Accuracy of automated measurement and verification (M&V) techniques for energy savings in commercial buildings

This paper investigates energy savings and economic aspects related to the use of microturbine generators in commercial buildings either for cogeneration electricity+heat or for trigeneration (electricity, heat and cold). In all calculations, reference is made to a 25kWel-class commercial microturbine generator (MTG), tested by the authors. Various plant schemes are considered, based on one or several MTG sets. The possibility of generating heat and/or cold also by an electrically driven inverse-cycle air-to-water heat pump/chiller system is also considered. Calculations are based on the simulation code TRIGEN developed by the authors. The code provides detailed energy, economic and emission yearly balances. The plant operating mode is optimized in each time interval. The results indicate that, due to large load variations, (i) the optimum turbine nominal output is in the range of about 70% of the electric peak demand, (ii) energy savings are marginal, (iii) advantages related to splitting the overall capacity on more than one unit are marginal, and (iv) the addition of an absorption machine improves the plant economics.

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Advancement of behavioral energy interventions in commercial buildings

Facilities ◽

10.1108/f-04-2016-0044 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 35 (5/6) ◽

pp. 367-382 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Heta Karoliina Kosonen ◽

Amy Ahim Kim

Keyword(s):

Energy Savings ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Commercial Buildings ◽

Future Research ◽

Content Type ◽

Long Term Effect ◽

Screening Protocol ◽

Structured Analysis ◽

Comparative Feedback

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify opportunities, barriers and guidelines for future research in behavioral energy interventions in commercial buildings. Design/methodology/approach The study methodology includes a three-step screening protocol with a collection of prior publications, clustering of related studies and results and analysis of the findings of the prior studies. Findings The review showed that commercial energy interventions were generally successful at impacting occupant energy consumption. Most energy savings were obtained by applying comparative feedback and energy competition strategies, but the lack of long-term effect measurements prevents drawing conclusions regarding their long-term effectiveness. The authors suggest that future studies should explore the impacts that occupant characteristics, environment and community and intervention implementation have on the success of the energy intervention, and integrate these findings into the intervention design. In addition, the authors call for more discussion on the feasibility issues that researchers, policymakers and educators face when implementing these energy interventions to streamline sustainability efforts in the future. Originality/value Research on assessing the effectiveness of occupant behavior interventions has increased considerably over the past decade. This review includes a structured analysis of prior studies of behavioral energy interventions in commercial buildings and encompasses studies conducted between 2005 and 2015. The review is unique in that it focuses on comparing empirical studies that quantified measured energy savings.

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Automated Measurement and Verification and Innovative Occupancy Detection Technologies

10.2172/1366445 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Phillip Price ◽

Nordman Bruce ◽

Mary Ann Piette ◽

Rich Brown ◽

Janie Page ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Automated Measurement ◽

Measurement And Verification ◽

Occupancy Detection ◽

Detection Technologies

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Energy Savings Measurement and Verification Toolkit Guide: Version 2.96

10.21236/ada432043 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

Noah C. Zych ◽

Matthew G. Pennell ◽

David M. Underwood

Keyword(s):

Energy Savings ◽

Measurement And Verification

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A review on sensing-based strategies of interior lighting control system and their performance in commercial buildings

Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ◽

10.11591/ijeecs.v16.i1.pp208-215 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 208 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Khairul Rijal Wagiman ◽

Mohd Noor Abdullah ◽

Mohammad Yusri Hassan ◽

Nur Hanis Mohammad Radzi

Keyword(s):

Energy Savings ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Electrical Energy ◽

Commercial Buildings ◽

Current Sensing ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Lighting Control ◽

Lighting Energy ◽

Building Characteristics

<p>Artificial lighting consumed significant amount of electrical energy in commercial buildings. Therefore, intelligent control strategies are widely implemented to reduce the lighting energy consumption. This paper presents comprehensive review of the current sensing-based strategies (i.e. occupancy, daylight and mixed), sensors placement methods (i.e. occupancy and light) and factors affecting the performance of the lighting control strategies. Based on literature survey, the sensors placement methods can be categorized into three approaches: fixed, mathematical equation and optimization. The state-of-the-art of these approaches are discusses in details. It found that, the optimization-based approach capable to find the optimal sensor placement (numbers and positions) effectively. Moreover, the mixed strategy can be produced the highest energy savings up to 95% compared with other strategies. The occupancy pattern and building characteristics are the main factors to contribute higher energy savings of sensing-based strategies in commercial buildings. </p>

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Energy Savings Results from Small Commercial Building Retrofits in the US

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14196207 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (19) ◽

pp. 6207

Author(s):

Rachael Sherman ◽

Hariharan Naganathan ◽

Kristen Parrish

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

System Approach ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Commercial Buildings ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Single System ◽

Commercial Building ◽

Decision Criteria ◽

Economic Market ◽

Efficiency Measures

Small commercial buildings, or those comprising less than 50,000 square feet of floor area, represent 94% of U.S commercial buildings by count and consume approximately 8% of the nation’s primary energy; as such, they represent a largely unexploited opportunity for energy savings. Small commercial buildings also represent a large economic market—the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) estimated the small commercial retrofit market at USD 35.6 billion. Despite the prominence of small commercial buildings and the economic opportunity for energy retrofits, many energy efficiency programs focus on large commercial buildings, and create efficiency solutions that do not meet the needs of the small commercial market. This paper presents an analysis of 34 small commercial case study projects that implemented energy efficiency retrofits. This paper contributes to the existing building retrofit body of knowledge in the following ways: (1) it identifies the decision criteria used by small commercial building stakeholders that decided to complete an energy retrofit; (2) it identifies the most commonly implemented efficiency measures in small commercial buildings, and discusses why this is the case; and (3) it provides empirical evidence about the efficacy of installing single energy efficiency measures (EEMs) compared to packages of EEMs in small commercial buildings by reporting verified energy savings. To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to catalog decision criteria and energy savings for the existing small commercial buildings market, and this research illustrates that small commercial building decision-makers seem most motivated to retrofit their spaces by energy cost savings and operational concerns. Furthermore, small commercial building decision-makers opted to implement single-system retrofits in fifteen (15) of the thirty-four cases studied. Finally, this research documents the improved savings, in the small commercial buildings market, associated with a more integrated package of EEMs compared to a single-system approach, achieving approximately 10% energy savings for a single-system approach and more than 20% energy savings for integrated approaches. These savings translate to CO2 savings of 1,324,000 kgCO2/year to 2,647,000 kgCO2/year, respectively, assuming small commercial buildings are retrofit at a rate of 0.95% of the stock annually.

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