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Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
This page in the original is blank.
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

ENERGY USE IN BUILDINGS IN UPPER SILESIA

Jan Uruski, Dariusz Choinski, Andrzej Kozak, Andrzej Mika

Voivodship Office of Katowice

Katowice, Poland

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the general situation regarding the management of energy in the building sector of Upper Silesia in southwestern Poland. We present the structure of the heat supply system and suggest ways to solve the problem of its optimization, paying special attention to the modernization and automatic control of district heating systems in metropolitan areas. The implementation of these solutions can achieve short-term results, at rather low capital investment. However, at present no program of efficient energy management in the building sector exists in our region. Local authorities and other organizations active in the energy branch do not have sufficient financial means to develop such a program. This paper stresses the urgent need for financial and technical aid in achieving efficient energy management in the building industry.

1. THE STRUCTURE OF HOUSING HEATING DEMANDS
District heating system

Upper Silesia is a region with highly concentrated mining (mainly hard coal) and metallurgical industries. The region, with an area of 27,000 square kilometers and population of 3.5 million, includes 42 cities where some 40% of houses and blocks of flats are heated by district heating plants. Heat distribution networks are very extensive and are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2.

Table 1. District Heating System in Upper Silesia

Number of cities

42

Number of heated flats

520,000

Total heated area

25.7 million square meters.

Total heated volume

169 million cubic meters

Total heating power

6217 megawatts

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

Table 2. Heat distribution network

Total length

1433 km

Including high parameter

500 km

Large heat exchange station

1903

Thermal centers

4889

The heating power is provided from

  • 15 state-owned thermal-electric power plants (total power 2923 MW)

  • 43 heat plants run by industrial enterprises (total power 1135 MW)

  • 510 heat plants (total power 2159 MW)

Individually heated homes

The total volume of flats heated by means of coal furnaces and other individual heat sources in the Upper Silesia Region is estimated to be 253.5 million m3 The flats are located in old (usually 50-80 years old and sometimes more) multistory buildings, usually situated in central city areas or in single family houses. These buildings can not be easily adapted for district heating.

Problems with the existing structure

Upper Silesian heating systems were created under the communist economic system and thus reflect all the faults of the system, including:

  • monopolistic heating structures (single-source heating networks covering whole cities),

  • subsidized fuel and thermal energy prices,

  • consumer charges on the basis of heated area and no metering of actual energy used, and

  • extensive enlargement of the network without use of thermostatic control units.

These conditions inevitably imply

  • wasting of thermal energy,

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
  • excessive fuel consumption at thermal power stations that have no equipment for removal of sulfur from the flue gases, creating catastrophic environmental conditions in Poland and beyond its borders,

  • poor technical conditions for creating energy savings,

  • energy charges independent from actual consumption, and

  • non-optimal parameters of heat distribution system, leading to additional losses.

In the entire heating system, there is practically no instrumentation. The network owners control over the network's performance is limited, and the consumer has no means of saving energy. This system, without controls, in which every consumer pays for the heated area instead of the energy consumed, does not promote energy saving and even encourages wastefulness.

2. RESTRUCTURING THE MANAGEMENT OF CENTRAL DISTRICT HEATING SYSTEMS.
Development prospects

To make the introduction of modern management systems for energy production and distribution possible, two conditions must be satisfied:

  • a thermal energy balance sheet must be established, and

  • optimal control of the heat distribution must be provided.

The task will be achieved by means of complex automation of the heating network. We propose the following policies:

  • The consumer shall pay for the energy really used.

  • The consumer is provided with the technical means to save energy, such as thermostatic control.

  • The control of performance and effectiveness of the heat supplying network is provided from a single decision center.

  • Technical means are provided for heat distribution with minimum losses.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

A program for implementing these policies called the Master Plan for Complex Modernization and Automation of the Heat Distribution Network has been developed by Hydro-Eco-Invest Ltd. for a selected Silesian city with 100,000 inhabitants. The project proposal includes determination of number and types of necessary equipment, scheduling, and cost estimation. The work is divided into two stages. First, every heat consumer in the city will be provided with a thermal energy meter, and controls will be installed for individual heating cycles for specific buildings, such as schools, kindergartens, shops, offices, etc. The control functions can be accomplished by constructing a telemetric network incorporating all the devices in the system and controlled from a dispatching center. The second stage will include installing automatic control units, regulating the temperature of the heated medium and circulating warm water parameters, and minimizing thermal energy production and heat distribution costs.

The information provided by the instrumentation installed at the first stage will provide the data for an actual energy balance sheet for the city, being a starting point for:

  • determination of maximum required heating plant capacity, and

  • modernization of the city network so that the necessary thermal throughput values may be achieved.

Modernization of heat production and distribution technology (fluidized furnace heaters, preinsulated pipes, plate heat exchangers, etc.) requires much time and will involve high costs. For this reason, the schedule for these works should be prepared with particular care and should be based on the information derived from the instrumentation installed in the first stage.

Choice of equipment manufacturers

A detailed analysis of software and hardware suppliers has been performed taking into account Polish technical, economic, and social considerations. The primary criteria for selection are:

  • the variety and amount of production of equipment for heating systems automation,

  • the degree to which technical solutions represent the state of the art,

  • design and manufacturing capabilities available in Poland,

  • experience in working with large control systems of power distribution networks,

  • quality of installation and maintenance services rendered in Poland, and

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
  • potential for cooperation with Polish manufacturers of elements and units of automatic control systems.

Investment outlay

Automation of the heating network of the sample 100,000-inhabitant city would involve an estimated expenditure for imported equipment of about $2 million (US) which is about 80 % of the total expenditure. The cost of the first stage of the project includes:

  • equipment costs (in foreign currencies): 1,800,000 DM, and

  • design and construction costs: 2,000 million Zloty,

which totals $1,200,000 (US).

The cost of the second stage is estimated at $1,300,000 (US). The equipment for this stage should be leased. Savings created by implementing automatic control systems will generate funds to pay the leasing installments, although, according to Polish regulations, a 20% prepayment is required, which may make such arrangements more difficult. Nevertheless, it seems to us that the leveraged lease is a good solution for this type of investment. Leveraged leases offer the lessee advantages of depreciation as well as interest deductions.

3. MODIFICATIONS TO BUILDINGS WITH INDIVIDUAL HEAT SOURCES

We estimate the total thermal power required in Upper Silesia by dwellings that are heated by individual coal furnaces and manually fed stoves is 6338 MW, corresponding to 2.5 million tons of coal and coke burned annually. The combustion of coal at this rate creates dangerous environmental problems, particularly air pollution in the forms of carbon and sulfur oxides that exceed allowable limits by several hundred percent.

In typical buildings, the heat losses consist of the following components:

  • through walls: 30 %

  • through doorways and window openings: 43 %

  • through floors and roofs: 27 %.

Wall insulation improvement is difficult to perform due to architectural details. Therefore, the insulation of the remaining elements is of major interest. An extensive project is necessary, concerning

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
  • window standardization and replacement by heat-tight models,

  • widespread installation of roller blinds, and

  • additional roof, floor, and ceiling insulation (in old buildings the floors are usually wooden with no heat insulation provided).

The power system does not have sufficient capacity for widespread electric heating. However, in some cases such as old buildings, particularly in historic city centers, replacement of individual coal heaters with electric heating units having thermal storage capacity may be the best solution. Modernization of existing coal-fired heating systems and limitation of their numbers is also possible. We suggest the following:

  • the design of typical central heating installations for single or several buildings, since stoves and installations for this power range are the most effective with respect to unit power rate;

  • design studies of furnaces for carbon-derived fuels that minimize environmental pollution;

  • studies of the natural gas distribution system and the feasibility of widespread use of natural gas for building heating;

  • the design of typical automated central heating systems for single-family houses, improving the heating system efficiency; and

  • the analysis of waste-heat utilization systems.

The modernization of heating systems in flats heated by individual heat sources is costly mainly because of the greatly distributed investments required. We estimate the following costs (per 1 square meter of heated area):

  • modernization of individual heat sources, $5/m2

  • additional building insulation, $2/m2.

The total estimated cost is $570 million (US), including imported devices and technology costs of $400 million (US).

4. CONCLUSIONS
  • Upper Silesia is in a state of ecological disaster, so projects to improve the environment must be started immediately and proceed at a rapid pace.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
  • Immediate actions leading to energy savings involve decreasing the manufacturing costs of energy-saving equipment and creating new jobs, the latter being particularly important because of the unemployment being created in Upper Silesia by restructuring in the mining and metallurgical industries.

  • The financial support of the United States and other countries (to cover part of the equipment costs) is of particular significance.

  • According to our analysis, and assuming increasing fuel and energy prices, the economic return on even partial realization of the proposed projects can make subsequent projects self financing. The funds necessary to begin modernization of the central district heating system amount to some 16 % of the total project expenditures, $400,000 (US) for a city having 100,000 inhabitants.

  • Accounting for the profits generated by the investments, self financing, and potential leasing, the funds required to begin restructuring the residential heating systems with individual heat sources, covering mainly design and research expenses, is $4,000,000 (US).

  • The estimated funds required to begin similar projects over the whole area of Upper Silesia are about $19,000,000 (US).

  • Technical studies should be undertaken allowing better determination of real demand for heat energy and the associated expenditures.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
This page in the original is blank.
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

ENERGY CONSERVATION AND END-USE RESEARCH IN BUILDINGS

Leslie K. Norford

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, Massachusetts USA

1. INTRODUCTION

Improved energy efficiency in the United States has saved enormous financial and fuel resources since the sharp increases in oil prices in the early 1970s. A report to the U.S. Working Group on Global Energy Efficiency states that end-use efficiency improvements have displaced the equivalent of more than 14 million barrels of oil per day, worth about $150 billion per year (Levine et al 1991). The keystone of this successful effort has been a growing realization of the benefits that can accrue from isolating individual services and then analyzing required material and energy inputs. Ongoing studies continue to identify enhanced end-use efficiencies that can save fuel at a fraction of the cost of supply. Further incentive for the end-use efficiency approach comes from steadily increasing knowledge of the environmental damage, both local and global, that is associated with profligate consumption of energy.

This paper describes three areas of end-use energy efficiency research that the author and colleagues are conducting: improved operation of building ventilation systems; strategies for reducing the energy consumption of office electronics; and a significantly different approach to indoor illumination. A review of this work serves not only to inform new-found colleagues in Poland, but also to encourage future collaboration and focus the efforts of nascent energy-efficiency industries.

2. ELECTRICITY SAVINGS THROUGH IMPROVED CONTROL OF VENTILATION FANS

Improved control of ventilation systems can provide enhanced service, often in the form of thermal comfort or health of building occupants; reduced energy consumption of ventilation system fans; or both. Work at MIT and earlier studies at Princeton University have focused on reduced energy use with no impact on delivered airflows. Both the analyses and the control strategies can be applied to water pumping systems as well as air systems, particularly when centrifugal fans and pumps are the prime movers. The ensuing description of ventilation system research is intended, therefore, to identify energy conservation opportunities for both air and water systems, applied to either industrial processes or the thermal conditioning of buildings.

Shown in Figure 1 is a ventilation system in which airflow varies from a minimum appropriate for periods of low thermal load to a maximum value required to cool the building under peak thermal loads. At issue is how the airflow is controlled. In individual thermal

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

zones, a thermostat varies the position of a damper that throttles a stream of air. Typically, air pressure is maintained at a constant value at some point upstream in the supply duct by one of two methods: a central damper located at the fan or, in recent years, an adjustable-speed drive connected to the fan motor. With dampers at both the individual zones and at the fan, there is a modest reduction in fan electrical power as airflow is reduced. Performance is improved by locating the central damper at the fan inlet, where the swirl imparted to the air stream can reduce the mechanical power required of the fan blades. Throttling devices necessarily produce pressure drops that cause mechanical energy to be dissipated, a major inefficiency in flow systems that can be significantly reduced by removing the central damper and regulating duct pressure by adjusting the speed of the fan motor.

Annual energy savings for motor-speed control relative to use of central dampers located at the fan inlet have been measured by Englander and Norford (1992) and by Lorenzetti and Norford (1992) for six fans. The savings vary from 12 to 66% and depend strongly on the part-load airflow requirements: a system running continually at full flow will yield no savings, because the inefficient dampers are wide open. The lowest savings were associated with a system that had not been properly commissioned and was serving a number of unoccupied offices in which the dampers were improperly set at the fully open position. For the fans that return air from occupied spaces to the mechanical room, as shown in Figure 1, savings were larger, 69%. Enhanced savings stem from the absence of pressure control for return fans. For the last two pairs of supply and return fans shown in Table 1, Larson and Nilsson (1990) calculated the cost of saved energy, assuming a 15-year lifetime, as $.034/kWh for a 6% discount rate appropriate for electric utilities, and as $.071/kWh for a 20% discount rate more typical of building owners or industry.

Table 1. Energy savings due to replacing dampers at ventilation fans with adjustable-speed drives.

Fan

Adjustable Speed

Inlet Dampers

Savings

Savings

 

MWh/yr

MWh/yr

MWh/yr

percent

Supply 1

18.1

46.5

28.4

61

Supply 2

28.5

83.6

55.1

66

Supply 3

33.1

92.7

59.7

64

Supply 4

52.3

100.1

47.9

48

Supply 5

52.0

94.3

42.3

45

Supply 6

104.4

118.5

14.1

12

Supply Total

288.4

535.9

247.5

46

Return 1

2.1

12.4

10.3

83

Return 2

5.9

17.8

11.9

67

Return 3

7.8

25.9

18.1

70

Return 4

5.8

31.0

25.2

81

Return 5

11.6

35.8

24.1

67

Return 6

16.1

36.6

20.5

56

Return Total

49.3

159.5

110.1

69

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

Adjustable-speed motor drives are an increasingly common and important part of demand reduction and energy conservation programs sponsored by U.S. electric utilities. The motor drives employ solid state switching devices capable of precisely controlling large electrical currents. They have been applied to chilled and hot water pumping systems in buildings, municipal water supply systems, boiler feedwater pumps, and forced and induced draft fans used to move air through boiler combustion chambers (PEAC 1987). The breadth of application and the maturation of the industry over the last decade suggest that this technology be considered for use in air or water flow systems in Poland. Consideration should be based on a screening process that factors in the costs, availability, and maintainability of the technology as well as careful review of the specific application, estimation of energy savings, and post-installation measurements.

The electrical power drawn by a fan or pump motor is the power transferred to the working fluid, scaled upward by the efficiency of the pump or fan to yield shaft power, and further increased by the efficiencies of the drive train and the motor. Power depends on flow rate and the pressure rise across the fan or pump required to offset system pressure losses at this flow rate. Expressed graphically, the pressure-flow relationship can be considered as a path of system performance in a pressure-flow plot, on which can be superposed information about shaft power. The key point here is that system performance is strongly influenced by the manner in which the fan or pump is controlled. The controlled system variable may be pressure, flow, or fluid level. At the fan or pump, three pressure-flow combinations are possible: variable-pressure, variable-flow; variable-pressure, constant flow; and constant pressure, variable flow, as noted in a study of pumping applications in the petroleum and chemical industries (Armintor and Connors 1987). Control may be achieved with throttling valves or dampers, diverting valves regulating flow to bypass loops, or adjustable-speed drives. Building ventilation systems and most common applications are of the variable-pressure, variable flow type, but even within this category the system performance curve depends on pressure required under no-flow conditions, which is governed by static head in a water system and, for systems controlling pressure, the location of the pressure sensor and magnitude of the set point. Figure 2 depicts a typical system performance curve for a ventilation fan, with no-flow pressure reflecting the pressure-control set point.

Annual electrical energy can be calculated as a convolution of power, expressed as a function of flow rate, and the annual distribution of flows. Absent knowledge of both flow requirements and system performance, pilot projects that include installation of monitoring equipment and analysis of data can provide credible, application-specific savings information.

Swapping a flow-control damper for an adjustable-speed drive improves the part-load performance of the fan but leaves intact the multitude of smaller dampers, each associated with an individual thermal zone in the building. Underlying the control of fan speed to maintain pressure at a selected location in the duct is the necessity to provide adequate airflow at all times to all end users. Flow is inadequate when an end-use damper opens fully but space temperature exceeds the set point. To preserve thermal comfort under peak thermal loads, the pressure set point is usually selected to be conservatively high. Under lower loads the dampers throttle back, dissipating energy that enters the ventilation system as electricity supplied to the

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

fan motor. Reducing the pressure set point to the value at which one or more dampers return to a fully open position, a form of supervisory control, minimizes the unwanted dissipation. In general, enhanced supervisory control demands information about end-use processes. In this specific case, pressure reset requires knowledge from each end user, either damper position or a measure of actual and desired airflow; this information can be obtained from recently introduced digitally controlled dampers.

Presently, a paucity of experimental evidence is available to quantify the benefits of what is increasingly recognized as an attractive control strategy. Data taken in two campus office and laboratory buildings show that, relative to fixed pressure control of a ventilation system using adjustable-speed motor drives, savings were about 40% over a three-month winter period. Savings are expected to be somewhat smaller during warm weather, when required pressures increase, but warm-weather data have not yet been taken. Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the benefit of pressure-reset control for a single fan.

Two points need to be made about the cost of the digital-control technology. First, the information needed for pressure-reset control is not free. The technique makes more sense financially when applied during the construction of a building or during a major upgrade of an existing ventilation system from constant-volume to variable-volume operation, rather than as a replacement of existing pneumatic controls. Second, a cost-benefit analysis should account for additional uses of information a digital system can provide. Temperatures in individual spaces in the building can be monitored and adjusted centrally with a digital system, a boon to those charged with maintenance. For the system considered in this paper, the flexibility and ease of operating digital controls tilted the decision in an era when pneumatically controlled dampers have not yet disappeared from the market.

The benefits of pressure-reset control apply to any flow system in which the prime mover regulates pressure at a header that in turn serves a number of independent end users, but implementation is feasible only when information from the end users is both possible and practical to obtain. For example, municipal water systems are pressure controlled, but it is not reasonable to adjust pressures such that in one or more houses a faucet would need to be opened fully to provide the desired flow rate. Hot-water and chilled-water pumping systems, within or among buildings and in industry, provide a better opportunity when the number of end users and their proximity to the controller is such that electronic communication is affordable. Greenberg and Blumstein describe a building heating system based on a hot-water circulating loop and note that reducing system pressure based on end-use valve position would offer savings beyond that achieved by applying an adjustable-speed drive to the fixed-pressure control system. The system and control issues are identical to those described for building ventilation.

As a final word on this topic, the application of pressure-reset control to pumping systems requires that valves be able to function in a manner similar to digitally-controlled dampers in ventilation systems. That is, a valve must be married to a microprocessor. This newly acquired intelligence must not only communicate to a pressure-reset controller but also adjust the valve in response to pressure changes, making the delivered flow independent of the

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

pressure. Such smart valves are under development but not yet on the market. There appears to be an opportunity for industry in Poland to match or leapfrog competitors in other countries by developing intelligent actuators for appropriate applications.

3. MONITORING ENERGY SAVINGS

Electricity generators are subject to constant and detailed monitoring to ensure proper equipment performance and measure output. Energy conservation technologies, collectively considered as a conservation power plant, similarly deserve some level of observation. This is important when energy-savings expectations are precisely established for proven technologies, and even more important when expectations are uncertain or, stated another way, when opportunities exist for doing the job better than initially expected. Monitoring conserved energy in sufficient detail to compare with expectation is a task made difficult by the diversity and number of applications and by confounding influences on energy usage. The technology and the strategies of energy monitoring deserve and have received extensive attention in recent years.

Energy monitoring efforts require their own technology that should be tuned to the information needs of the project and the technical and manpower resources of those responsible for the work. While recent improvements in sensors, data storage hardware and data analysis software offer increased functionality, maintainability takes precedence once a minimal level of performance has been achieved. Two technologies can be distinguished:

  1. Monitoring equipment that requires an in-situ source of electrical power, periodic data transfer to a microcomputer connected directly or via telephone line and modem, and a level of effort devoted to installation and programming commensurate with the equipment's ability to record data from a number of sensors of various types. Designed specifically for acquisition of data from buildings and available from several manufacturers, this equipment today is far more reliable and powerful than models of just a few years ago.

  2. Data loggers limited to one or two sensors but as small as a cigarette pack, powered for several years by a single lithium battery, and capable of storing months of data. Data are transferred by connecting the logger to a microcomputer, either in the field or office. Data loggers of this type were used as temperature recorders in a recently reported study of energy use in a Swiss multifamily apartment building (Lachal 1992).

Of more concern than the choice of monitoring equipment is a monitoring strategy that maximizes the information content of the collected data. Unlike such on-off devices as the typical light fixture, adjustable-speed motor drives draw a varying amount of electrical power. Even fixed-speed motors subject to variable torque will draw varying power. A measure of annual electricity savings due to retrofit of an adjustable-speed drive might, at first consideration, require a year of data before and after equipment installation. This is often an onerous requirement due to the cost of gathering and analyzing the information, and it is desirable to consider alternatives. Englander and Norford (1992) correlated fan power with

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

airflow for both inlet damper and adjustable-speed drive control and convoluted these correlations with a single year of airflow data to establish the savings. By normalizing fan performance to a single period of airflow data, this approach improved the validity of the savings estimate as well as shortening the data period. However, it is difficult and expensive to install flow sensors and sensor placement can strongly bias the data. A less cumbersome power correlation, quicker and cheaper but subject to more uncertainty, relates power to outside temperature in those applications where flow is driven by thermal loads related to weather. The beauty of this procedure is found in easy access to long-term average weather data. Correlations can be established by measuring power in one or more periods of widely varying outside temperature, with no more than six months required for each mode of fan control. The convolution with temperature yields long-term average energy use, without the difficult flow measurement. Because flow can be influenced by variables other than outside temperature, the correlation of power with temperature has been found by Lorenzetti and Norford (1992) to require a piecewise-linear model that includes constant electrical power at low temperatures, corresponding to a fixed minimum airflow, and electrical powers linearly proportional to higher temperatures. Even with this additional degree of freedom, the correlation is statistically weaker than with flow. This technique is a component-level version of the piecewise-linear correlation of whole-building energy use with outside temperature pioneered by Fels (1986). It is interesting to note that a whole-building variant of the linear correlation procedure has been applied by Lachal (1992) to determine both building-shell conductivity and solar aperture.

4. OFFICE ELECTRONICS—DOING IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME

Computers, printers, copiers, and other office electronics are demanding an increasingly large share of the electric power supplied to buildings. While reported data are fragmentary, there is some evidence in the U.S. that a reasonable market saturation will be one computer “screen ” (either personal computer or terminal) per white-collar worker (Norford et al 1990). Equipment lifetime is difficult to estimate, but it might be reasonable, absent data, to assign a five-year period to most equipment, allowing for upgrades. While such lifetimes place less weight on purchase decisions than would be the case for heating systems or building insulation, they still argue for prudence in purchasing decisions and some consideration of electrical power requirements. Power drawn by any one piece of equipment is relatively trivial; in aggregate, power needs can tax building electrical wiring, overheat confined spaces, and stress electric utility generation and transmission capabilities. Equipment purchase decisions must also account for more typical concerns of computing or image processing performance and price; these decisions involve nearly staggering choice, the outcome of the size of the market and harsh competition.

It is a bad bargain if low energy consumption constrains equipment performance or reduces user productivity. At an electricity price of $0.10/kWh, a 150 W personal computer used for 2000 hours per year will annually require only $30 of electricity. Machines left in continuous operation, necessarily (networked in some way and ready for communications at any time, as with a fax) or not, will demand about $130 each year. These figures are

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

inconsequential relative to labor costs, a measure of productivity, but the range is such that improved power management, with minimal or even no power needs when the machine is not in active use, could yield a large percentage savings. Power management ranges from simply turning off unused machines manually to hardware and software that automate the process, even to the point of reducing power consumption between keystrokes.

Automated power management is presently a feature of portable computers designed to operate for several hours from a battery. These machines also incorporate lower power components, particularly the visual display. They use a small fraction of the power of typical desktop computers, as shown in Figure 5. Similar ranges in power requirements characterize printers, as Figure 5 suggests and Norford et al (1990) and Lovins and Heede (1991) report in detail. The latter reference notes that there is substantial variation in power for copiers using the standard xerographic process.

Smart purchase decisions involve, at the very least, an effort to obtain power data, either from manufacturers or independent sources. Because such data are usually unreported in published equipment reviews, an informal, recently formed international coalition of electric utilities, government agencies, and energy conservation experts has established a goal to identify energy-efficiency features and publicize equipment incorporating these features as a first step toward creating market pull for efficient products. The coalition further aims to work with industry to establish test procedures capable of providing data for energy-consumption labels.1

Portable computers use low-power components as well as power management. Current desktop machines in many cases offer more computing capability and use more memory, larger data storage devices, and energy-intensive cathode-ray tube displays. There is significant variation in electricity demand among computers with comparable computing power. Beyond wise choices among current products, however, there is a need to shape product lines by energy-efficiency tests and publicity and by carefully crafted purchase specifications for large orders. For example, desktop computers today lack power management features because they are not designed to operate from batteries; nevertheless, it might be argued that power management is more important than for laptops precisely because they are more energy intensive. Start-up or established computer manufacturers alike rely on components fabricated by others, and their selections can be influenced by demand for energy efficiency as well as the already perceived benefits of lower thermal stress within the computer and simplified product line, with similar components in use in both desktop and laptop machines. Choices facing computer manufacturers are particularly important in countries seeking to establish indigenous industry.

1  

This group welcomes inquiries and participation, and can be contacted through the author.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
5. LIGHTING DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

Lamps are primarily heat sources. Even relatively efficient fluorescent lamps may convert only 8 of 34 Watts to light, with the remainder lost as heat. Ballast energy is completely dissipated as heat. Heat may usefully warm buildings in cold weather, but is wasted in warm months. As internal loads increase in buildings, the heating season shrinks and heat from lights is an undesirable waste of energy and source of thermal discomfort over longer portions of a year.

Certainly replacement of incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps ranks highly as a strategy for improving lighting efficiency. A more radical step to keep heat out of occupied space, shown in Figure 6, involves placing large, highly efficient gas-discharge lamps in central locations within buildings, separating the visible output from radiated heat via selectively coated optics, and then distributing the light to building occupants via prismatic light guides or optical fibers. This step alone is important and appears, on the basis of very preliminary investigations, to be cost effective in buildings with a substantial need for mechanical cooling. However, the benefit will shrink for buildings located in cool climates or capable of being cooled most or all of the year with natural or induced ventilation. In these cases, a centralized illumination system offers the opportunity to concentrate the radiated heat removed from the lamps and heat a working fluid, probably water. Throughout the year, a portion of the heat could satisfy needs for domestic hot water. In cooler weather, hot water could warm the building perimeter, effectively transferring unneeded heat associated with lamps in the core of a building to areas where heat is required. For buildings with substantial cooling loads, the heat removed from the lamps could even be directed to absorption chillers. Work at MIT has, to date, focused on the required optics and will next include a detailed thermal analysis of how the waste heat could effectively be matched to building needs.

6. CONCLUSION

World wide growth in economic output and population demands increased energy supply or increased efficiency in providing required services. Enhanced efficiency can often be achieved at a lower cost, as measured by direct charges and potential environmental damage that has yet to be internalized in fuel prices. This paper has described three areas of end-use energy research that are directed toward achieving energy savings at costs lower than supply. Enhanced control of ventilation systems can be achieved in two steps, involving adjustable-speed motor drives and careful adjustment of duct pressure. Technology now exists for both steps. Low-energy features of portable computers have yet to appear in the more common desktop equipment, but heightened interest on the part of manufacturers, purchasers, electric utilities concerned about growing demand, and regulators responsible for energy labels is creating a powerful force for change. Centralized lighting systems, an undeveloped and unproved technology, appear to have the potential to deliver light more effectively than traditional systems and are poised to compete with efforts to improve the efficiency of widely used fluorescent lamps. While emerging methods for delivering energy conservation rather

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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than increased energy supply must prove their mettle in the marketplace, the flow of new ideas, their potential, and the need for efficiency all continue unabated.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

REFERENCES

Armintor, J. K. and Connors, D. P. 1987. “Pumping Applications in the Petroleum and Chemical Industries.” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 1A-23, No. 1.

Englander, S. L. 1990. Ventilation Control for Energy Conservation: Digitally Controlled Terminal Boxes and Variable Speed Drives. M.S. thesis, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; also PU/CEES Report 248, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Princeton University.

Englander, S. L. and Norford, L. K. 1992. “Saving Fan Energy in VAV Systems, Part 1: Analysis of a Variable Speed Drive Retrofit.” ASHRAE Transactions, Vol. 98, Pt 1.

Fels, M. F. 1986. “PRISM: An Introduction.” Energy and Buildings, Vol. 9, Nos. 1 &2.

Lachal, B, Weber, W. U. and Guisan, O. “Simplified Methods for the Thermal Analysis of Multifamily and Administrative Buildings.” ASHRAE Transactions, Vol. 98, Pt. 1.

Larson, E. D. and Nilsson, L. J. 990. “Electricity Use and Efficiency in Pumping and Air-Handling Systems. ” Draft Report. Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.

Levine, M. D., Gadgil, A., Meyers, S., Sathaye, J., Stafurik, J., and Wilbanks, T. 1991. “Energy Efficiency, Developing Nations, and Eastern Europe.” A Report to the U.S. Working Group on Global Energy Efficiency.

Lorenzetti, D. M. and Norford, L. K. 1992. “Measured Energy Consumption of Variable-Air-Volume Fans Under Inlet-Vane and Variable-Speed-Drive Control.” To be published in ASHRAE Transactions, Vol. 98, Pt. 2.

Lovins, A. B and Heede, H. R. 1990. Electricity-Saving Office Equipment. Competitek Report. Rocky Mountain Institute.

Norford, L. , Hatcher, A., Harris, J., Roturier, J. and Yu, O. 1990. “Electricity Use in Information Technologies.” Annual Review of Energy 15:423-453.

Power Electronics Application Center. 1987. “Directory of Adjustable Speed Drives, Second Edition.” Electric Power Research Institute.

Trane Company. 1984. FANMOD Computer Program. Software Bulletin PL-AH-FAN-000-SFB-4-1284. LaCrosse, WI.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

Figure 1. Schematic of variable-air-volume ventilation system, from Englander (1990). At the end of each branch of the supply-air duct is a damper that regulates airflow according to a signal from a thermostat. The large supply fan maintains air pressure at a location upstream of the branch point to ensure that the dampers do not reach the fully open position. (In practice, for a more complicated duct layout, a single pressure control point is typically located at a distance away from the supply fan of about two-thirds the length of the longest duct.) Fan energy consumption is reduced by controlling the supply and return fans with an adjustable-speed motor drive in lieu of a large damper and carefully controlling the pressure set point to reduce pressure drops across the dampers associated with individual thermostats.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

Figure 2. Pressure-flow relationship for a ventilation fan, from Trane (1984). Fan static pressures can be converted to Pascal with a factor of 250 and flows to meters3/sec with a factor of 0.47. Fan shaft power for a given airflow depends strongly on the static pressure set point, here shown as 1 inch water gauge pressure (250 Pascal).

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

Figure 3. Pressure variation under pressure-reset control. The range of pressures under which required airflows could be delivered are shown as hourly “box and whisker” plots for a single fan. Boxes indicate median and quartile values; the difference between the two quartiles, scaled by factors of 1.5 and 3.0, defines inner and outer fences. Vertical bars show minimum and maximum data points within the inner fences, while stars show data points between the inner and outer fences. Fixed pressure control must regulate pressure at the maximum value shown at hour 14, to ensure adequate airflow. At times when a lower pressure was adequate, controlling at the higher value causes energy to be unnecessarily dissipated across partially closed dampers.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

Figure 4. Electrical power for fixed-pressure and variable-pressure control. Data are averaged over a three-month period, during which the system was switched between fixed-pressure and variable-pressure control. Power data for variable-pressure control correspond to the same period as the pressure data shown in Figure 3. The substantial savings in electricity add to savings due to installing an adjustable-speed motor drive on the fan motor and in fact are only possible when the motor-drive has replaced large central dampers and when digital controls permit communication between the fan controller and the dampers that throttle airflow to individual building areas.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

Figure 5. Electric power requirements of computers and printers, from Norford et al (1990).

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

Figure 6. Schematic of centralized light generation and heat removal system.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

THE ACT2 PROJECT: DEMONSTRATION OF MAXIMUM ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN REAL BUILDINGS

Merwin Brown, Project Director

Research and Development

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

San Ramon, California, USA

1. INTRODUCTION

In 1990, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) established a project to determine whether the use of emerging energy-efficient end-use technologies would economically achieve substantial energy savings, perhaps as high as 75%. The Advanced Customer Technology Test (ACT2) for Maximum Energy Efficiency project is a research program of field experiments designed to test scientifically the hypothesis, proposed by many energy-efficiency advocates and environmentalists, that substantial energy-efficiency improvements can be achieved in buildings and other facilities at costs competitive with those of acquiring new electricity generating supply. The strategy being used in the ACT2 project is to demonstrate the maximum energy savings economically achievable by designing and installing optimized, integrated packages of energy-saving measures in a cross section of residential and commercial buildings, as well as in industrial and agricultural sites, in PG &E's service territory. The ultimate objective of the project is energy efficiency, i.e., “doing more with less energy,” rather than energy conservation, i.e., “freezing in the dark.”

2. PROJECT RATIONALE
Background

PG&E is one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the United States, with 1990 revenues exceeding $9 billion. We serve an area of 94,000 mi2(244,000 km2 in central and northern California. In 1990, peak electric demand was near 20,000 MW, which was met with 15,000 MW of company-owned generation composed of hydroelectric, geothermal, nuclear, and natural gas-fired steam generation. The balance of load was met by purchases from non-utility generators, including significant wind and some solar photovoltaic generation, and from other utilities in the region.

The ACT2 project is one of many ways in which PG&E is pursuing a cleaner, healthier environment as it strives to meet our customers' needs. We have concluded that sound environmental policy and sound business practice go together. A major focus of our environmental policy is improving customer energy efficiency (CEE). CEE decreases the need

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

for energy production, thereby reducing impacts on the environment while deferring the cost of acquiring new generating resources. PG &E is relying primarily on energy efficiency with some load management as the cheapest and cleanest way to meet 2500 MW of the 3400 MW needed by the year 2000. Furthermore, the state agency regulating the electricity rates now allows California utilities to earn on investments in CEE through a shared savings incentive program. Consequently, PG&E is aggressively pursuing such investments; up to $2 billion will be spent on CEE over the next 10 years. By 2010, we project that we will have 3900 MW of CEE “capacity”. Ultimately, this strategy will benefit utility customers through relatively lower utility bills (perhaps higher rates, but lower consumption) and improved environmental quality.

Currently, to achieve our energy efficiency objectives, we mainly rely on relatively simple, single energy-efficiency measures (EEMs). Some time about the mid-to-late 1990s, we will likely have to turn to the more complex approach of using integrated packages of energy-saving technologies to achieve additional energy-efficiency levels consistent with our goals. ACT2 will help to achieve these goals by determining the technological potential for energy efficiency and exploring how it can be achieved and measured.

The ACT2 project and other energy-efficiency research projects reflect growing concerns in the United States about the environment, dependence on imported oil, and global competition. New energy-saving technologies, like high-efficiency lighting, adjustable-speed-drive motors, and selective coatings on glazing, have led experts to project that substantial energy savings, perhaps as high as 75%, can be achieved at economic costs. These savings will be realized by using the most modern technologies, fully characterizing their performance, including all opportunities for savings no matter how small, and taking advantage of synergistic effects.

Projections of energy savings of this magnitude have been verified only in part, usually based on individual EEM performance. Scientifically defensible field tests of packages of these advanced technologies, integrated for maximum energy efficiency, have not yet been conducted. The ACT2 project proposes to conduct these tests and measure the effects of component interactions on energy performance, life-cycle economics, and customer/end-user acceptance.

Project Benefits

First and foremost, the project will provide a scientific characterization of the cost-effective maximum technical potential for utility customer energy efficiency. Other major benefits include

  • providing demonstrations of modern energy-saving technologies operating successfully at customer sites to help utility customers to adopt these environmentally beneficial technologies;

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
  • identifying and developing design approaches for optimum integrated technology packages, as well as measurement and evaluation techniques, that can maximize end-use energy savings at costs competitive with new electricity generation;

  • providing hands-on learning about what to do and what not to do for design, installation, commissioning, and operation of new energy-saving technologies;

  • revealing unforeseen benefits, like improved productivity, and problems, like deterioration of power quality; and

  • providing guidance and direction for future energy-efficiency research and development (R&D).

3. PROJECT APPROACH
Planning and Organization

One of PG&E's environmental policies is to work with environmental groups to improve our CEE programs. We invited leading U.S. experts on environment and energy efficiency to serve as a steering committee for the ACT 2 project. The committee's role is to guide the design and execution of the project to ensure valid results acceptable to the scientific and environmental communities. The committee is composed of representatives of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rocky Mountain Institute, and PG&E. PG&E's R&D department is the project manager for this multi-year effort, providing $10 million for the initial three-year period. An additional $9 million for future years is pending regulatory approval and co-funding is being pursued.

The ACT2 mission is to provide scientific field test information on the maximum energy savings possible, at or below projected competitive costs, by using modern high-efficiency end-use technologies in integrated packages acceptable to the customer. The strategy is to demonstrate these packages in selected customer facilities, both existing and new. Each package will be optimized to maximize the energy savings subject to the constraints that the cost be less than or equal to the avoided utility costs of supply and delivery, and that it not detract from the health, productivity, etc., of the customer/user. So that the costs of energy efficiency and supply can be compared, the cost of the “negawatt-hour,” i.e., the KWh saved, is determined by treating the investment in the energy-saving package as if it were a power plant investment. Furthermore, since many of the candidate EEMs are just entering the market and are still relatively expensive, we are using “mature market ” cost projections to more accurately represent the costs that will be experienced in the late 1990s.

We chose a learn-by-doing approach for developing the project plan, energy-efficient design methods, and measurement and monitoring techniques. Overall project planning was

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

performed concurrently with a pilot demonstration so that the planning would be responsive to lessons learned in the pilot demonstration. A pilot demonstration approach was selected because of the great risk of failure, given the high level of funding ($10 million), the high visibility of the project, and the potential negative impact of mistakes on future CEE efforts. Furthermore, host customers might be adversely affected by big mistakes, such as designs that cannot be properly installed or equipment that does not operate correctly. A pilot demonstration allows us to put technologies in the field early under tightly controlled conditions, thereby improving the likelihood that follow-on demonstrations would be properly designed, installed, operated, maintained, and monitored.

Pilot Demonstration Building

The pilot demonstration began in 1990 in an existing office building in San Ramon, California. The site is a 22,000-ft2 (2,050-m2) portion of the leased two-story Sunset Building occupied in part by PG&E's R&D department. The annual energy use in the test portion of the building was estimated to be 480,000 KWh and 15,000 therms (1582 GJ).

The Sunset Building was chosen because it is typical of many low-rise office buildings in California and because the ACT2 project team is housed in the building. This proximity allows the team to experience firsthand the daily problems and successes of installing the new technologies.

Detailed metering of the building's pre-demonstration energy consumption at the end-use level began in June 1990. Data are being collected in 30-minute intervals for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, plug loads, and major office equipment. The building load profile is consistent with air conditioning loads dominated by internal heat gains. Other ongoing or one-time baseline measurements include indoor temperature; indoor air quality; relative humidity; lighting quality, including lighting level, glare, and flicker; power quality, including power factor and harmonics; noise level and spectrum; local weather, including temperature, humidity, and solar data; and surveys of both number of occupants and their comfort.

The Design Challenge

To develop the approach to the pilot demonstration, the ACT2 team discussed many options with designers and researchers from around the world. We decided to have a design competition because it provided a way of comparing different approaches to design and gave the competitors an incentive to be innovative.

Of 70 firms invited to participate, 11 responded. From these, we selected five firms and asked each to prepare a conceptual design for maximum energy efficiency. Each firm was paid a fixed amount for the work, so that we would own the designs and each firm would be more willing to discuss their ideas with the others. The design firms first participated in a

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

technology briefing to ensure that they all had up-to-date information on the latest near-commercial, energy-efficient technologies. The briefing covered HVAC design, high-efficiency lighting products and design, windows and daylighting, and high-efficiency office equipment.

The firms were also provided with plans of the physical layout as well as constraints imposed by the existing structure and the building owner, followed by a walk-through of the Sunset Building. A baseline simulation model calibrated to the end-use metered data was also given to the design teams for information. The simulation results were from the DOE-2.1D building energy simulation program. The design firms then had 8 weeks during which to create their conceptual designs.

In January 1991, a panel of experts in building energy efficiency was convened to decide the outcome of the design competition. Panel members included a chief HVAC designer in a large West Coast firm, a design engineer with a large public building organization, a university professor of building technology, a building researcher from a national laboratory, and the building architect and mechanical engineer representing the owner of the Sunset Building. In a verbal presentation, each design firm described how, why, and what its team had done. The other design firms and the ACT2 project team also participated. The design teams also documented their process and conceptual designs in written reports. After reviewing the approaches of each firm and their proposed design concept, the panel recommended one team to design the retrofit of the pilot demonstration building. Because the other designs had interesting and unique features, it also recommended that the other firms be used as consultants for the final design activities.

Overall, predicted energy savings ranged from 65% to 85%. The winning firm reviewed all five design concepts to create a final design based on the best of the concepts and approaches presented. The final level of investment in the pilot demonstration installations has not yet been decided; consequently, the products and systems actually installed may turn out to be a subset of measures proposed in the final design. The final package of energy technologies is currently being selected.

4. DEMONSTRATION RESULTS TO DATE

The design challenge component of the pilot demonstration resulted in several important lessons. Some are applicable to other energy-efficiency efforts:

  • Designs for large energy savings are achievable using utility economics. Four of the five firms created designs that saved more than 70% of the gas and electric energy consumption in the building.

  • The design process varied somewhat across firms, and their different approaches yielded large energy savings. No specific design process is necessary to create a building design that maximizes energy savings.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
  • No single firm had all the good ideas; each learned something from the others' designs. The best ideas came from the experience and creativity of the designers.

  • The issue of technology reliability is important for designers; they are unwilling to incorporate new products into their building designs until those products have been demonstrated to be reliable. Sizing equipment to exactly meet the load and to take advantage of synergism can also be unacceptable to building owners. Equipment sizing needs to be flexible for future unknown tenant uses and needs. Correct HVAC sizing may not make sense, even with utility economics, if all the equipment must be replaced each time a new tenant moves in. Such planned replacement may be neither reasonable nor acceptable to owners of commercial property.

  • The use of utility economics opens an entire new world of technological options for saving energy, and designers need help in identifying and sorting through those options.

For the ACT2 project, we found that good design firms could, if the design criteria and constraints were carefully defined, produce an energy-efficient design that maximizes energy savings. However, at the outset, designers must begin their investigations with a list of technologies that may fit the economic criteria. In addition, the baseline building energy simulation must be documented very carefully—many of the available models are inherently limited in dealing with innovative design solutions.

There is no single correct way to maximize energy efficiency; it takes creativity, innovation, and skill. Nevertheless, as shown in the pilot demonstration, it can be done—at least on paper.

5. FUTURE PLANS FOR ACT2

In November 1991, retrofit construction will begin on the Sunset Building. Because the demonstration space is occupied, construction will be carried out in two phases. Overall construction is expected to take approximately four months. At the same time, detailed energy end-use monitoring will continue so that ACT2 will have both pre- and post-installation information on actual energy performance of the building.

In the near term, the ACT2 team is recruiting other existing and proposed new buildings as potential demonstration sites. The first phase demonstrations will ultimately involve approximately a dozen sites, the ultimate number depending on the actual cost of each demonstration, with emphasis on residential and commercial buildings. Data will be collected for two to three years to enable ongoing impact evaluations. This phase of the project will be completed by about the end of 1996.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×

We are currently considering whether to expand the project to another ten to twenty sites in a second phase to provide a better cross section of site types. To that end, 35 site types from more than a hundred in the residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial sectors have been identified and prioritized. The second phase demonstrations would start in 1993 and continue through 1998.

Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
×
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Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 137
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 138
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 139
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 140
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 141
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 142
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 143
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 144
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 145
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 146
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 147
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 148
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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Page 149
Suggested Citation:"PART IV: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS." National Research Council. 1994. Poland's Transition to a Market Economy: Prospects for Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9155.
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