Environmental System Science November 18, 2009 Identifying Energy Conservation Measures. Tailoring Retro-commissioning to meet your needs

- What is an Energy Conservation Measure (ECM) - Developing your Scope of Work for a Retro-commissioning - Energy Audits – the basics - When to use an audit or a retrocommissioning - How to achieve your desired outcome. Overview

What is an energy conservation measure? A defined action you can take that will reduce the energy use in a building, examples: –Using the BMS to put in schedules for major equipment and lighting. –Installing a variable frequency drive (VFD) on electrical motors. –Testing, Adjusting and Balancing (TAB) if equipment found to be performing out of current specifications.

ECM: improve BMS in order to increase ability to schedule equipment. Est cost: $500,000 Est utility savings: $187,000/ year Simple Payback: 2.67 years Example of findings from RCx

1. Heating and cooling systems 2. Air handling/air distribution systems 3. Hydronics distribution systems 4. Ventilation and exhaust systems 5. Automatic temperature controls integrated with the MEP Systems 6. Coordination and functionality with the Building Management Controls System 7. Domestic Hot Water Heaters and distribution. 8. Switchgear 9. Electrical distribution 10. Lighting *You may chose to not put all these systems in the scope of work. You can tailor this process to the results you want. What will an RCxA look at?

Be specific about your deliverables. Be specific about what you already know – SOPs, current drawings, etc. Make sure their submission matches your SOW and expectations. Beware of the additional costs- are you expecting your consultant to make re-design recommendations, provide energy models? If you are not specific in your SOW of work you are likely to get a proposal based on the standard commissioning process, which probably won’t give you the results you want. Your RCx Scope of Work (SOW)?

Level I – one day walk through, quick review of energy bills, find low hanging fruit. Level II – walk through and system performance testing, also takes into account the people factor and maintenance procedures. Results in a list of ECMs for the owner and identifies capital projects that require a Level III audit. Level III – looks in detail, including possible risks, at any capital project being considered for energy efficiency or conservation reasons. Results in an intensive engineering and economic analysis of the project/. Energy Audits

Things to consider: - cost - complexity of the building - desired outcomes: low hanging fruit versus more complex solutions. If you want to bring the whole building back into operating specs and identify all building systems issues, including total range of ECMS, go for the RCx. If you want to quickly identify easily implemented ECMs only or want to assess a proposed capital project, go for the appropriate level of audit. Audit or Retro-comminsioning?

Getting the results you want? Prepare Research Question React

Questions and Discussion!