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Energy Savings Assessment for the Robert E. Johnson State Office Building in Austin, Texas
Abstract
U.S. businesses and institutions spend an
estimated $175 billion per year for energy. Of that, the
fraction under performance contracts and energy
service agreements is currently growing, aided by
cheaper monitoring technology and integration with
EMCS systems. Energy simulation programs are used
both for estimating potential savings as well as to help
verify savings from retrofits actually installed. The
potential accuracy afforded by today's energy
simulation programs is high. Yet the reliability of the
results is frequently compromised by a lack of
certainty that the simulations reflect actual conditions.
Although there is little documentation on current
methods to verify energy savings in buildings, the
International Performance Measurement and
Verification Protocol (IPMVP), developed by the
Department of Energy (DOE), provides best practice
techniques available for verifying results of energy
efficiency, water efficiency, and renewable energy
projects. This paper presents a method for verifying
the energy savings of a newly constructed building
using a baseline simulation model calibrated to the
measured whole-building energy consumption to
determined the independent and combined effect of the
stated efficient components installed in the building.
In this paper the results show that the energy savings
resulting from the new design reduced the energy use
by 46% when compared to similar state office
buildings.
Citation
Sylvester, K. E.; Haberl, J. S.; Song, S.; Turner, W. D. (2002). Energy Savings Assessment for the Robert E. Johnson State Office Building in Austin, Texas. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /4561.