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JGB Luther
JGB Luther
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ABSTRACT
This paper identifies the dilemma faced by the stakeholders of existing buildings in
regards to a decision making process for energy retrofitting. This paper also identifies
the missing stage viewed as the “integrity audit “which can lead to substantial savings
in the area of building operation. The methodology is centered on identifying energy
waste first, reducing the overall peak electrical demand and then retrofitting for
energy-efficiency. A proposed “integrity audit” leads to the classification of three main
energy culprits: the identification of waste, missed opportunities, and rescheduling the
operation of equipment use. A case study indicating the financial advantages of
applying this methodology for a commercial building are presented. The energy
retrofitting strategy is divided into two main categories, namely building control
improvements and building component implementation. The payback periods are
often within months if not immediate.
KEYWORDS
energy retrofitting, energy auditing, energy diagnostics, building performance,
sub-metering, payback period
1 INTRODUCTION:
THE GLOBAL PICTURE ON ENERGY USE, CO2 AND BUILDINGS
The building sector has exhibited great potential for reducing CO2 emissions (IPCC, 2007). It
has been stated globally, that buildings account for up to 40% of our energy end use (WBCSD,
2009). It is estimated that about 27% of building sector emissions come from offices alone
(AGO, 1999). With the exponentially increasing forecast of CO2 emissions: 2.3 Gt in 2004,
8.6 Gt in 2007, to an estimated 15.6 Gt in 2030 (Levine et al., 2007; Urge-Vorsatz et al.,
2007), it is interesting to consider the methodologies and pathways towards mitigating this
CO2 increase in our buildings.
The McKinsey report (2008) indicates that the building sector could contribute to a
reduction of 49 MtCO2 emissions by 2020 and 60 MtCO2 by 2030. This implies a saving
of $125 and $130 per tonne of CO2 reduction respectively, generating a substantial financial
benefit to the economy over the life-cycle of the abatement. Furthermore, a carbon tax and
energy mandates in Australia have left building owners in immediate need of solutions requir-
ing a pre-retrofitting assessment for decision-making (Luther, 2013).
1
School of Architecture and Building, 1 Gherignhap Street, Deakin University, Australia, [email protected],
0437 005 918mb
2 ENERGY RETROFITTING
2.1 Benefits and Challenges
There is a large body of research on building retrofits available in the public domain. However,
existing buildings continue to be upgraded at a very low rate. For instance, existing com-
mercial building stock is currently being retrofitted at a rate of approximately 2.2% per year
(Olygyay and Seluto, 2010). A reasonable level of retrofitting would be in the order of 10%
of building stock (Deloitt , 2009). Studies suggest that the reasons for this are risks of failure,
overestimation of energy savings, increased payback period, and interruptions to operations.
Different retrofit measures may have different impacts on associated building sub-systems due
to various interactions; hence, the selection of the retrofit technologies becomes very complex
(Ma et al., 2012). Nevertheless, there are claims of benefits to the economy, where energy
retrofitting is viewed as a huge business boom to job security. In the Melbourne CBD alone
there is an estimate of $1.2 billion dollars of business related to energy retrofitting over a 5–7
year period (Deloitt, 2009). The benefits to infrastructure also need to be realized if energy
retrofitting is to occur on a larger scale. Peak electrical demand has been rising over the past
ten years while actual energy consumption remains relatively steady. Peak demand represents
the maximum load on a section of network or generation plant over a defined time period
e.g. maximum demand may occur between 3pm and 6pm in a specific location. An analysis
of peak electricity demand in a sample of Sydney office buildings (both base and tenant loads)
by Sinclair et al.(2010) found that HVAC accounted for 57% of peak demand, while lighting,
office equipment and lifts contributed 19%, 12% and 8% respectively of peak demand. It is
clear that HVAC energy consumption is the most significant determinant of a building’s peak
load. The overall peak demand load reduction with respect to a building’s energy bill, as well
as its reduction to the infrastructure (supply) load to the region, needs to be considered.
3 PREVIOUS STUDIES
3.1 Tools developed for energy retrofitting
Many researchers have proposed different methodologies for energy assessment. Some of the
studies focus on energy savings whereas others look at overall retrofitting for the whole build-
ing site. Junghans (2013) proposed a Facilities Energy Efficiency (FEE) model for a strategic
approach for energy efficiency for a municipality’s entire building stock. In the “analysis of
building” stage, a wide range of parameters like location, procedures for operation, and usage,
as well as the building conditions and its current technical standard are covered. Rey (2004)
developed a structured multi-criteria assessment methodology for renovating office build-
ings which simultaneously takes into account environmental (energy consumption), socio-
cultural (thermal and visual comfort) and economic (cost) criteria. Xu et al. (2012) analysed
key performance indicators for the sustainability assessment of building energy retrofitting in
hotel buildings in China. The KPIs can help decision-makers to identify an optimal solution
between alternatives, which presents the maximum sustainability performance.
Few studies have proposed methodologies for pre-retrofitting of commercial buildings.
Jones and Bogus (2010) propose a ‘decision process’ for energy-efficient retrofits. Here a quali-
tative analytical approach is considered, patterns and relationships of energy use are iden-
tified. Flourentzou et al. (2002) developed a user friendly building diagnosis and decision
making tool, TOBUS for office buildings. The tool uses a structured diagnosis scheme to deal
with the entire complex process of office building refurbishment or retrofit with respect to
deterioration, functional obsolescence of building services, energy consumption and indoor
environmental quality. Kaklauskas et al. (2005) developed a method of multi-variant design
and multiple criteria of a building refurbishment’s analysis. This methodology enables analysts
to form up to 100,000 alternative versions to determine the strongest and weakest points
of each building’s refurbishment project and its constituent parts. Juan et al. (2010) devel-
oped an integrated decision support system to assess existing office building conditions and to
recommend an optimal set of sustainable renovation actions, considering trade-offs between
renovation cost, improved building quality, and environmental impacts. Most of these tools
focus on one particular item, neglecting others. An auditing survey is rarely mentioned and
as a result, a staged approach, discussing before and after the usage of the application tool
The concept of this ‘integrity audit’, an audit which needs to take place before the imple-
mentation of any retrofit, is apparently not common. This can be considered as an initial step
towards any retrofitting in order to establish the building base case. In conjunction with this
stage, a sub-metering strategy should be developed. Together these investigative processes will
result in revealing three distinctive (often low cost) retrofitting opportunities as listed below:
• Identification of waste: where unnecessary equipment is operating when it is
absolutely not required. (example: HVAC systems running throughout the night, or
pumps circulating water unnecessarily)
• Missed opportunities: realization of energy saving measures that could be
implemented through simple sensor control and operational programming (example:
bathroom lighting and ventilation responding to passive infrared (PIR) sensors, or
the implementation of an economizer cycle)
• Scheduling and Operation: review and check if systems are running when not
necessary (example. the operation of a chiller 2 to 4 hours before an air handling unit
(AHU) is operated; lecture theatres shutting down their HVAC and lighting systems
3–4 hours after their last use).
The recognition and categorization of energy losses as identified above can help in decision-
making in the pre-retrofitting stage of projects.
5 CONCLUSION
Amongst the significant literature published in the area of energy management, auditing and
retrofitting, a comprehensive and rigorous methodology appears to be missing in many Austra-
lian Buildings. Several existing pathways, listed at the beginning of this paper, require further
detailed development. It is acknowledged that there are rigorous methods to conduct energy
metering analysis alone and they have not been discussed here as this is an introductory paper,
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