s, utilities and aggregators the ability to precisely vary consumer energy usage to the real-time needs of the electric grid.  With rapidly growing amounts of renewable energy, aggregated GETS systems with real time control are a low cost energy storage solution that provide precise visibility, measurement and controllability for these aggregated energy storage assets. This system of grid-edge storage provides electric grid managers the ability to integrate, manage and fully utilize renewable energy generation.

The IIR Congress is organized every four years and gathers refrigeration researchers from all over the world. The 24^th Congress program included over 700 talks in 122 technical sessions and 14 workshops covering technologies from low-temperature liquefaction to refrigerated storage to heat pumping and energy recovery. Refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pumping topics dominated. The presentation highlights the latest research and engineering results, and coinciding and diverging technical opinions.  The audience will learn about the state of the art of these technologies and promising technical solutions for ‘improving the quality of life while preserving the earth.'

We explore possible low-GWP refrigerants by defining optimal thermodynamic properties and comparing those to properties estimated for a database of millions of compounds. We find that the optimal characteristics are quite rare; additional fluids are eliminated because they are unstable or toxic. We then estimate the cycle performance of the remaining candidates and apply efficiency as an additional screening criterion. The result is a handful of low-GWP candidates, and even these present tradeoffs. We argue that these represent all the viable candidates for single-component, medium- and high-pressure refrigerants—in other words, we have hit the limits of what chemistry allows.

Over last twenty years microchannel heat exchangers (MHX) have dramatically increased their presence in energy conversion systems: from aircraft and automotive applications and expanding to residential and industrial refrigeration and air-conditioning. This presentation presents major issues impacting application of MHX as evaporators: 1) condensate retention/removal, 2) frosting/defrosting and 3) refrigerant distribution.  The physics of the issues are discussed along with directions for mitigating them. Particular attention is given to refrigerant distribution and potential of Flash Gas Bypass to improve it.  In addition, quantification of vapor flow reversal in MHX tubes is presented along with system improvements obtained by its removal.

It seems to be clear that heat pumps have a unique role in the energy system of the future. Barely any other energy technology can provide net primary energy savings, economic benefits to the users and reduced climate impact at the same time. The benefit of heat pumps are achieved in several ways; by system integration capabilities tying together different parts of an energy system for enhanced overall energy efficiency, by storage of heat to offset peaks and, if efficient enough, providing the most efficient way to heat buildings from a net primary energy perspective.

This seminar presents numerical investigation of air-side heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics for several different fin-tube type heat exchangers. Three different types of tube geometry and four different fins are considered. The CFD analysis is conducted by using commercially available software (ANSYS Fluent 6.3) for Reynolds number range of 35 -200, with the corresponding face velocity range of 0.3-2.0 m/s.  After verifications of CFD results using available experimental data, a series of parametric study for design parameters of fin geometry has been conducted. The CFD results are reported in terms of Colburn j- and Fanning friction f-factors.

It is well known that in heat exchangers for HVAC&R applications, the air-side is the dominant resistance. Significant effort has been devoted to improving the heat transfer performance of air-side surfaces. Conventional heat exchangers use round tubes or flat tubes but other shapes are seldom explored. In this seminar, an approach for shape optimization is presented that allows for full topology optimization of the heat exchanger tube for a given application. A prototype is fabricated using 3D Metal Printing technique and its performance is measured in the laboratory. The comparison of predicted vs. measured performance is presented and conclusions drawn.

Increased pumping power penalty and manufacturing costs are among the major limiting factors for further enhancement of heat transfer coefficients for single phase and phase change processes.  To develop next generation heat/mass exchangers that have better overall performance and can meet size, weight, and pumping power constraints while being cost affordable, one needs to utilize innovative designs, materials and manufacturing techniques. In this presentation we will review progress achieved in Phase I of a government-sponsored project in which a team of collaborators from academia, industry and sponsoring government agency achieved new levels of heat transfer performance on the air side.

The majority of metal 3D printing machines use low thermal conductivity raw materials such as titanium alloys, cobalt chrome alloys and steel alloys. Thus any parts built will have limited heat transfer capabilities unless action is taken to deliberately enhance this characteristic. One such action is to embed heat pipes into the part as it is being built. This talk introduces a number of additively manufactured heat pipes designs and compares their performance to off-the-shelf units.

This seminar discusses the use of dry and liquid desiccant technologies and how to apply them creatively for the treatment of outside air.  This includes a design that utilizes a combination of cooling tower water, chilled water and hot water that modulates with the outside air loads to either cool or heat the liquid desiccant to provide dehumidification or humidification of the outside air. Then, waste heat or onsite power generation to regenerate the liquid desiccant solution. A comparison of the technologies will be presented and the opportunities for both to provide comfort and energy savings to meet ventilation codes.

Liquid desiccant heat exchangers (LDHX) can improve the performance of many HVAC systems by replacing traditional finned-tube coils. Adding LDHX technology to a vapor compression system effectively raises the evaporator temperature, while still delivering dry air. It also enables separate control of sensible and latent cooling, ensuring occupant comfort in humid climates. This presentation will discuss (1) background on an innovative LDHX design, including a comparison to other liquid desiccant options, (2) modeling and laboratory testing of the LDHX modules, and (3) modeling of a 20-ton dedicated-outdoor air system using these LDHXs.

Air conditioners are made more energy efficient and can provide better humidity control by integrating liquid desiccant heat exchangers. This is the second demonstration of this particular liquid desiccant technology, with lessons learned from the first demonstration being applied to the second demonstration. The new system was completely re-designed from the ground up and has been reduced in size by over 50%. Furthermore, the new design reduces energy use by more than 33%, making the cooling cycle one of the most efficient options available today. This presentation will discuss the system’s new design, cycle improvements, and field test results.

Generation of electricity and air conditioning, one as a byproduct of the other, has the potential to enhance energy efficiency in buildings. In this seminar the potential for integrating fuel cell power systems with liquid desiccant air-conditioning systems is presented. This seminar will point out mutually enhancing features of liquid desiccant and fuel cell systems; provide a state of technology review; and provide details on integrated system performance in various climate and integration conditions.

This case study evaluates how the operable windows improve energy efficiency and indoor air quality for a state government office building. The IUB-OCA building is certified as Energy Star 100 and LEED Platinum. The measured energy use intensity is 21.5 kBtu/ft²-yr. One of low-energy sustainable design features is the operable window. The building automation system identifies favorable outside conditions and notifies occupants to open or close windows. The associated zone’s heat pumps are automatically shut down when windows are opened. The study analyses the impact of the operable windows on heat pump energy savings and occupant satisfaction through natural ventilation.

This study focuses on the investigation of the impacts of window operation on building performance for different types of ventilation systems including natural ventilation, mixed-mode ventilation, and conventional VAV systems in a medium-size office building. A building performance simulation tool—EnergyPlus—is used to simulate window operation for each system type. The investigation included the interaction between conventional VAV systems and window operation as well as control strategies for natural ventilation and mixed-mode ventilation. The results highlighted the impacts of window operation on energy use and comfort and identified substantial energy savings with mixed-mode ventilation during summer for various climates.

Light-weight, Internet-connected sensors are able to better monitor HVAC equipment, including economizers. Why maintaining economizers are the low-hanging fruit for improving rooftop unit energy efficiency and why over 50% of economizers are not functioning properly. How Internet-connected HVAC sensors with fault-detection and other diagnostic capabilities are able to better monitor economizer usage and aid in both installation and maintenance. What is being done with all of the data provided that is being transmitted to the "cloud" by these Internet-connected sensors?

Mobile software applications can work with Internet-enabled HVAC sensors to help HVAC technicians better install and maintain them. This paper shows how mobile apps can help technicians install Internet-enabled airflow, temperature, pressure, and other types of sensors. A step-by-step installation process shows how mobile apps can aid in fault detection and diagnose issues with HVAC equipment based upon data received from the sensors and mobile apps can better aid technicians in addressing these issues by displaying a decision-tree user interface.

ECM motor technologies have been used in wet running heating circulator pumps for years with substantial energy savings. These technologies are now being used on pumps for general HVAC applications. These new pumps with ECM motor technologies also include many new control options which reduce the energy usage of the pump and can contribute to the energy optimization of the overall HVAC system. This presentation gives an overview of these new technologies and the energy saving potentials.

Hydronic single-pipe heating systems have been used for decades and are renowned for their economic design and simple installation.  However, when a high delta T or a particularly low return water temperature is required, single pipe systems often fall short of achieving a high system efficiency. The use of traditional differential pressure controlled pumps is ineffective, as the single pipe systems are designed for constant flow. Therefore, a new approach is needed. This presentation provides a case study from an installation in Denmark where a temperature controlled pump has been used as the tool for obtaining higher system efficiency.

Advances in integrated variable speed drives and controls in ECM driven large wet rotor circulators make them an ideal fit for large residential and small commercial two pipe cooling applications.  This presentation will look at various ways to employ these pumps in primary-secondary and primary-secondary-tertiary pumping systems utilizing combinations of the T, DT, and DP functions of the circulator to effectively and efficiently cool and dehumidify the building.

The use of solar photovoltaics (PV) to provide comfort cooling will be presented.  The cost of solar PV installations has fallen, making the solar electricity competitive.  This discussion will cover techniques to best apply solar PV energy to cooling loads.  The "total solar cooling efficiency" of different methods will be compared for both solar PV and solar thermal.  Specific applications, i.e., PV driven air conditioning and heat pumps, energy storage, load mismatch, and PV with energy efficiency, will be discussed.  The shading effect of roof mounted PV arrays on HVAC systems and building loads will also be discussed.

While photovoltaic (PV) electric generation can be used for any type of load, peak generation often coincides with building cooling needs.  This presentation demonstrates how buildings with different types of mechanical systems match the PV output on an hourly daily, monthly and yearly basis.  Based on this data, a discussion on what it would take to get these buildings to net zero energy and  to the considerably more challenging goal of creating a micro-grid by adding an energy storage device and disconnecting from the utility.  The economics of PV cooling will be compared to the thermal cooling technologies.

Unitary rooftop equipment is commonly used for cooling in low-rise commercial buildings.  As PV module prices have dropped, feasibility of using solar for reducing purchased electricity has improved.   The simplest systems are utility-interactive.   There is a good coincidence between solar power availability and air conditioning power requirements since solar gain and outdoor temperature are inputs to building load.   Many low-rise commercial building have significant available roof area for solar PV arrays.  These relationships support the idea of using solar PV to  drive rooftop air conditioning equipment ito reduce purchased energy and the electrical demand on the utility grid.

Double-skin’s solar PV integration has been illuminated as a cost-effective HVAC refurbishment for worldwide implementation. The second facade as a glass skin is well suited for implementing PV elements. The presentation review: mathematical modelling of PV integrated double skin’s facade’s buildings physics (including construction structures relevant heat and mass transfer phenomena, energy conversion processes and balances); related HVAC’s cooling and heating dynamics and loads calculation method development; as well as prediction of PV electricity production and HVAC (including cooling) energy demand satisfaction via building’s performance co-simulation (coupling the CFD simulated air-flow within the double skin’s facade and facade/building energy simulation).

The new St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County was a collaborative effort between the design team, the commissioning team and the owner, Ascension Health.  From the beginning of the project, Ascension Health was an advocate of achieving optimal energy efficiency at the facility. TLC provided mechanical engineering services and designed high-performance energy-efficient systems. The St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County earned the Energy Star® rating of 97, which means the facility is performing in the top 3 percent of its peer facilities in the country for energy efficiency.

Many facilities require chilled water year round to serve fan coils or process loads.  This typically requires running a chiller year round or purchasing additional equipment to produce chilled water through free cooling cycles.  We will explore other opportunities for producing chilled water with and without implementation of cooling towers, heat exchangers and heat recovery chillers.

Many existing facilities, such as hospitals, operate inefficiently due to sequence and operational overrides that try to fix an issue at one point in time. As time goes on, many of these temporary “fixes” end up being permanent, building operation keeps deviating away from the original design intent, and typically ends up using a lot more energy. Through retro-commissioning and controls tune-ups, these facilities can identify issues and provide a permanent solution.

Radiant cooling and heating systems can potentially provide significant energy savings, possible peak load reduction, and better thermal comfort for the occupants. Such systems primarily depend on the radiant mode, instead of convective mode, for the transfer of heat within a space. These systems are often required to supply ventilation air to maintain certain indoor air quality and humidity in the space. The air flow patterns of the supply air and resulting buoyant airflows in the space can affect the performance of radiant systems. The flow rate and temperature of the supply air; location and type of supply air diffusers; and strength and location of interior sensible heat loads can affect the relative share of radiative and convective heat transfer in the space. This paper with the help of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis will evaluate the impact of various parameters of the supply air including the supply airflow rate, supply air temperature, and location and type of diffusers on the operation of radiant systems.

Between 1990 - 2006 the energy use of the ventilation systems in Swedish schools has doubled. This is mainly due to an increase of cooling demand which results in higher air-flow rates. In recent years many schools changed from displacement ventilation (DV) to mixing ventilation (MV), because MV causes fewer problems with thermal discomfort, although DV has higher ventilation efficiency. Studies show that 87% of Swedish schools use constant air volume (CAV) and it’s estimated that a change to variable air volume (VAV) could save 0.12-0.33 TWh per year. Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate whether it’s possible to replace DV with MV to create a comfortable indoor climate in a typical classroom and at the same time decrease the energy use by using VAV and Low Pressure Drop Ceiling Supply Device (LPDCSD).

This paper introduces a new model to simulate the energy performance of VRF systems in heat pump operation mode (either cooling or heating is provided but not simultaneously). The main features of the new model are the introduction of separate curves for capacities and power inputs of indoor and outdoor units instead of overall curves for the entire system, the allowing of variable evaporating and condensing temperatures in the indoor and outdoor units, and variable fan speed based on the temperature and zone load in the indoor unit. These features enhance the accuracy of the estimation of VRF system performance in both heating and cooling modes, especially during low part load operations.

The variable refrigerant flow (VRF) technology provides multi-split ductless configurations that typically use one outdoor unit (ODU) and multiple indoor units (IDU). VRF systems offer many advantages, such as elimination of duct loss of air distribution, design and installation flexibility, compactness, integrated controls, quiet operation and reduced maintenance cost. Also, multi-functional VRF (MFVRF) systems have achieved remarkable development, offering flexible operation of individualized zoning control, i.e. making possible simultaneous heating and cooling in addition to cooling or heating only modes. Meanwhile, such flexibility further complicates the operation and control due to diversified system configurations and highly variable operational loads. This paper proposes extremum seeking control (ESC) schemes for MFVRF system under different operational modes, in order to maximize the efficiency provided the satisfaction of thermal comfort.

Building energy systems often consume in excess of 20% more electrical energy than was the design intent largely because of equipment performance degradation (e.g. filter or heat exchanger fouling), equipment failures, or detrimental interactions among subsystems such as cooling and then reheating of conditioned air. Identifying the root causes of efficiency losses is challenging because a gradual erosion of performance can be difficult to detect.  This paper is focusing on the faults that are implemented using OpenStudio measures. These measures are created in OpenStudio Application or the Parametric Analysis Tool, which are written in Ruby scripts. These faults related measures act like add-on marco to make changes to the energy model to reflect faults.

Solar thermal cooling technology has incredible potential because the demand for cooling and supply of energy (sun energy) coincide. Solar radiation is at its peak, especially during the summer time where the need for air-conditioning is the highest. A well designed and installed solar thermal system can provide heating, cooling and domestic hot water. Thermally driven cooling technologies use harmless cooling fluids (usually water) compare to conventional cooling systems. This presentation will discuss the different components of a solar thermal cooling system, and will introduce the different types of technologies for thermally driven chillers as well as solar thermal collectors.

Peak cooling demand in summer is associated with high solar radiation availability. This offers an excellent opportunity to exploit solar energy with heat-driven cooling technologies, i.e. closed cycle systems (absorption and adsorption) and open cycles (e.g. desiccant systems). Practical insight as benchmarks from actual solar thermal assisted air-conditioning installations will be provided. Overview will include information on common systems, types of collectors, area/kWc, initial cost, design and actual thermal COP, auxiliary energy and water consumption. Monitoring data and experience from actual installations could provide some practical benchmarks to facilitate concept design and first cost estimates and further support standardized configurations and solutions for strengthening market development.

Gas fuelled tri-generation system is optimized by implementing solar assisted absorption cooling, heat recovery, thermal energy storage using ice; building's - thermal mass control via PCM, energy efficient lighting and daylighting control. Several packages of energy efficiency improvement measures are analysed, with the reference to the total installed power, cooling and heating energy demand, annual electricity and total energy demand, different control algorithms, as well as related investment and operational costs. It has been shown that, even for low gas prices and modest increase of electricity prices in the region, the optimal tri-generation system encompasses the solar assisted absorption cooling.

One of the four 10 kW systems on the South Hall of Orange County Convention Center in Orlando is a combined PV/thermal (PV/T) system where ambient air is drawn under the PV modules – improving their efficiency – and then ducted into a South Hall mechanical penthouse to regenerate a desiccant for dehumidification of a separate outside air supply to the building. The combined system was modeled by a graduate student for various absorber, regenerator, desiccant tank, and PV/T sizes to determine appropriate component sizing to meet a given ventilation load in seven locations across the US.

This paper discusses how the use of advanced engineering tools in HVAC industry has increased as the cost of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become more affordable for engineering firms.  We employed CFD in a design-build project in which conventional engineering tools were not sufficient to address the design challenges of developing an efficient chilled water thermal storage system. The system utilized a series of vertical tanks to store chilled water to supplement chillers in the event of a power failure. Chilled water is routed from the storage tanks to critical equipment during chiller re-start, bridging the gap in time that the chillers are unable to provide set-point chilled water due to power failure and subsequent required time to re-start.

As air conditioning (AC) has evolved from luxury to almost necessity, the rapid uptake of residential AC systems is creating major problems for our electricity network infrastructure, particularly on peak summer days. By using automated demand response (DR) signals, energy service providers aim to constrain the electrical demand that these systems place on the network. One such DR signalling scheme is Australian Standard 4755.3.1 that defines how air conditioning appliances respond to a set of initiating signals for reducing energy consumption. This paper highlights potential benefits obtained when performing ‘pre-cooling’ control strategies in summer prior to a demand response event.

Cyber security means many things to many people. Banking, government, utilities all have their own standards and terminology. All have the same goal to prevent disruption of operations, loss of sensitive data, and protection of life and property. But many of these standards are IT centric and are difficult to apply to the building control environment. One standard designed explicitly for automation is IEC 62443: Industrial Network and System Security. This presentation discusses how this standard can be applied to the automation ion the built environment, and how it differs from other cyber security standards.

The currently developing concept of net zero energy building should be adaptive for different climate situations. Buildings in the severe cold area of China have higher energy consumption and release gas emission due to large heating energy demand in wintertime. It is challenging to design and operate a net zero energy building in severe cold climate. This paper will discuss the feasibility of a net zero energy office building design targeting for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability from the initial planning, final construction, until the operation. An on-campus office building is studied as an experimental objective in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in China.

The global demand for electrical energy is increasing as a result of population growth and a higher standard of living that is enjoyed by many people.  However, the availability of electricity is often limited by fuel supplies and/or infrastructure for generating and distributing power.  In addition, the looming threat of green house gas emissions and the collateral damage to the environment has encouraged efforts to diversify methods of electricity production.  These factors have led to the increased use of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind, to help meet the demand for energy. In particular, the shift towards solar energy has been accelerating due to the decreasing cost of materials and installation. Universities are one possible location where solar electricity makes good sense.

As zero net energy (ZNE) buildings and other low-energy buildings become increasingly common it is important to consider how different ZNE strategies can interact with their local electricity grids. Demand response technologies and grid-sensitive design features in ZNE buildings will be critical to enabling the integration of these facilities into the grid at a large scale. The paper describes three tiers of DR and renewable energy technology integration in commercial buildings: Conventional buildings with one-way energy flows or conventional net metering. Moderately responsive buildings with interactive demand response capacity. Fully grid-integrated buildings with active and passive efficiency and demand response features, often with on-site renewable energy. This paper presents a framework for employing design strategies and measures that ensure buildings of the future can benefit from, and support, the grid modernization efforts that will occur throughout the life of the buildings.

The path towards zero energy buildings is fraught with many challenges, the onsite renewable energy production to drive consumer appliances that are not low or zero energy is an important challenge. Therefore, developing the energy production such that the production mode is matched to the usage is the simplest manner to improve efficiency.  As such, energy consumption for lighting could be significantly reduced by optimizing the building`s design to maximize direct daylight usage, similarly cooking using solar stoves, or water heating using solar geysers, reduce the need for PV cells electricity. The most important energy consumption in most buildings is HVAC (which accounts for approximately 40% of a building`s energy consumption) which can be addressed with the use of a solar power absorption chiller. This article introduces a design of a novel solar concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) system that produces electricity and thermal energy simultaneously from the same surface area.

Energy performance of buildings has an impact on the quality of the indoor environment. Nevertheless, the technical building systems can ensure the desired state of the internal environment, occurs in many low-energy buildings the deterioration of subjective perception and dissatisfaction of users. The paper focuses on issues related to the design of concept and controll of heating and ventilation systems in low energy residential and school buildings, and its impact on the quality of the indoor environment.

It is presented a case study of a building where an IEQ monitoring system has been installed. The architecture of the monitoring system is based on sensing systems from different manufacturers, but having in common a USB digital output. The data communication, as well as the developed softare codes to ensure the data processing, collection and display are also presented.

The most important types of interactions of occupants with the building façades or control systems are defined. The models available to integrate human behavior on simulations are explained. Results of the different studies, both field works and simulations, are presented and discussed. The corrective measures to improve the indoor environmental quality are explained, as well as the strategies to promote more environmental friendly behaviors.

Besides the positive impacts on environment and the reduction of exploitation coss of buildings, the environmental certification of buildings may contribute to rise their value. The methods to translate the environmental performance into finantial benefits are discussed in this presentation.

The ASHRAE Design Build Survival Guide was first published in 2004. Maybe it was a little bit ahead of its time, but you won't see many areas of the country or project types where design build has not been discussed if not actively pursued as a delivery process. This seminar will take the input gathered from ASHRAE members in Atlanta and present a draft of the new, updated Guide for the membership.

The ASHRAE Design Build Survival Guide was first published in 2004. Maybe it was a little bit ahead of its time, but you won't see many areas of the country or project types where design build has not been discussed if not actively pursued as a delivery process. This seminar will take the input gathered from  ASHRAE members in Atlanta and present a draft of the new, updated Guide providing persepctive from the construction\contractor point of view too.

Design of HVAC&R systems for seismic and wind compliance is required by code.  At least 38 states have seismic requirements and all 50 have wind requirements.  The cost and headaches often associated with implementing the requirements needed to be in compliance has earned seismic/wind design a “necessary evil” label on many jobs.  This session will discuss how early planning can make compliance more cost effective and less hassle.

No matter how advanced the design, mechanical equipment will contribute to objectionable vibration and noise in buildings. Building owners’ and tenants’ increasing demand for a comfortable and productive workspace, and the increased presence of sensitive, high-tech equipment requires vibration and noise control issues be considered. Implementing sound design from the start provides better results and is very cost effective.  Trying to patchwork noise problems late in the project can be very expensive.  This session will examine if, why, or when noise and vibration from HVAC&R equipment causes a problem in buildings, and some practical guidelines to prevent costly errors.

Design-Build is the preferred method for the majority of direct digital control (DDC) contracts. The contractors’ expertise is such that they can deliver the latest, cutting-edge technology faster and more economically. Design-Bid-Build projects may require months or even years to develop construction documents to release for bid, and the DDC systems specified may be outdated before the project is bid. Since the general contractors are in control of the subcontractors, it gives the general contractors the ability to manage the DDC costs and keep the project within budget. The contractors are developing budgets instead of designers; therefore, the likelihood of cost increases and budget delays are reduced. Design-Build and Design-Bid-Build projects are both commissioned in the same way to ensure that the Owner Project Requirements (OPR) are met. The contractor is responsible for developing the most cost-effective solution to meet the project needs which relieves this burden from the owner. For these reasons, it is imperative that DDC contracts be delivered in the Design-Build manner.

When it comes to direct digital control (DDC) contracts, Design-Build is not the preferred method. A Design-Build-Bid method is preferable because of the level of collaboration that must take place in the development of the DDC system between the owner, end users and the designer. Each organization is unique; and so are the requirements for the DDC system. DDC systems are sophisticated and cannot be treated as a commodity, such as drywall or steel. The Design-Build delivery method lends itself to a "one-size-fits-all” approach in which the significance of the DDC system is diminished. If a Design-Build contract does not have clearly defined owner project requirements (OPR) then the owner may not get a DDC system that fits the need of the building. Since the upfront requirements may not be clearly defined for DDC systems in Design-Build contracts, this opens the door for DDC contractor change orders during construction. For these reasons, it is imperative that DDC contracts be delivered in the traditional Design-Bid-Build manner.

For an effective and complete project, it is the role of the criterion engineer to not only provide the basis of design and program requirements such that a “qualified” DB contractor can bid, design and construct the project, also, the criterion engineer must review and verify the contractors design to assure that it meets the basis of design and program requirements.  In addition the responsibility of the criterion engineer is to confirm by review items, in order to assure that the owner has received the quality and type of project as contracted, by the engineer providing construction observation and administration.

What is the contractor to quote if the criterion engineer requests an incomplete system that may not be correctly sized for the project? The contractor is at risk to deliver a complete system, with all operational components from abridging documents that are purposely incomplete. This contractor is responsible to hire the design build engineer of record, responsible for a complete functional system after he has quoted a fixed cost for the system. In this example, relationships clouded best practice.

The relationship between criterion engineer and design build engineer is a critical link on a design build project. The role of owner’s advocate will shift from criterion engineer to design build engineer during the project’s timeline. This presentation will discuss how factors such as communication between the criterion engineer and design build engineer, the criterion engineer’s project involvement after bridging documents have been issued, liability and risk levels, relationships with the building’s owner, and changes in the building’s design influence the design build engineer’s decision making process.

ASHRAE members are often confronted with ethical issues (whether they realize it or not). This session is part of a continuing program under which ASHRAE members engage in an interactive session where participants are presented with two NPSE ethics cases, discuss the cases in small groups and then reveal their decisions. The actual NSPE decisions are then provided. Test your "Ethics IQ" against real cases and receive CE credit in the process.

ASHRAE members are often confronted with ethical issues (whether they realize it or not). This session is part of a continuing program under which ASHRAE members engage in an interactive session where participants are presented with two NPSE ethics cases, discuss the cases in small groups and then reveal their decisions. The actual NSPE decisions are then provided. Test your "Ethics IQ" against real cases and receive CE credit in the process.

ASHRAE members are often confronted with ethical issues (whether they realize it or not). This session is part of a continuing program under which ASHRAE members engage in an interactive session where participants are presented with two NPSE ethics cases, discuss the cases in small groups and then reveal their decisions. The actual NSPE decisions are then provided. Test your "Ethics IQ" against real cases and receive CE credit in the process.

Demand controlled ventilation (DCV) systems use sensors—generally either CO₂ or occupancy sensors—to estimate the actual number of people in an area and supply only as much ventilation air as is needed at that time. This can save substantial energy over the traditional method of ventilation which assumes that all spaces in a building are at peak occupancy at all times. But while DCV has been in use for over 20 years and its theoretical impacts have been well demonstrated, little is known about the actual operation and energy performance of these systems in real buildings. And even less is known about the performance of DCV for complex multizone systems. This paper helps fill this information gap by covering a field study of DCV systems that we recently conducted in multizone HVAC systems in the upper Midwest. After gathering information on a broad number of actual DCV systems installed in this region, the authors have measured, analyzed and demonstrated the impact of DCV in a subset of six such systems.

The biowall is a plant-assisted air-filter that is integrated with the central HVAC system on a home to improve indoor air quality and has the potential to reduce energy consumption. The biowall concept has been evaluated in a laboratory setting and a pre-commercialization prototype has also been installed in a model home for further evaluation. This paper summarizes the laboratory and field demonstration work that has been accomplished since 2014. It is expected that a biowall can reduce the outside air requirements for IAQ by up to 50% which could subsequently reduce HVAC energy consumption by 30%.

Displacement ventilation systems have found increased usage in recent years and have been shown to reduce energy consumption while satisfying the required indoor air quality (IAQ) standard. The system takes advantage of thermal buoyancy effect to displace warm air and light containments above the occupant breathing zone. This makes the displacement ventilation system a good candidate for cooling spaces with high ceilings. Despite the advantages of this system there are still questions on the system ability in removing CO2, which has a higher molecular weight than air. The current paper investigates the CO2 concentration from occupants in an interior office with a displacement ventilation system.

Details of a three year submetering project to install web based meters for all campus buildings is presented.  The use of this data to target under-performing buildings for energy projects will be presented.  Details of how the metering data for multiple uses such as energy dashboards, energy benchmarking, energy project baselining, and monitoring based commissioning will be presented.

This presentation describes the various ways USD utilizes advanced submetering in their building automation system.  Initially installed to assist in measurement and verification of energy performance contracts, USD’s building meters are used to track energy project savings in an ongoing retrocommissioning effort.  The role that energy tracking has played in USD’s successful and repeated commitment to fund energy efficiency projects will be presented.

Many buildings with large, high-bay areas suffer from high energy cost in the winter months due to inefficient equipment, poor system layout and thermal stratification. While various strategies are available to heat and ventilate the building, some technologies can meet these heating loads with greater energy efficiency, improved temperature control and other operational benefits. This presentation provides an overview of 100% outside air, HTHV (High Temperature Heating and Ventilation) direct-fired heating technology for high-bay commercial buildings and discusses the findings of a recent field study outside St. Louis, MO.

This paper describes the study of an IT office building where radiant cooling system and conventional VAV has been installed for the performance assessment. The paper details the calibration of whole building energy model to component level; lighting, equipment and HVAC components like chiller, pumps, cooling towers, fan etc. Also, a new methodology for the systematic selection of influence parameter has been developed for the calibration of a simulated model which requires the large time for the execution.

The design-build construction method presents opportunities and challenges to all the groups involved in a construction project.  This paper will explore how the mechanical and electrical designers and contractors addressed these opportunities and challenges for the recent Byron G. Rogers Federal Office Building modernization project in downtown Denver, Colorado.  The project involved approximately 500,000 square feet of renovation and deep energy retrofit in an existing high-rise building  which is anticipated to to be added to the National Register of Historic Places in the future. 

The heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration industry shows a trend toward increased adoption of condensing boilers in heating systems, but the full impact on design and construction is complex. The maximum efficiency of condensing boilers can significantly exceed that of non-condensing boilers at lower return water temperatures. However, in order to reach lower return water temperatures, coils must be properly selected. A standard coil selection exhibits a tendency to produce a smaller change in temperature with lower water temperatures. As a result, pumping energy increases due to the increased flow required to supply the same heat energy. This paper investigates the effect on overall system performance and construction cost of various heating system metrics with regards to condensing and non-condensing boilers.

While BIM represents the future of project delivery, the present, especially for MEP trades, requires creativity and imagination to compensate for BIM tools that are currently immature and incomplete.  This is compounded by an industry still finding its swim lanes as the BIM centric integrated project delivery system forces all parties to blur their scope lines.  This presentation discusses the disconnect between the process and product, the tools and deliverables, the expectations and outcomes.  The presentation will also provide guidance on dealing with the uncertainty and fill in the missing pieces to bring the project team together.

Project teams are having to use multiple software platforms for various reasons (BIM, energy, daylight, etc…) so one software package may never do it all.  But there are commonalities that can be leveraged on each project to ensure successful delivery. Hence, it can be argued that seamless interoperability is unlikely to be universally successful or widely adopted, and may actually stifle creative workflows.  Rather, the success of BIM to BEM will need to focus on collaboration that results in a project-specific BIM to BEM workflow between relevant team members.  This session will outline a framework for this successful collaboration.

BIM technology currently has been used not only during construction document stage, but also during initial stage. The good implementation of the BIM to BEM will enhance collaboration process among architect, engineer and energy modeler. However, the application in projects is still limited. The presentation will explore interoperability between BIM and BEM and collaboration among disciplines in early stage. Additionally, how the simulation results can drive better performance building and provide faster opportunities to identify different energy efficiency measures will be highlighted using case studies to show the implementation and lesson learned from the process.

Many of you may be familiar with ASHRAE at the Chapter level. This seminar covers the structure of the Society from committees to councils and everything in between. We love our acronyms and when we’re done, you’ll finally know what they all mean and how you can get involved.

Now that you’ve got your bearings and know the difference between a TC and a TG, this seminar tells you about the softer side of ASHRAE. You’ll find out what social events you shouldn’t miss and how to make the most of your conference experience.

Lubricants optimized for R-404A refrigerant may not be the best choice for the new low GWP alternatives. In this study, selected low GWP alternative refrigerants to R-404A are evaluated with several synthetic POE lubricants of systematically varied chemical structure and correspondingly varied compatibility with these refrigerants. The results of laboratory and full system tests are correlated to the measured thermo-physical properties and miscibility of the refrigerant/POE mixtures. Combining the property information with full system test data allow for analysis of the impact of refrigerant-lubricant mixture properties on system performance.

The commercial transition to low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants that can benefit environmental impact does not preclude the need to consider the interactions/stability  between the lubricant and refrigerant.  Dealing with some low GWP refrigerants, it becomes even more essential to investigate and understand these interactions due to potential property differences these refrigerants have over refrigerants used today.  This presentation will outline key interactions that need to be studied along with examples of lubricant options for some low GWP refrigerant candidates.  Low GWP refrigerants based on various natural and synthetic chemistries will be assessed.

Low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants have been studied by the HVAC&R industry extensively with limited success in finding optimal design compatible replacements for all product segments. New ultra low GWP olefin refrigerants such as HFOs are being considered by themselves or blended with traditional refrigerants to optimize design attributes for equipment manufacturers, but there can be compromises that develop in other design attributes.  This presentation will provide a summary of the design trade-offs when considering new refrigerants and the product differences associated with new lower GWP refrigerant products that are being introduced by the HVAC&R industry.

The ASHRAE Load Calculations Application Manual has been updated to include results from more than
four years of ASHRAE research. This presentation will give an overview of the state-of-the-art with an
emphasis on the new methods and data in the 2nd Edition of the Load Calculations Application Manual.

Air conditioning system sizing is an important aspect of the early building design process.  Calculating cooling and heating loads can be challenging when all of the details regarding building construction and function are not well-defined.  Making reasonable decisions and assumptions in the schematic design phase of a project is critical to selecting and applying proper HVAC solutions.  This presentation will provide some guidance on these decisions and how they impact the building design process.

Load calculations require application of engineering judgment gained by experience, hard knocks and bullets dodged.   Understanding the impact of each assumption is key to reaching a reasonable result within time constraints of modern fast-track design processes.   Young engineers need to be able to recognize results that look unusual - and be able to backtrack and find their mistakes, not blindly use results because the computer says so.

The cooling performance of a raised-floor data center is dominated by its ability to deliver adequate cooling airflow to IT equipment through perforated tiles. Although many studies have focused on the design of plenum systems and the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics to predict tile airflow rates, very little has been published regarding accurately measuring airflows in existing facilities. We investigate the ability of a commercially-available passive flow hood to accurately measure data center tile airflow.

Energy efficiency has become increasing important in the data center industry, driven by rising energy prices, environmental legislation, corporate social responsibility pressures and competition. Energy efficiency is part of sustainability, however consideration of other aspects such as the embodied environmental impact of materials, components and systems are needed for a holistic view of sustainability. Life cycle assessment areas of protection may be defined as climate change, ecosystem quality, human health and resource depletion. The industry is starting to become more aware of these issues and developing metrics to quantify performance. This paper describes key data center sustainability issues and proposes how the industry should approach its environmental responsibilities in order to capitalize on the business opportunity as well as demonstrating sustainable leadership.

A number of studies reported associations between ground-level ozone and various adverse health effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Indoor ozone is also a significant initiator of indoor chemistry by driving various oxidative processes which produce many harmful oxidation products. Hence ozone is the required challenge gas with respect to oxidizing gases to be tested in AHSRAE Standard 145.2-2011. In practical application, how often the filters should be changed on specific operation condition is a key question. Wheeler-Jonas equation is widely used for describing breakthrough curves of VOCs removal by granular activated carbon (GAC).  This paper will investigate the applicability of W-J equation to the oxidizing gas - ozone. The experiments will be conducted on a state-of-the-art full-scale filter test rig. The air tightness, uniform distribution of challenge gases and stable temperature and humidity control of the test rig have already been validated. Commercially available AC filters with different pore sizes, specific areas and bulk densities will be tested.

Institutional campuses often times encompass both centralized and decentralized heating and cooling systems. Each configuration inherently has advantages and challenges when trying to maintain occupant comfort while minimizing energy consumption.  Recent technological advancements in computing power allows building energy modelers to quickly and efficiently develop models which can be evaluated as part of a centralized plant or as a stand alone system.

ASHRAE is aiming for buildings to achieve net-zero energy use, including energy-intensive mission critical facilities, by the year 2030.  The design methods to achieve this goal are aiming to be in place in less than 5 years, by 2020. There is a need to ensure designers can choose the most beneficial options available.  Often data center heat is considered a bane, and water source energy recovery is not an option because the heat rejection and distribution is limited by physical, monetary and temperature aspects.  However, opportunities are becoming more available for new and existing facilities as data center densities and water cooling temperatures move steadily higher. This paper reviews the potential benefits of operating with higher water temperatures and finding means to couple alternative systems as heat sinks for modern data centers.

Data centers have an extensive range of complicated system design choices, which can often times seem overwhelming when deciding the best way to maximize the system design for reliability and energy efficiency. Is an air-side or water-side economizer system better, or should an indirect system be used over a wet-bulb economizer design? Is the industry moving away from raised floor designs to installing server cabinets directly on slab? High-level decisions can be complicated, but diving further into the details reveals even further trade-offs and directions in designs. Should containment be done on the cold-aisle or hot-aisle? Is it better to select units with EC fans or VFD equipped motors? The authors present a range of topics for debate in data center design and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each, applicability and limiting factors as well as encourage participation in discussions about highly contested topics in the data center industry. These debates are happening right now across designers and operators, end users and owners and produces a variety of viewpoints and engaging discussions on complex systems design.

This session illustrates doing a better job serving the needs of most commercial buildings by utilizing “Low Flow/High Delta” water based systems.  Water has a high affinity for energy and we should be using it in a much wiser fashion. This presentation will illustrate how to use water based systems to transfer energy more efficiently, save operational expense, help control systems operate with greater ease, and open other benefits to the overall building design and operation.  Lessons learned will be illustrated on the application of “Low Flow – High Delta” water based systmes.

This session illustrates doing a better job serving the needs of most commercial buildings by utilizing “Low Flow/High Delta” water based systems.  Water has a high affinity for energy and we should be using it in a much wiser fashion.  This presentation will illustrate how to use water based systems to transfer energy more efficiently, save operational expense, help control systems operate with greater ease, and open other benefits to the overall building design and operation.  Lessons learned will be illustrated on the application of “Low Flow – High Delta” water based systems.

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems are commonly used in Sweden for both residential and commercial buildings.  However, there are several key differences with GSHP systems utilized in the USA. Scandinavian systems are often heating-only, and instead of using grouted boreholes, groundwater-filled boreholes are often used.  These boreholes are cased from the ground surface to the usually-shallow bedrock.  A single or double U-tube is commonly suspended in the borehole.  These boreholes are often deeper than those commonly used in the USA.  This paper reviews current Scandinavian practice for borehole design and discusses several installations with boreholes 250 – 300 m (820-984 ft) deep or deeper.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the performance of shallow depth helical heat exchangers coupled with ground source heat pumps (GSHP) for residential HVAC applications.  This shallow depth system serves as an alternative to traditional vertical bore fields, which carry high installation costs.  These helical heat exchangers occupy considerably less land when compared to horizontal configurations, but are still influenced by changing ground temperatures driven by seasonal weather conditions.  Performance data and design information is limited for helical heat exchangers, which has limited their adoption amongst GSHP system designers and installers.  In Situ testing was performed for a GSHP system to provide designers with performance information and insight towards appropriate applications of this technology.

Heat pumps use less energy when the difference between the source and load temperatures is small. For a ground-source heat pump (GSHP), the source temperature is prescribed by the local ground temperature. As for the load temperature, it depends on the type of heating system. In this paper, the performance of a water-to-water heat pump coupled to two different heating systems is examined. The first one is a radiant type floor heating system operating at a relative low temperature (≈30 °C). The second system uses a fan-coil unit operating at higher temperature (≈45 °C) to supply space heat. The objective of the paper is to quantify the energy savings from running a GSHP at a low load temperatures.

Photovoltaic panels that provide electricity and thermal energy are now commercially available. These PV/T collectors use either the air or a liquid as the heat transfer fluid to collect thermal energy. This paper examines the overall system performance of PV/T collectors linked to a ground-source heat pump equipped with a four-pipe borehole. The system selected for this study consists of two independent fluid circuits. In the first circuit, the outlet fluid from a liquid-cooled PV/T collector is first pumped through a heat exchanger then to the ground heat exchanger. In the second circuit, fluid is pumped from the ground heat exchanger to the heat pump via the heat exchanger which provides a thermal link between the PV/T and GSHP circuits.

Studies have shown that neglecting borehole thermal capacity in annual simulations of ground-source heat pump systems can lead to an overestimation of the energy consumption by 3-4% when the heat pump is operating intermittently. There are various approaches to account for thermal capacity when simulating geothermal boreholes. The objective of this paper is to validate the TRCM procedure. Experimental data from two tests performed at the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (Ottawa, Canada) are used for this validation.

This paper provides an overview of recent refinements to the Radiant Time Series Method (RTSM) as part of 1616-RP. These refinements include replacing the ASHRAE three-parameter (A,B,C) clear sky model with a new globally-applicable model, introducing new design day temperature profiles, updating the weather data, and improving the treatment of interior shading in the fenestration model. In addition, the sensitivity of the calculated cooling loads to the weather-related refinements is investigated with a parametric study.

This paper extends the application of a correlation developed previously by the author for the overall heat transfer coefficients (the U-factors) of single layered fiberglass Metal Building (MB) insulation assemblies to assemblies where insulation is used in a manner designed to fill up the space (the “cavity”) between the two consecutive structural elements (purlins or girts). These assemblies may involve either single or multiple insulation layers and the cavity may be filled to various extents. The paper describes a general technical approach to calculate the thermal resistances of various regions of a MB insulation assembly, namely regions beyond, underneath, and above the structural units.

The occupancy patterns in office buildings have been becoming increasingly diverse. And, even in cases where the occupancy periods are still rigid, the time needed to bring a room from nighttime setback temperatures to the setpoint temperatures not only change in time but also vary between offices. Consequently, operators have been challenged to choose conservatively short temperature setback periods. In recognition of these challenges, a self-adaptive control algorithm that can learn the recurring occupancy patterns and the parameters of a model predicting the indoor temperature response was implemented in a southwest-facing shared office space in Ottawa, Canada.

Stationary gas turbines used in industrial applications can be run using pre-mixed air/fuel systems. Though pre-mixed air/fuel systems are widely established, research continues to further develop the efficiency of such engines. This paper uses computer numerical simulation in analyzing the effects of the pre-mixed air/fuel composition on the performance of a miniature gas turbine. The composition of the fuel-air pre-mixture was varied, results were recorded and compared. Effects on turbulence intensity in the combustion zone for various pre-mixed air/fuel compositions were monitored and compared. The analysis has shown that performance can be optimized with an optimal air/fuel pre-mixture, and that this optimal performance coincides with peak turbulence intensity at the combustion chamber downstream of the pre-mixed air/fuel injectors.

This paper refers to a study on the application of the thermodynamic analysis method proposed by
POPPE to model the thermodynamic behavior of countercurrent water cooling towers, to improve
performance. This method replaces the traditional method used today, more simple and less accurate, proposed by
MERKEL. The objective is to produce a mathematical routine using this method, to be used in supervisory systems in order to optimize the operation of these towers, looking at energy savings.

Early stage design has fundamental impact on building performance as they place significant limits on later design options. The objective of this study was to develop a simplified and scalable approach for optimizing the form, massing and orientation in early design stage. In this approach, a reference building was first defined with pre-selected building materials and assemblies and HVAC system for the intended climate and site conditions. The energy performance of this reference building was estimated by whole building energy simulation such as EnergyPlus at the same time. Heat fluxes and irradiation fluxes received by these interior surfaces of enclosure were also extracted from the reference building simulation.

This paper is about the application of Mixed Methods for design professionals and social science researchers.   The purpose is to describe an intellectual commons which integrates qualitative and quantitative data related to sustainable design and operation of the built environment. Once described, the proposed intellectual commons would include a form of communication based on data described by symbolism and logic to be shared by the broad range of worldviews in our global society. This form of communication models that which is common in the process of problem solving for many academic and professional disciplines.

Designing energy efficient buildings has been traditionally viewed as an optimization problem with a few stipulated constraints which could be tackled by mathematical methods relying on detailed computer simulations. Recently it has been argued that the conceptual building design process should inherently and explicitly contain an interactive process which captures the synergy between automated performance prediction with the human capabilities to perceive, evaluate and ultimately select one (or a few) suitable solution(s). The need to address multi-criteria requirements makes it even more valuable for a designer to know the “latitude” or “degrees of freedom” he/she has in changing certain design variables while achieving preset criteria such as energy performance, life cycle cost, environmental impacts, etc.

Heat losses and gains through opaque building envelopes (such as walls, roofs and floors) significantly affect the overall energy consumption of buildings. To reduce energy consumption of buildings, it is important to ensure that building envelopes exhibit excellent thermal insulation performance. However, the actual insulation performance of building envelopes varies depending on components and construction methods even if the same insulations of equal thickness are used. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate thermal insulation performances of various opaque building envelopes considering thermal bridges and to discuss methods of reducing thermal bridges.

From the late 1940's to the late 1960's, significant efforts were made by ASHVE and ASHRAE to evaluate and quantify the impact of window shading. In the context of the now defunct Shading Coefficient (SC), well known researchers such as Parmelee, Ozisik, Schutrum, Farber, Yellott and Keyes laid the groundwork for much of the work that followed decades later. Of particular interest are the efforts of Keyes, published by ASHRAE in 1967. In that work, he presented measurements of the solar-optical properties of fabrics determined using a custom made apparatus. The main contribution of this work was a method of classifying fabric properties based either on visible inspection, or property measurements. The result was the Keyes Universal Chart, which has been in the Fenestration Chapter of the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals since the 1970's.

Electrocaloric effect (ECE) is the ability of a dielectric to change its temperature and entropy as an electric field is applied and released. It provides an effective means to realize solid-state cooling devices that are environmentally benign and potentially highly energy efficient. Recent breakthroughs are presented in ferroelectric materials exhibiting giant electrocaloric effect, where an adiabatic temperature change DT > 40 ^oC has been obtained in several nano-structured ferroelectrics.  EC cooling devices based on these new materials, as well as challenges and future perspectives are discussed.

ORNL is collaborating with GEA on developing the world's first magnetocaloric refrigerator. The technology could yield energy savings of 25% over baseline vapor compression systems. A drastic upgrade in refrigerator design using magnetocaloric materials (MCM) eliminates the need for refrigerants but creates new challenges ― one is how to transfer heat to or from the solid MCM material using a heat transfer fluid. In this presentation, the basics of magnetocaloric refrigeration and the performance potential will be discussed, followed by describing state of art systems. The technical challenges and potential solutions for this emerging technology will also be reviewed.

Elastocaloric cooling has been recognized as a potential alternative and supplementary technology to the state-of-the-art vapor compression cooling systems. It is based on the elastocaloric effect found in shape memory alloys associated with the solid-solid martensitic phase transformation induced by stress. The fundamental thermodynamics of the martensitic phase change process will be introduced. Elsatocaloric cooling material following the single stage Brayton cycle and the system design will be presented. With the commercially available nickel-titanium tubes, we will demonstrate two compressive elastocaloric cooling prototypes developed in University of Maryland. Experimental test results and potential performance improvement methods will be presented.

While the intent of electronic cigarettes is to promote smoking cessation, studies suggest that the opposite is occurring.  Additionally, the lack of regulations has resulted in an increase in unintentional exposures in young children and nicotine use in adolescents.  This presentation will provide an overview of electronic cigarettes including discussion of the device, its intent, its toxicity and state and federal regulations that may impact its use.

Research indicates that e-cigarette emissions contain much more than nicotine, including aerosolized flavorings, propylene glycol, thermal degradation products and other contaminants that could present health hazards. Because e-cigarettes are a potential source of indoor air pollutants, AIHA recommends that their use in the indoor environment be restricted at this time. The FDA currently regulates only e-cigarettes that are marketed for therapeutic purposes, but has proposed a rule extending its tobacco product authorities to cover additional products such as e-cigarettes. This presentation will summarize the AIHA White Paper, along with research and regulatory and industry recommendations published subsequent to its release.

The rapid growth of e-cigarette use has raised questions about their impact on the indoor air quality of offices and public spaces.  The dearth of available information reveals them to be sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate aerosols that have not been fully characterized.  E-cigarettes primarily emit propylene glycol, glycerin and nicotine in addition to diethylene glycol, nitrosamines, 1,2-propanediol, acetic acid, acetone, isoprene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propaldehyde and various flavoring compounds into the indoor air at varying levels.

ASHRAE publishes many documents which relate to indoor air quality.  Smoking has a significant impact on indoor air quality, so how do these documents deal with smoking?  This presentation will identify the various ASHRAE documents and discuss the different ways they deal with smoking.  Will they all need to be modified for e-cigarettes?

This paper is the first part of two papers that report on the results of the ASHRAE-RP 1468 project. This paper presents an overview of the project and the three volumes of documentation included in the final report. The purpose of the project was to produce reference models and guidelines for developing software to automate thermal model creation from a Building Information Model (BIM) into a Building Energy Simulation (BES) for energy simulations. This paper describes the methods of the research and presents highlights of the guidelines.

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study focusing on the development of control-oriented thermal models of varying resolution for an actively charged/discharged phase change material thermal energy storage (PCM TES) system intended for building integration. This PCM TES system consists of five layers of PCM panels with an air channel between the middle layers. Conditioned air is drawn through the cavity to charge and discharge the PCM. The PCM TES system is tested in an environmental chamber where its dynamic response was carefully monitored. The monitored data is used for model development and validation. Compared to a detailed 30th order RC model, simplified 4th order and 2nd order models are shown to be able to satisfactorily predict the thermal energy storage and release of the PCM TES system. To simplify the PCM characterization input and to reduce the simulation time, a five-parameter equation is developed to model the PCM specific heat and a four-parameter equation for its thermal conductivity. The presented modeling methodology is applicable for similar PCM TES systems with multiple PCM layers and air flow channels.

This paper presents an experimental and theoretical study of the dynamic response of low mass residential buildings and their respective space heating peak demands for different room temperature set point profiles, with a focus on the impact of thermal model resolution on the peak demand calculation. Experiments were conducted at two identically constructed and highly instrumented houses. The wood floor of one of them is covered with carpet. Their dynamic response to different ramping set point profiles is monitored and analyzed. Equivalent and physically meaningful RC network thermal models for the purpose of model based control are developed for a north zone of the houses.

Buildings account for 40% of CO2 emissions in the UK and around 25% in China. In an attempt to mitigate global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the UK Government is committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below the 1990’s level by 2050; China pledged a 40–45% decrease in CO2 emissions per GDP by 2020 against 2005 levels. To achieve these targets, building retrofitting is one of the efficient ways to improve building energy efficiency and the associated CO2 emissions. In order to evaluate the potential energy savings that can be achieved through building retrofit plans, this study aims to assess two levels of deep retrofit in a typical office building. These retrofit scenarios are assessed using numerical simulation of a prototypical building in five climate zones in china as well as London and Aberdeen in the UK. Numerical simulations have been conducted using the EnergyPlus software. The outcomes of this study reveal that deep retrofit in office buildings can potentially achieve up to 54% energy saving compared with the energy consumption of buildings designed in 1980(s). However, economic factors should be also considered in the process of decision making to choose the most appropriate building retrofit strategy.

High performance buildings are becoming more prevalent in new Army construction projects. Unfortunately, these new designs often do not take into account preventive procedures to avoid thermal bridging effects which are localized heat flow between the building interior and exterior. These effects become much more significant as buildings are designed to be highly insulated and better sealed against air leakage. Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center - Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL) visited several Army installations and used infra-red imaging to survey buildings to identify places in the building envelope where thermal bridging commonly occur. Characteristic construction sections were selected for heat transfer modeling to quantify the thermal bridging impact and develop general mitigation solutions. This manuscript presents examples of the developed U.S. Army ERDC-CERL Thermal Bridge Mitigation Catalog, which includes architectural details thermal bridge modeling values (ψ and U-factors), and schematics of good construction practices to improve the building envelope performance of typical Army facilities. In addition, this work includes developed visual step-by-step sequencing examples to be used by the construction practitioner for the assembly of a properly mitigated thermal bridge detail in the building envelope.

The aim of the “School of the Future” project which receives funding within the EU’s 7th Framework Program, is to design, demonstrate, evaluate and communicate shining examples of how to reach the future high performance building level. School buildings, their owners and their primary users, namely pupils (the next generation) are the focus of the project. Both the energy and indoor environment performance of four demonstration buildings in four European countries and climates is being greatly improved due to holistic retrofits to the building envelope, the service systems, the integration of renewables, and building management systems. This paper describes the EU project, including all results, a comparison of the four demonstration buildings, and a detailed description of the German demonstration project.

Many innovative energy-saving strategies have been implemented in energy efficient and sustainable building design to reduce overall energy use and operational cost. However, measurement of the actual energy usage and verification of implemented energy-saving design and strategies are also required to ensure the building performs as expected. This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of the energy performance at the Iowa Utilities Board and Office of Consumer Advocate (IUB-OCA) building by examining annual detailed sub-metered data.

Many semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) including phthalates and PAHs have been linked to adverse health effects such as endocrine disruption and cancer. Due to widespread use of synthetically produced plasticizers, insecticides, and flame retardant indoors, large amounts of SVOCs persist indoors for relatively long periods (>1 yr). This study investigates inhalation vs. dermal uptake to human surface considering air flow and SVOC transport in the vicinity of a human body.  Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of pollutant dynamics around a human body, breathing zone concentrations and SVOC uptake by human surface were estimated for an occupant in ventilated room.

 Siloxanes are common ingredients in consumer products like antiperspirants, skin and hair care products, cosmetics and detergents, and are being promoted as green dry cleaning solvents to replace toxic chlorinated solvents.  The wide applications have caused elevated concentrations of siloxanes in our environments, and the indoor levels are usually much higher than outdoor air. Some siloxanes are regarded as potential endocrine disrupting compounds. The sources, indoor and outdoor air concentrations, and the health and environmental effects of siloxanes will be presented and future research needs will be discussed.

This is the first in a series of technical papers written to describe results of ASHRAE research project 1544. Hot water use in hotels and its associated energy use is significant. However, information on hotel hot water use patterns has been limited until now, resulting in most hotel hot water systems being designed using extremely old hot water use data (45-80 years old) that predate the introduction of water and energy efficient fixtures and appliances. In recognition of this fact, ASHRAE funded research project 1544 “Establishing Benchmark Levels and Patterns of Commercial Hot Water Use – Hotels” to both develop a monitoring methodology that could be duplicated by others to collect hot water use data from a larger number of hotels, and to obtain updated hot water use information from at least two hotels. This first paper describes the technique used to locate and solicit participating hotels, details about the hotels tested, and the instrumentation, data collection approach and equipment used in the field test effort.

This is the second in a series of technical papers written to describe results of ASHRAE research project 1544. Hot water use in hotels and its associated energy use is significant. However, information on hotel hot water use patterns has been limited until now, resulting in most hotel hot water systems being designed using extremely old hot water use data (45-80 years old) that predate the introduction of water and energy efficient fixtures and appliances. In recognition of this fact, ASHRAE funded research project 1544 “Establishing Benchmark Levels and Patterns of Commercial Hot Water Use – Hotels” to both develop a monitoring methodology that could be duplicated by others to collect hot water use data from a larger number of hotels, and to obtain updated hot water use information from at least two hotels. This second paper describes data collected from a “travel” style hotel having no meeting rooms or commercial food service.

This is the third in a series of technical papers written to describe results of ASHRAE research project 1544. Hot water use in hotels and its associated energy use is significant. However, information on hotel hot water use patterns has been limited until now, resulting in most hotel hot water systems being designed using extremely old hot water use data (45-80 years old) that predate the introduction of water and energy efficient fixtures and appliances. In recognition of this fact, ASHRAE funded research project 1544 “Establishing Benchmark Levels and Patterns of Commercial Hot Water Use – Hotels” to both develop a monitoring methodology that could be duplicated by others to collect hot water use data from a larger number of hotels, and to obtain updated hot water use information from at least two hotels. This third paper describes data collected from a “business” style hotel having multiple meeting rooms and several restaurants and thus a commercial kitchen.

The main challenge in understanding cooling performance in a legacy data center is the invisible transport medium (air). This seminar describes a comprehensive experimental characterization of a new data center lab. Airflow and temperature measurements are utilized to understand the facility’s performance at different operational stages. Since the facility houses a wide range of different IT equipment (servers, switches, storages, blades), it is important to understand the airflow demand of each. The IT was tested and flow characterized. The characterization data is integrated via compact models into a full CFD simulation. Measured data from the facility are used for validation.

Localized hybrid air-water cooling in server cabinets remove heat using a self contained system that does not interact with the room level air cooling system is one approach to more effectively control the cooling when there is wide variation in the amount of dissipation in neighboring racks. This seminar describes an experimental test and CFD validation of a commercial hybrid-cooled enclosed cabinet. The model includes fans and channels and the heat exchanger box and uses experimentally measured flow curves for the IT equipment.  A sensitivity study was applied to the validated model to investigate the effect of leakage on cabinets performance.

DCIM provides tools to bridge the gap in terms of process and data communication between facilities and IT, but there is still a gap in terms of the engineering consequences of actions. This presentation will give examples of how common practices, at both the rack and the room scale (including the impact of choosing to co-locate different types of IT), can impact availability, capacity and efficiency in different ways. Metrics will be used to quantify the impact of proposed changes so that the business can make IT deployment and infrastructure decisions in a holistic way to fit its needs.

Automated detection of schedule- and operation-related energy savings opportunities in commercial buildings can help building owners lower operating expenses while also reducing the adverse societal impacts such as global greenhouse gas emissions. We propose automated methods of identifying certain energy efficiency opportunities in commercial buildings using only whole-building electricity consumption and local climate data. Our two-step approach uses piecewise linear regression and density-based clustering to detect both schedule- and operation-related electricity consumption faults. This paper discusses results obtained from applying this approach to two office buildings and two residential buildings meant to demonstrate our model’s effectiveness in identifying such energy efficiency opportunities. Ways by which the analysis results can be conveniently and succinctly presented to building managers and operators are also suggested.

On the establishment of a reliable baselines for energy savings estimation, one or more variables are usually used to determine a model by regression analysis. These regression models generally use one or more independent variables, such as outside air temperature (OAT), degree days, or combination of these with occupancy or humidity. Based in a calibrated multi-use building energy simulation in a hot and humid climates, in this paper the study of the influence of outside air intake fraction on the selection of the best parameter to develop change-point regression modeling for cooling and heating energy use was evaluated. A comparison among regressions based on three variables, two regularly used in measuring and verification (M&V) process – OAT and outside air enthalpy (OAE), plus the addition of an operational enthalpy was carried out. The study included variations of the outside air intake fraction in the range of 10% -100% and the development of the corresponding patterns of regression models for each of the parameters.

Energy modelling and optimization studies can facilitate the design of cost-effective, low-energy buildings. However, this process inevitably involves early assumptions of unknowns such as predicting occupant behavior, future climate and econometric assumptions. As presently practiced, energy modelers typically do not quantify the implications of these unknown into performance outcomes. This paper describes an energy modelling approach to quantify economic risk and better inform decision-makers of the economic feasibility of a project. The proposed methodology suggests how economic uncertainty can be quantified within an optimization framework. This approach improves modelling outcomes by factoring in the effect of variability in assumptions and improves confidence in simulation results. The methodology is demonstrated using a net-zero energy commercial office building case-study located in London, ON.

There is a trend towards high-rise residential buildings with large glazed areas – often floor-to-ceiling. In most climates, these buildings are reliant on mechanical systems to maintain comfort as a result of the poor insulating properties and high solar transmittance of the glazing. In the summer they are prone to overheating from high solar gains; in the winter, they are prone to thermal discomfort due to low surface temperatures and high heat loss through poorly-insulated glazing and other façade components. Thus, such buildings are vulnerable to power failures, mechanical system failures, and extended demand response strategies. Furthermore, such buildings can be uncomfortable and high in energy consumption during normal operation. This paper describes a methodology to evaluate building resilience using simulation methods. Several resilience metrics were developed or obtained from the literature including: thermal autonomy and passive survivability. A Toronto, Canada-based case study was performed to assess the effect of various passive design strategies to improve resilience. Results showed that thermal autonomy was very poor without occupant interaction. However, this did not translate to poor passive survivability; relatively comfortable conditions were maintained for at least two to three days after power failures.

We introduce and provide results from a rigorous, scientific testing methodology that allows pure building model calibration systems to be compared fairly to traditional output error (e.g. how well does simulation output match utility bills?) as well as input-side error (e.g. how well, variable-by-variable, did the calibration capture the true building's description?). This system is then used to generate data for a correlation study of output and input error measures that validates CV(RMSE) and NMBE metrics put forth by ASHRAE Guideline 14 and suggests possible alternatives.

Smart windows are used to reduce energy consumption and improve thermal and visual comfort by controlling the solar flux entering into a building and/or adapting their thermal resistances. A commercial building with integrated electrochromic windows is modeled. The hour-by-hour state of the smart windows required to minimize overall energy consumption (heating, cooling, lighting) while respecting constraints related to visual comfort is determined through an optimization strategy based on genetic algorithms. Then, this optimal control is compared to two other approaches that could be applied in real-time applications: (i) rule-based control, and (ii) predictive control. The impacts of thermal mass, façade orientation and climate are analyzed.

Accurate energy performance prediction of HVAC system plays a significant role for intelligent building operations to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption in buildings. In modern commercial and residential buildings, large amounts of raw data, including electric metering data, are monitored, trended and saved in, for example, Building Automation System (BAS). Due to the complexity of building mechanical and electrical system and the cost, practically speaking, it is impossible to have sensors/meters to monitor the building at a fine granularity. Building total energy consumption (e.g., total electricity consumption) is one of the most commonly available metering data.

Many facility departments have installed energy meters seeking to pin point how, where and when energy is being inefficiently utilized. This has led to the recording of vast amount of data over extended periods of time, which makes it very difficult to manage and manually analyze. Luckily, techniques in machine learning have shown promising results in automated knowledge discovery making it more and more crucial when large data is at hand. This paper applies machine learning (ML) algorithms to detect abnormalities in chilled water systems (CWS) at building level. Two abnormal situations are pursued: chilled water sensor misreadings and low thermal efficiency in terms of delta T. The visualization of building chilled water historical data provides general trends and an initial identification of the building abnormalities; this visualization also helps to lay down the requirements for the abnormality detection algorithms, and eventually, their selection.

The accuracy of experimental results has always concerned engineers and scientists. The uncertainty of each parameter is desired to be minimized because these uncertainties will propagate in the data reduction process. In heat-transfer equipment testing, there are usually two independent measurements of heat-transfer rate in the hot and cold stream respectively (Q_h and Q_c). It is proposed in this paper that Q_ave should be calculated based on a form of weighted-linear average, with weighting factors depending on the individual uncertainties in Q_h and Q_c. Heat-transfer rate which has higher uncertainty will be weighed less in the average, and the other one with lower uncertainty will be weighed more accordingly. Implementing this new methodology will minimize the uncertainty in heat-transfer coefficient and Colburn j factors, which will consequently provide more accurate data for use in the development of correlations or for performance comparison purposes.

Pakistan and its region are home to some of the largest and most complex industrial and infrastructure projects in the world.  These projects deliver world class outputs for multinational giants. And when working with giants, time and quality is of the essence.  This presentation will highlight some  of the challenges and opportunities that can be faced when commissioing large scale industiral projects in a design-build execution model and when energy and resources are pricey and scarce.

The Middle East, especially Suadi Arabia and the Gulf Coast have been growing in leaps and bounds.  Despite the region being an energy bonanza there has been great interest in alternative energy, efficiency and performance.  Commissioning is key to those objectives. This program will highlight some of the key features of commissioning in such a dynamic environment.

The first part of this presentation explores the relationship between tall buildings and energy use by examining the publically available data from municipal energy benchmarking ordinances. The analysis of this data examines correlations between building size, age, utility profiles and energy consumption.  The second portion of the presentation compares city benchmarking and CBECS data sets against a pool of newly designed/constructed tall building energy model simulations. The purpose of this analysis is to compare the simulated performance against actual consumption in order to better understand trends in new tall building design as well as assess if these simulations are reasonable representations of actual tall building performance.

Do tall buildings consume more energy per square foot than typical buildings? According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, more buildings exceeding 200 m in height were constructed in 2014 than ever before. Is this increase in height accompanied by an increased EUI? Energy benchmarking data from New York and Chicago, two of America’s tall-building giants, is used to approach the question from an empirical perspective. Full building energy simulations are presented to approach the question from a modeling perspective. Governing principles of heat transfer, fluid dynamics and building physics are presented to approach the question from a theoretical perspective. Lastly, the audience is engaged to debate and settle the question for good.

This presentation intends to offer an overview about the key challenges facing the air-conditioning industry in high-ambient countries in meeting global and national environmental and energy commitments while examining new low-GWP alternatives. The introduction of debates about key definitions like high ambient and low-GWP will be also discussed as part of different perspectives and views. The presentation will also include the driving forces and key objectives of the UNEP-UNIDO PRAHA project and its relation to other testing and research work.

The core component of UNEP/UNIDO project for promoting low-GWP alternatives in high-ambient countries is building and testing prototypes by local OEMs with the support of several international technology providers. The presentation introduces the findings of the testing of the prototypes developed under the project for four different categories of air-conditioning applications using four different types of alternative refrigerants. Detailed background on the testing methodology, design limitations and the criteria for selecting the capacities, refrigerants and design parameters are included in the presentation. The presentation also reflects the technical challenges the project faced while building and testing the prototypes.

PRAHA project went beyond building and testing prototypes, with alternative refrigerants, that can work efficiently in high-ambient conditions. This presentation introduces the work and findings for assessing the impact of relevant energy efficiency standards on the process of refrigerant selection, examining the economic factors that could affect the decision of adopting low-GWP alternatives, understanding barriers to ease the technology transfer and facilitate transferring the sound use of alternatives in the air-conditioning industry. The presentation also includes key findings and outcomes about examining how using the district cooling applications can reduce dependency on high/higher GWP alternatives and promote not-in-kind technologies.

The main objective of PRAHA project is to assist the process of decision making at government and industry levels in high ambient countries. This presentation includes the key messages concluded from PRAHA project concerning many policy and technical aspects that need to be considered by the respective decision makers at both levels. Discussion includes key recommendations related to comprehensive risk assessment, the need of the servicing sector, the introduction of relevative standards and codes, and and the introduction of incentives for the industry and end-users.

As a result of numerous pilot projects conducted all over the world, it was demonstrated that energy use reduction in commercial and public buildings can been reduced by more than 50% after renovation, and that some renovated buildings have met the Passive House Institute energy efficiency standard or even Net Zero energy state [1].  This paper summarizes the results of these studies. To evaluate cost effectiveness of deep energy retrofit (DER) using “core technologies” bundle, compared to typical building renovation based on minimum energy requirements, the paper proposes the use of net present value (NPV) of the difference in energy savings to estimate the budget increase limit. Since most of parameters required for LCC analysis differ not only by the individual country but also within the country (first costs and labor rates, energy rates, life of the project, inflation and discount rates, etc.), the concept of Scalar Ratio [8] is used to calculate limitations in renovation budget increase.

This paper presents the results of computational modeling analysis conducted by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center team of two categories of buildings with relatively low internal loads in 15 U.S. climates using the Net Zero Planner tool. This tool enabled simultaneous simulation of multiple building types and multiple technology bundles of energy efficiency measures in different climate zones. This research supported development of requirements for building envelope characteristics for DER projects. Information presented in the paper along with results of similar studies conducted in Denmark, Estonia, Austria, Germany, China, and UK [2,3,4] for their nation-specific climate conditions have been used to develop general guidelines for technology bundles to be used in DER projects [5].

International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities Program Annex 61 focuses on developing and demonstrating financial and technical concepts for deep energy retrofits of public buildings. A first and important step to define the methodology is to examine the economic aspects of deep energy retrofits in each of the participating countries. Estonia, Germany, Canada, Austria and Denmark have conducted a series of simulations in order to determine the economic conditions in the renovation of a pre- 1980s building. The analysis shows how deep renovation solutions and economic conditions differ from country to country and emphasizes the individual economic challenges of deep energy renovation. The analysis will be used in developing and demonstrating new and alternative funding mechanisms for a deep renovation project. This paper describes results for northern Europe, i.e. Estonia and Denmark.

Within EBC Annex 61: Business and Technical Concepts for Deep Energy Retrofit of Public Buildings are developed to increase pace and quality of DER projects in the public sector. Subtask A targets is to assess accomplished DER projects to define find optimized bundles both from energy efficiency and economical perspective in each of the participating countries. Based on general assumptions defined by the Annex 61 team, modeling studies for different types of buildings and different climate zones have been done. The paper describes the base lining and modeling process, the economic assumptions made for energy prizes, maintenance and other operating costs and consider the investment costs, the cost optimization process and the carbon footprint of the scenarios. The measure bundles resulting from the modeling are described.

This paper introduces a systematic approach to define a lighting replacement strategy that comprises the following: lighting type, location, efficacy, cost and service classification. The paper also presents an actual life-cycle cost example as a decision support tool to evaluate replacement cost effectiveness. Study results highlight the significant role lighting replacement can play to meet target energy consumption and reductions in CO2 emissions. The approach proposed in this paper can be adopted by organizations operating under similar environments that want to showcase their leadership in energy efficiency and environmental compliance.

Climate has a major impact on energy use in buildings, especially in Saudi Arabia. Due to the complexities of the Saudi Building Code, Energy Conservation Requirements (SBC-601) and the lack of a simple building science-based climate zone map for Saudi Arabia, neither builders nor designers have been able to demonstrate code compliance, and neither have the authorities having jurisdiction been able to mandate code enforcement properly.  As a result, 70% of Saudi Arabian homes are today, for example, not insulated, which results in the consumption of nearly 52% of electrical power generated. This study explains the details of how the above-mentioned shortcomings can be addressed through development of a Kingdom-specific climate zone map online tool, which characterizes the SBC 601 minimum prescriptive energy efficiency performance requirements for residential and nonresidential buildings envelopes. The study also highlights the significant role this tool can play in facilitating code compliance and gives examples of the potential energy savings.

ASHRAE 90.1 is an energy standard for buildings except low-rise residential buildings. It provides minimum design and construction requirements for most types of Residential and Commercial buildings and their systems. The objective of this technical paper is to analyze and assess, some of the building envelope values in ASHRAE 90.1 such as wall, roof, and glazing, using building energy modelling simulation techniques for different regions in the Middle East. A comparative analysis is made for thermal conductivity (U) values of walls, roof,  glazing, and solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), based on the results from building energy modelling simulation, to analyse the energy consumption and energy savings potential and obtain optimised values for these parameters relevant to the Middle Eastern region. Also, a comparative analysis is made to examine the performance of building envelope values with Residential and Commercial buildings.

The energy utilization index (EUI) is commonly used to describe a building's energy performance. This index is not without shortcomings, as it does not adequately address issues such as space utilization, occupant density, or irreducible process loads. This paper explores the use of a bottom-up approach for energy benchmarking, both for design optimization and portfolio analysis, utilizing a concept known as energy usage effectiveness (EUE). The EUE metric is based on the ratio of a building's total energy use divided by an adapted calculation of process energy use. Benchmark EUE values will be calculated based on the Department of Energy's Commercial Reference Building's for new construction, existing buildings "post-1980" and existing buildings "pre-1980s." The full range of ASHRAE climate ones will be represented for all of the major building types available. EUE will be compared to calculated EUI, to highlight correlations and divergences in the outcome data. The EUE concept will also be applied to data from a heavily sub-metered high-performance building, as well as public data published in ASHRAE high-performance building case studies. Discussion will include possible ways for ASHRAE Standard 90.1 to be adapted to utilize EUE and further rolled into green construction codes.

The UK has embarked upon an ambitious program to rebuild its aging stock of schools and universities through a combination of refurbishment, upgrade and new build. Whilst the driver has been to transform education for the better, key issues have been to improve IEQ for better productivity and reduce energy costs and carbon emissions. This presentation shows how the HVAC approach has evolved to deliver to ambitious targets and to proactively support education through knowledge having, exemplar construction and student portals into BMS.

This method features an “enclosed demolition space” constructed on top of the building, where all demolition work is carried out. This helps exclude noise propagation and prevents dust from being scattered throughout the city neighborhood. In addition, it can achieve a better work environment. There are trade-off relations among these factors, so it is important to design natural ventilation appropriately. Two demolition projects helped prove the ability to reduce noise levels (by 20dB), prevent the dispersion of dust (by about 80%) and improve the thermal environment (by minus 2 degree in WBGT).

In a large compound tenant building, within which a district heating and cooling system is introduced, we focused on the considerable water transport consumption and reduced it. We investigated the existing facilities and determined the situation. The method used for water transport was changed from direct to indirect method as well as a planned reduction in energy by devising pump selection and control. Moreover, the management company, designers, builders, manufacturers collaborated on a plan and helped reduce the large conveyance energy of 74%.

For this renovation, several energy-conservation measures with adequate effectiveness and proven performance were installed. In addition, when planning this retrofit, we implemented thermal sensation votes and occupant detection devices to control the air-conditioning system based on occupants’ behavior. An expanded BEMS, the purpose of which was to enable interactive communication between occupants and facility managers, was also established to consider the occupants’ lifestyle. Furthermore, a cooling room was installed near an entrance to remove body thermal storage after outdoor activity in summer. Consequently, this renovation achieved 28% energy-conservation.

The concept of a sustainable society and urban regeneration was pursued with three keywords in this project; the global environment, human beings and local connections. Various new environmental technologies were also installed to maximize the reduction in CO2 emissions and improve workplace productivity. The most remarkable feature was the installation of a ceiling radiant air conditioning system of 30,000 sqm which is the largest of its kind in Japan. This building was designed mainly with radiant air-conditioning as part of efforts to achieve net ZEB (Zero-Energy Building) in the near future. On completion, continuous measurement and evaluation have been conducted.

This university campus is the latest urban campus designed on the concept of saving energy and CO2 emission, power load leveling and high-performance disaster-prevention, as a top-class low-carbon campus among science and engineering universities. In this campus, newly developed technologies, proven technologies and experimental trials have all been adopted. At the planning stage, we focused on its specific "usage of facilities" in science and engineering universities, unlike liberal arts colleges and office buildings.

This building is a complex facility of office and training accommodation for a life insurance company. The greatest feature of this building is a massive void (40m×40m), which is located in the center of the floor (100m×100m). Office spaces are arranged around this large void. This building introduces natural light and natural ventilation that utilize a large void. It plans to minimize the skin load while introducing natural light and wind, air-conditioning and ventilation plans to realize a large space office, conducted the air-type radiation panel by the  equivalent temperature control. As a result, we realized 1,185MJ/sqm this year.

This talk reviews the main parameters for double skin façade (DSF) design. It introduces an integrated and iterative modeling process for analyzing the thermal performance of DSF cavities with buoyancy-driven airflow by using an energy simulation program (BESP) with a CFD package. The model and the modeling process were calibrated and validated against the experiment. Correlations were developed that can be implemented in a BESP, allowing to keep the accuracy gained from CFD without the computation time. The correlations are valuable for “back of the envelope” calculation and for examining accuracy of zonal-model-based energy and airflow simulation programs.

Heating and cooling load calculations are presented for a double facade building located in South-East Europe. The analyzed construction of a double façade is the one mostly used in building practice: the outside façade is entirely glazed envelope, the inside façade is a combination of windows and walls. The analysis treated different façade orientations. The calculations were performed using three thermodynamic models: the model developed by authors and two models used in practice. The calculations were performed for different orientations of the facades, during sunny and cloudy days in summer and winter conditions, as well as for different glass properties.

The next generation of windows and glazing technologies for buildings, such as the one presented in this study have potential to reduce energy consumption in office buildings and in the residential sector. The research aims to highlight the interior comfort conditions for an office space equipped with a box double-skin facade placed in Brasov, Romania. Interior comfort conditions are evaluated by analyzing important parameters such as CO2 levels, natural lighting, noise and ventilation. The conclusion is that to overcome the mere role of thermal/noise insulation system, a double skin facade is mandatory to have a BMS, that enables a complex control and efficiency.

When designing the utilities for buildings in cold climate applications, there are important considerations that need to be taken in order to ensure the systems equipment operates efficiently and safely. Issues such as reliability, redundancy, freeze protection, adequate fuel storage, and back up heating systems are just some of the possibilities if a designer is unaware of the concerns. With the experience and knowledge of others described within the cold climate design guide, designers can learn the various strategies used to safeguard equipment against cold climate conditions and allow the equipment to work seamlessly.

HVAC equipment design varies around the world relative to the environment the equipment is located in.  When designing HVAC equipment in cold climate applications, there are important considerations that need to be taken in order to ensure the equipment operates correctly and safely.  Issues such as frozen coils and frosting heat wheels are just a couple of possibilities if a designer is unaware of the concerns. With the experience and knowledge of others described within the cold climate design guide, designers can learn the various strategies used to safeguard equipment against cold climate conditions and allow equipment to work seamlessly.

Building Control systems ensure that HVAC systems operate in a safe and efficient manner while maintaining the required building environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, pressure and ventilation. Each Building control system is custom designed to meet the unique requirements of the building. When designing a control system for a cold climate it is important to consider the effects of the cold on the building, the building occupants and the HVAC equipment and to incorporate appropriate cold climate control strategies in the control system design. Common cold climate design strategies are presented and best practices and lessons learned are discussed.

This presentation will highlight fascinating design challenges unique to the arctic environment as well as provide practical, field proven HVAC system design solutions. Applications include designing for high winds, drifting snow, and extreme cold temperatures.  Though originally designed for cold climates, attendees may find the presented solutions applicable for extreme conditions in other climates as well.

The residential building sector is responsible for about 26% of total energy consumption in the European Union and account for 75% of the total building stock. About 64% of the residential buildings were constructed before the 80s and the widespread adoption of energy efficiency regulations. In the framework of a European research project there is an ongoing multinational effort to develop a conceptual framework for monitoring the effectiveness of energy efficiency measures (EEMs) applied in European residential buildings. The conceptual framework is based on national residential building typologies for single- and multi-family houses. The goal is to derive suitable energy performance indicators that will enable stakeholders on different scales to ensure a high quality of energy refurbishment plans, check compliance with regulations, track and steer the refurbishment processes in a cost-effective way and quantify actual energy savings in order to meet regional or national targets. This paper will provide an overview of these efforts and focus on the results from the Hellenic pilot action within EPICOPE.

Advancements in whole building energy modeling have coincided with the demand for improved building energy performance and have become a useful tool in determining optimal configurations of energy saving measures on the path to net zero building. This study presents a multi-objective optimization environment in which passive energy conservations measures of a high performance house in Toronto are evaluated for life cycle cost and performance. The main objective of the study was to identify economically efficient design solutions that may be used to inform future efficient housing design and housing performance standards.

Recently built residential apartment buildings have faced the issue of increased condensation risk caused by highly insulated and airtight building designs used to decrease building energy consumption. In particular, glazing systems have a high risk of condensation on the inside surface of building envelopes. Especially during cold winters in Korea, condensation in residential buildings damages the interior surfaces, leading to mold or mildew problems and causing discomfort of the building occupants. To eliminate condensation risks and secure the well-being of the occupants, the Korean Design Standard for Preventing Condensation was announced in 2014. Nonetheless, current glazing systems in the market cannot fulfill the strengthened design standards. Therefore, a high-performance glazing system that satisfies the new enhanced standard is needed. A brief comparison between the newly developed Korean Design Standard for Preventing Condensation and other international standards was performed.

During low winter temperatures, electric resistance heat in aggregate can contribute to peak power events for the electric utility. This study examines the concept of using oversized variable capacity heat pumps to eliminate the need for backup electric heat. Field sites in Orlando, FL served as a basis for the investigation. Results of the field study compare the usage of backup electric heat, annual energy consumption, peak power demand, dehumidification performance, and system cost between the variable capacity and baseline, single speed systems.

This study aims to explore the most appropriate sizing option for a variable capacity heat pump at multiple residential applications. Two variable speed heat pump (VSHP) models were used in simulations of houses located in the mixed-humid and cold climates to determine the impact that sizing has on comfort, energy use and peak power.  A single-speed heat pump sized to the cooling load was used as a reference for each home.  Simulation results indicate up to 10% annual energy savings are achievable by sizing VSHPs to the heating load in cold climates, with decreasing savings in warmer climates.

Electricity consumption per capita has been gradually increasing by 8% annually during the past 10 years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One of the main reasons for this above-average growth rate is the utilization of low-efficiency electrical home appliances, which is encouraged by the low initial investment and the artificially low energy prices. In 2013, the residential sector consumed nearly 126 terawatt hours, which represents 49% of the country’s electricity consumption. This paper investigates the potential savings in primary energy that can be achieved by switching residential water heating and cooking appliances from electricity to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

This paper describes a single-circuit hot gas bypass defrost strategy, similar to those used in commercial refrigeration applications, for a residential heat pump. The hot gas bypass strategy does not require a reversal of the cycle, but instead bypasses some hot gas from the compressor discharge line through some or all of the circuits of the evaporator (outdoor unit) coil to remove frost. Similar defrosting strategies are successfully utilized in large-scale refrigeration systems, such as those used in supermarkets, but these methods are not commonly implemented in smaller systems for the residential or light-commercial markets. A prototype system was developed for investigation consisting of a manifold system that allows hot gas to be bypassed from the compressor discharge line through any or all of the five circuits on the outdoor unit coil.

This paper proposes the conditional demand analysis (CDA) methodology, which is relevant in electric energy consumption by main household facilities and suggests important variables that can affect CDA values, accordingly. Although households, particularly apartments, are considered the main primary energy- and electricity-consuming housing type in Korea, efforts on reducing electricity consumption by households are limited. The usage of energy is mainly focused on primary energy. Considering that many attempts have been made to reduce residential energy consumption, disaggregating total electric energy consumption into specific end-use level such as heating, cooling, ventilating, hot-water supply and lighting, is a very useful method. In general, by obtaining information on the energy consumed by each piece of equipment, we can easily determine the total electric energy consumed.

Plumbing noise is a common complaint in residential settings and difficult to correct after construction since remediation often involves tearing out walls, floors and ceilings. Despite the obvious potential for impact between occupancies, plumbing noise is largely ignored by building code and consequently receives limited priority during design and construction. While appropriate solutions are widely available, successful outcomes require coordination between multiple disciplines and trades in order to maintain cost effectiveness without unacceptable risk. This presentation will emphasize the practical side of plumbing noise control and cover key essentials to help design and construction professionals better avoid plumbing noise problems.

The presentation will discuss the modern construction materials and techniques that lead to good sound isolation in multi-family residential developments. Theoretical, lab and real-world tested sound and impact isolation data will be presented for various construction elements and partition configurations. Examples of construction challenges that result in less than optimal sound isolation also will be presented.

This session provides an in-depth look at AHRI 275: Application of Outdoor Unitary Equipment A-Weighted Sound Power Ratings.  This looks at sound propagation from rooftop and ground mounted units, the effectiveness and installation of noise barriers, and issues that arise with wall installations.  This session provides a summary for design-build engineers, contractors, and mechanical engineers that need to do basic radiated sound estimates.

Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) systems, provide a controllable method of ventilating dwellings while delivering energy savings. They are particularly useful for ventilating homes in noisy areas or high-rise buildings where open windows are not workable. However, they can be a source of noise, particularly if they are not located and installed carefully. Drawing on a range of large residential projects, laboratory testing and on-site measurements, this session will present the acoustic advantages and pitfalls with their use, and will give real advice to engineers, architects and contractors on how to specify and configure these systems for quiet operation.

Residential energy codes have rapidly advanced, and many builders offer “Net Zero Energy” or "Zero Energy Ready" homes.  But as homes get more efficient, risks of design and installation defects increase.  Increased insulation can elevate moisture risk inside wall assemblies. Increased air tightness can lead to IAQ problems without proper ventilation.  Lower envelope loads reduces HVAC system air flow and can lead to poor comfort control. Energy efficient homes must also be high performance homes. This presentation will describe innovative solutions for high performance homes and retrofits under U.S. DOE’s Building America program that minimize risks and maximize comfort.

The energy-efficiency levels of new homes built in the U.S. has improved significantly in the past decade with developments in building science and improved construction practices according to the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The improvement in the building thermal envelope and several other factors can cause the house to operate intermittently at a negative pressure.  Natural gas appliances can vent properly at a negative pressure, but some appliances only operate within limits.  This presentation explores the operating limits and provides data on performance from recent laboratory testing of appliances under depressurized conditions.

Part of the energy performance increase in new homes and homes being retrofitted is due to reducing the air leakage through the building envelope. However, a high performance home should still have good indoor air quality and therefore requires ventilation to remove pollutants from individual sources, such as in kitchens and bathrooms, generated by occupants and their activities and from building materials and furnishings. This seminar will discuss how to apply ASHRAE 62.2 in high performance homes and show how to improve upon the basics required in the standard through selection of different ventilation approaches and equipment.

This presentation will begin by eliciting audience feedback about their experience with and impressions of biomass hydronic heating systems. After this, a quick survey of the most common biomass feedstocks and system types will familiarize the audience with those they are likely to encounter. Then we lead in to a discussion of the essential differences between biomass and fossil fuels in terms of performance, especially turn down ratios, ash and moisture content, advances in emissions control, and storage and supply issues.

This presentation will provide a look at some of the most important design issues that come to the fore when implementing a hydronic biomass boiler system. Segueing from fuel supply and storage considerations (the topic of the first part of the workshop), we will proceed to discuss boiler sizing and thermal storage in biomass systems. Advantages of multiple-boiler systems for varying load profiles will also be discussed. When these issues are understood, biomass hydronic systems are at their most efficient and provide an excellent alternative to fossil fuels or other renewable energy sources such as solar thermal for heating purposes.

As more distributed energy resources are installed, the electric grid needs to become more nimble to support and take advantage of these renewable but intermittent sources of energy.  Many smaller loads could be controlled to provide stability to the grid and allow more clean sources of energy to be added to the grid, but the extent to which specific devices can help the grid is not yet known. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Electric Power Research Institute are characterizing the grid services of five connected devices: PV inverter, electric vehicle charging station, community-scale battery, pool pump, and thermostat.  

The use of heat pump water heaters (HPWH) in the residential sector will provide theoretical energy

savings of up to 63% per water heater over a typical electric resistance water heater (ERWH). However,

to a utility, energy-efficient technologies are the most desirable when they provide grid stability and

control benefits through demand-response (DR) capabilities. This presentation will discuss the DR

performance of various HPWHs compared to an ERWH as demonstrated by experiments using the side-

by-side PNNL Lab Homes. Experiments included testing each water heater for two typical

types of DR events: peak curtailments due to oversupply, and balancing reserves.

One of the benefits of the smart grid is the ability to leverage grid-connected, demand-response (DR) ready appliances to help consumers better manage their energy costs and electric utilities better manage their power distribution. This presentation will examine the field performance of DR ready refrigerators, clothes washers, and dishwashers in three blocks of homes over a period of nearly two years, and compare their performance with a series of DR testing conducted in the laboratory prior to their field deployment.

The single-family residential building stock in California is dominated by gas-fired storage water heaters. This is a result of the building energy efficieny code. For decades the water heater energy consumption calculated in the budget compliance tools has made it very hard to justify using an electric resistance water heater. As a result very few electric water heaters have been installed. The compliance tools were written in a way that poorly calculates the hot water load. Furthermore the calculated time of energy use by water heaters does not account for the buffering effect of a storage tank. An important part of the budget calculation uses a time dependent valuation of electrical generation to capture the societal costs of using electricity for every hour of a typical year. This has meant that the actual effects of the time difference between the hot water use and the energy consumption of electric storage water heaters are not being evaluated properly. The combined effect of these oversights has inadvertently effectively blocked the adoption of heat pump water heaters in new construction in California. This presents a major obstacle for reaching the state's net-zero energy and greenhouse gas emission targets. This paper describes the way the building energy efficiency code currently calculates the water heater energy budget. Problems in the calculation procedure are explained. Our knowledge about residential hot water systems has increased greatly in recent years. These research efforts have significantly improved our ability to characterize these systems. Revisions to the building code calculations are suggested based on this increased knowledge. An enhanced hot water load calculator has recently been adopted by RESNET. Detailed field studies over the past several years of residential hot water draw patterns provide a source for more realistic draw schedules to use in the calculations. An open source water heat simulation model developed for utility incentive programs in the Northwest could be adapted to calculate the amount and timing of energy use. The role of demand response controls to reduce the impact of electric heat pump water heaters on the grid are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to study the energy impact of operating a HPWH in the basement of an R-2000 equivalent house, i.e. the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (CCHT) twin house test facility, located in Ottawa Canada. We included four key parameters in the study: Did the operation of the HPWH have any adverse impacts on the basement air temperature? Was the HPWH operating more efficiently than the baseline water heaters? What if any were the impacts on energy consumption during the heating and cooling seasons and were there energy cost savings during the Heating and Cooling Seasons?

In the effort to achieve net-zero operation of residential buildings, advanced water heating technologies are vitally important.  Solar thermal is the most cost and energy efficient, renewable energy alternative for water heating, but the use of electric resistance as the backup to solar thermal may no longer be the most suitable option. This paper explores the year-long performance of a 189 liter (50 gallon) heat pump water heater (HPWH) serving as an auxiliary unit to an active indirect solar thermal water heater with a 303 liter (80 gallon) storage tank in a net-zero energy test home at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg campus.

Approximately half of water heaters sold in the U.S. and Canada for residential applications are natural gas fired storage water heaters, and for these products the maximum steady state thermal efficiency of available products is approximately 96%, with transient rated efficiencies much lower.  To move beyond the thermal efficiency limits of standard condensing-efficiency residential gas water heating equipment, this paper describes an effort to develop an economic gas-fired ammonia-water absorption heat pump deployed as a packaged storage water heater.

This talk discusses major findings from three in-depth residential occupant studies that were conducted over the past two years. The objective of the studies was to shed light on the complexities of occupant behavior by performing long-term monitoring with interviews and surveys. The first study looked at the effect of billing schemes on occupant control of indoor temperature. The second study examined window shade use and found patterns are significantly different than in office buildings, but that occupants seldom move their shades. The third study examined the comfort and purchase decisions of modern, highly-glazed apartment buildings.

In rural China, household heating using solid fuel significantly contributes to both indoor and regional emissions of pollutants such as carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter (PM_2.5). This study presents the first results from an intervention study currently conducted in Beijing suburb, China. The purpose of this particular effort is to quantify the effectiveness of using a split-type, low-temperature air source heat pump as an alternative way of clean heating in rural households. Several “representative” occupant control modes were summarized, all based on residents’ own use pattern without much instruction.

Improving energy efficiency behaviors requires the consideration of technology improvement and human factors. While a growing number of recent studies have focused on the importance of environmental behaviors, little attention has been paid to a comprehensive set of social-psychological factors associated with occupants’ energy conservation and demand response behaviors.  Moreover, appliances and facilities are often shared among coworkers, which inhibit the development of a sense of individual responsibility. Gaining a deeper understanding of the social-psychological factors influencing energy efficiency behaviors in both public or residential buildings is especially relevant for policy and academic conversations about mitigating global climate change.

Previous research studies show that occupancy behavior accounts for about 30% of the variance in overall heating consumption and 50% in cooling consumption in residential buildings. Overall energy savings of 10–20% due to simple behavioral adjustments are a reasonable expectation. Unfortunately, there are few studies have focused on the specific case of behavior in low-income housing, where unique individual energy behavior, demographic and socio-economic factors come into play. This presentation investigates occupancy behavioral energy usage in low-income families through real-time measurement.  The behavioral aspects are presented in terms of thermostat schedules, occupancy presence and major appliance usage.

A net-zero energy (NZE) residential test facility is used to evaluate options for achieving NZE performance on a home similar in size, aesthetics, and amenities to those in the surrounding communities while meeting the average electricity and water use needs of a family of four.  The facility incorporates renewable energy and energy efficient technologies, including a heat recovery ventilator sized to meet ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2010 ventilation requirements, because ventilation is a significant portion of the energy requirement in a NZE home.  This presentation will discuss the operation of the HRV and its impact on the indoor air quality and energy use.

Net zero energy (NZE) homes require additional investments in improving energy efficiency and adding rooftop PV.  It can be challenging to determine the most cost effective way to reach NZE because it depends on climate, energy costs and relative costs of energy efficiency and PV technology options. BEopt software can be used to evaluate residential building designs, identifying cost-optimal performance packages at various levels of whole-house energy savings. This presentation will provide a brief overview of BEopt capabilities along with several case studies of NZE homes designed and built using information from BEopt.

As net zero energy (NZE) construction gains momentum, so does the number of stakeholders who believe electrification is the best way to achieve NZE performance.  However, natural gas provides a clean, affordable and domestic energy option for NZE homes that is often overlooked when stakeholders think only in terms of site energy performance.  This presentation will focus on California’s ambitious NZE goals, describe how NZE is calculated in California, and showcase the societal benefits of including high efficiency natural gas direct use as a viable alternative to electric technology options for NZE homes in California.

This presentation covers the performance characteristics of unitary air-condiditoning equipment as specified by the proposed Standard 205.

This presentation provides an overview of the SPC 205 Annex for Water-Cooled Chillers with examples on how it could be used.

What other codes and standards can be used or evaluated to help in medical facility construction and specification? Several case studies will be presented with examples of surveying the landscape of other codes and standards to determine what should really apply and then creating unique solutions for the medical field.

The speaker will help session attendees understand the code barriers that can prevent the application of new technologies in medical construction, as well as the approaches that can be used to prove a new technology for inclusion in a code or standard.

The long-awaited ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188-2015 was published June 26, 2015. Just a few weeks later, the world witnessed and followed as one of the largest outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease occurred in New York City and was unfolded in the media—with 100 cases and 10 deaths reported as of August 7, 2015. What is in ASHRAE Standard 188 that could have helped prevent this outbreak and do so for future outbreaks? There are many steps described within Standard 188 that require specific knowledge to determine how, where and what controls can be implemented to control and prevent the hazardous conditions of Legionella from persisting within building water systems. A presentation and tour of 188 is provided and discussed as to what important and pertinent information is found in Standard 188 and where users can find this information. Following the minimum Legionellosis risk management requirements for building water systems established in Standard 188 will go a long way in preventing Legionnaires’ disease and does provide the first U.S standard to address such.

While following the risk management path outlined in Standard 188 will go a long way in preventing Legionnaires’ disease, users are alerted to the fact that essential information for successful prevention will not be found in Standard 188.

The challenges for the European countries to implement nearly zero-energy buildings and achieving minimum shares of renewable energy are tremendous. There are various indications raising concerns regarding the reliability of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) declarations and the quality of the works. Achieving a significant improvement requires strong commitment from authorities and other major players, as well as sufficiently broad societal support. QUALICHeCK responds to these challenges by: identifying issues in respect to existing procedures; highlighting best practices for easy access to reliable EPC input data, delivery of improved quality of the works, as well as more effective compliance frameworks (“lead people to do what they declare”); and raising awareness and engaging relevant stakeholders. The focus of the activities is mainly (but not limited) on 9 countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Romania, Spain and Sweden and four technology areas: transmission characteristics, ventilation and airtightness, sustainable summer comfort technologies and renewables in multi-energy systems. Particular attention is given to stimulation of innovation. The presentation presents the available outcomes, including the draft version of the source book on compliance. Interactive voting with the participants is used to increase the dynamics of the workshop.

The presentation presents findings of various European studies dealing with the status on the ground regarding compliance with energy performance legislation, e.g.: What level of agreement in France is there between ventilation specifications in the legislation and observations on site for new residential ventilation systems? Declared transmission characteristics versus the reality for new buildings in Cyprus. Declared conformity with overheating requirement versus correct assessment results in Estonia. Impact of calculation choices on the declared energy performances for Spain. Real versus calculated energy use in Sweden. Interactive voting with the participants is used to increase the dynamics of the workshop.

The UK has had a number of serious Legionella outbreaks over the past five years. After a major inquiry that managed to identify the causes, a guide was written and a program of information dissemination ensued. Unfortunately there have been further outbreaks and further guidance. The Health and Safety Executive has now published HSG 274, the Approved Code of Practice - ACOPS - which is the most definitive document and is a UK legal requirement. This presentation will describe the approach and the detail which this guide goes into to ensure high levels of protection.

Legionnaire’s disease is again a topic of great interest to IAQ practitioners as the incidence of this disease worldwide is on the rise. Public Works and Government Services Canada has issued a guidance document , MD 15161, on the design, operation and maintenance of building water systems in order to prevent the growth of Legionella bacteria. This presentation will focus on the inspection of building water systems, the evaluation of their associated risks and the creation of a Legionella bacteria control management plan (LBCMP) for any given building.

While the risk management approach and water management program outlined in ASHRAE Standard 188-2015 will go a long way in preventing Legionnaires’ disease, there are many common mistakes and misconceptions that can subvert a successful program. The basic principles underlying the key elements of Standard 188 will be reviewed as well as the common assumptions and measurement errors that can lead to missed opportunities to implement effective controls. Case studies will be presented that exemplify both successful and failed programs.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) published a guideline for the “Recognition, Evaluation, and Control of Legionella Hazards in Building Water Systems” in June 2015. This guidance updates and expands upon information previously used to conduct environmental source assessments for Legionella during outbreak investigations. It also provides a framework for competent professionals to establish a proactive assessment strategy of hazard assessment and longitudinal monitoring of building water systems. The intent is that they use it to develop evaluation and assessment strategies for Legionella and shift to a proactive approach that may reduce the impact this disease has on public health.

Until recently, residential buildings lagged in green certification because the cost-benefit analysis is different than for office buildings.  ANSI approval of the National Green Building Standard (NGBS) opened the door to cost-effective, credible, marketable green certification for homes and apartments. The green housing market is poised to double from what it was in 2013—going from $37 billion (27% of market) to $90 billion (up to 33% of market) by 2016. This presentation will describe the NGBS and the NGBS Green certification program, as well as emerging green building trends with the development of the 2015 NGBS sponsored by ICC/ASHRAE/NAHB.

ASHRAE has been a leader in the green and sustainable buildings, developing a variety of “better-than-code” standards, historically focused on commercial building performance.   As part of its increased commitment to residential building performance initiatives, ASHRAE partnered with ICC and NAHB in the revision to the 2012 Residential Green Building Standard.  Drawing from experience with 189.1 and a number of building performance topics, ASHRAE delegates participated in development and deliberations on hundreds of proposed changes to ICC 700.  This presentation will report on how the next edition of ICC 700 aligns with ASHRAE’s mission, technical rigor and professional standards requirements.

The National Green Building Standard is unique among sustainable building standards in that it has a pre-qualification process for materials and products that contribute towards points within the standard.  The benefit of pre-qualification for builders is that it streamlines the writing specifications and verification of compliance with the standard.   The benefit for a manufacturer is demonstration of product benefits.  This presentation will describe the pre-qualification process and the technical data needed for validation.

In order to increase the impact of Standard 189.1, the IgCC and LEED, an MOU was signed in 2014 by AIA, ASHRAE, ICC, IES and USGBC to align these three efforts. Since then, these organizations have been working to implement the MOU. At the same time, the Standard 189.1 committee has been revising the 2014 standard to reflect new technical information, including the consideration of approaches used in the IgCC that are different from those in 189.1. This presentation will clarify what these organizations have agreed to and how the 189.1 committee is working to support that agreement.

Standard 189.1 energy performance compliance requirements include energy cost performance and CO₂ emissions compared to a baseline building using energy modeling rules and other underlying assumptions.  This approach was intended to account for the economic interests of the owner as well as the environmental impact of the proposed building while being sensitive to local conditions and building characteristics.  This presentation will review the underlying assumptions, key variables and metrics, and rationale for selection of performance requirements that differ from those in the 2015 version of IgCC.

The IgCC Sustainable Building Technology Committee concluded that the needs of the environment, the jurisdictions adopting the IgCC, building owners and design teams would be best served by a methodology for calculating building energy use that, as closely as possible, reflected the actual energy use of the building and the emissions resulting from that energy use. This presentation will discuss the process and rationale that led IgCC to adopt the zEPI scalar as the energy efficiency compliance metric and calculate source energy and regional emissions based on the EPA e-GRID database of power generation environmental characteristics.

Healthcare facilities managers are already required under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Conditions of Participation to identify and manage all facilities related risks to patients and staff.  Many facilities have already adopted an “all hazards” approach that uses an interdisciplinary team to identify and categorize risks from a probability and severity perspective, and to manage those risks deemed most critical through appropriate mitigation strategies.  Development of a risk matrix and a mitigation prioritization strategy will be discussed.  Additionally, resource requirements and the methodology to demonstrate compliance to activities having jurisdiction will be described.

Infection prevention programs provide internal expertise to assist in preventing the spread of infection within health care facilities among patients, staff and visitors.  Examples of Legionella outbreaks associated with health care will be provided to illustrate potential risk factors within these settings.  To provide a broader perspective beyond Legionella on causative pathogens for health care associated infections (HAIs), the current incidence of HAIs in the U.S. will be described.  An illustration of how the risk assessment process and water management plan outlined in Standard 188 may assist health care organizations in prospectively preventing infection occurrence also will be discussed.

It is a common misconception that the expertise of the industrial hygienist (IH) on a water management team is solely to collect environmental data. The education, training and experience of the IH places him/her in a unique position to contribute to the design of the risk assessment process and sampling plans, and assist in the identification, implementation, and evaluation of control measures. The presenter will provide a review of considerations for all phases of the risk assessment process including design, implementation, interpretation, and control. “Lessons learned” will be presented using examples from water risk assessments in actual healthcare settings.

The U.S., joined by Canada and Mexico, have offered proposals to revise the Montreal Protocol to include a phase down of HFC refrigerants. It is believed that such an amendment would allow the orderly reduction of high GWP materials which are potentially negatively impacting climate change. In addition, Australia has implemented a GWP control mechanism that has since been rescinded. We will discuss and compare these two concepts.

In response to the U.S. EPA SNAP “De-listing” rule and in support of the North American Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has released a proposed rule to gradually reduce HFC use in Canada over the next 20 years, and to disallow the use of specific HFCs for some applications that are important to the HVAC&R industry on a shorter term schedule.  This presentation will provide a summary of the proposed rule, examine the implications to certain product sectors and to the availability of refrigerants in the market place, and make comparisons to other HFC reduction schemes.

The Japanese government is taking a bottom up approach to reduce HFC consumption in Japan that is opposite of the EU approach. This presentation will explain the merit of this approach. In addition, it introduces how Japanese HVAC&R related academia and industries are cooperating to respond to the new regulations. In Japan, implementation of lower GWP HFCs already started in mass production base from smaller products. The total sales of products with A2L refrigerants exceeded 5 million. The presentation will also include projected HFC consumption reduction impacts.

ASHRAE as well as other professional organizations have been working with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to revise CSA448 such that it will be a viable standard in the United States as well as Canada.  The revised standard will be entitled, “Design and Installation of Ground Source Heat Pump Systems for Commercial and Residential Buildings.” This presentation will provide an overview of the standard and will discuss the benefits to ASHRAE members on both sides of the border.

Standards are written by a group of knowledgeable individuals from industry, academia, or other similar sources.   Standards are adopted under ridged rules set forth by ANSI or other nationally recognized certifying body.  Eventually standards find their way into code formulated by independent code authorities. These codes are adopted by the regulatory authorities. We, as engineers, must design to both the standards and the code.  What happens if standards and code conflict?  What is the general impact of this conflict?  What do we, as engineers, need to do?  How do we change or modify the code?

In every major American city, buildings account for the majority of energy use and air pollution – even more than the transportation or industrial sectors. If cities want to be more competitive and more resilient against unexpected energy and economic challenges, they must find ways to boost the efficiency of their building stock. This presentation will unveil the investments that Orlando is making to optimize our use of natural resources, an overview of City Energy Project initiatives, and share what the City of Orlando is working on to become a national leader in energy efficiency for new and existing buildings.

In every major American city, buildings account for the majority of energy use and air pollution – even more than the transportation or industrial sectors. If cities want to be more competitive and more resilient against unexpected energy and economic challenges, they must find ways to boost the efficiency of their building stock. This presentation will unveil the investments that Orlando is making to optimize our use of natural resources, an overview of City Energy Project initiatives, and share what the City of Orlando is working on to become a national leader in energy efficiency for new and existing buildings.

Demand-controlled kitchen ventilation (DCKV) had gained traction and market adoption within the world of commercial foodservice, stimulated by recent changes to Standard 90.1 and Title 24. Similarly, energy management systems (EMS) have secured renewed interest by major restaurant chains in North America. While both systems derive savings from the HVAC piece of the “energy pie”, they compete for a piece of the capital budget. At this stage in product offerings, there has been little integration of the two technologies. Based on three field studies, this presentation discusses the benefits of combining the two technologies within one platform.

This seminar will discuss the present and future roles that Demand Controlled Kitchen Ventilation (DCKV) systems play as a viable energy efficiency measure in food service facilities. It will be presented within the framework of Standard 90.1, California’s Title 24, the IMC and UMC.