How Energy Is Used in Commercial Buildings
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) conducts the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) every four years. The CBECS looks at the energy consumed by different types of commercial buildings in the United States. EIA will release the 2007 CBECS in mid-2009. Here’s an overview (Figure 1 & 2) of the 2003 CBECS, which was based on a sample size of 5,215 buildings, representative of a total population of 4.9 million commercial buildings and 71.6 billion square feet of floor space in the U.S.
Figure 1. Electricity accounts for more than half of energy consumed by commercial buildings.
Figure 2. More than half of energy consumed in commercial buildings is used for space heating and lighting.
Lies, Damn Lies, and… Henry Gifford critical of LEED study
Henry Gifford, a maverick NYC mechanical systems designer, has written a highly critical objection to the first broad study done by the US Green Building Coucil (USGBC). The study intended to determine how much energy LEED rated buildings actually used.
USGBC commissioned the New Buildings Institute (NBI) of Vancouver, Washington, to conduct the study, Energy Performance of LEED for New Construction Buildings, which claimed that “On average, LEED buildings are 25-30% more efficient than non-LEED buildings.”
Gifford has presented a different analysis, critical of the USGBC / NBI study. Gifford suggests that in reality the LEED rated buildings are, on average, 29% less efficient than average U.S. buildings. If you haven’t seen Gifford’s presentation, it’s worth a watch (youtube clip below). The full critique, “A Better Way to Rate Green Buildings“, is also available on his website, along with the US Green Building Council’s response to Gifford’s criticique in an e-mail that USGBC sent to its chapter leaders, and Gifford’s rebuttal to the USGBC response.
Gifford points out a few flaws in the study…
California: First State to Mandate Disclosure of Energy Use at Time of Building Transaction
California is the first state to mandate disclosure of commercial buildings’ energy use to prospective buyers, lessees, or lenders, and it is requiring building owners to use the EPA ENERGY STAR online tool, Portfolio Manager, to get the job done. A new California law, Assembly Bill 1103, requires all commercial building owners or operators to disclose their buildings’ benchmarking data and Portfolio Manager performance rating to prospective buyers, lessees of entire buildings, or lenders starting in 2010. The state also has broken new ground by requiring all state-owned buildings to be benchmarked with Portfolio Manager.
BuildingGreen.com - Regulations Demanding Actual Data Are Leapfrogging LEED
Smart appliances and dynamic demand in the US and the UK
In the the first quarter of 2009, General Electric will introduce a suite of ‘’smart” appliances or energy management enabled appliances that will receive a signal from the local utility and react based on the appliance’s internal programming. GE needs utility companies to collaborate in this endeavor. There are over 3,000 utilities in the US. GE is currently conducting a pilot program in Louisville, KY in partnership with Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E).
A similar pilot program in the UK will evaluate smart fridges. The electric and gas utility npower, is working with the RLtec to trial a dynamic demand program that substitutes load response for generation station response, balances supply and demand, improves the thermal efficiency of the electric grid, facilitates renewable generation integration, and mitigates system faults, all with no discernable impact on load performance. In the first phase of the UK program, 300 fridges fitted with RLtec’s technology will be distributed to npower consumers. Eventually the trial program will deploy 3,000 fridges and freezers of different types and models and assess the benefits of the technolgy.
Manhattan’s Geothermal Potential
NEW YORK TIMES - For millions of years, invisible streams of water have run deep in the earth below Manhattan at a constant temperature of 65 degrees, a source of energy that seems beyond exhaustion — and beyond reach. But eight months ago, a seminary in Chelsea began to pump water from those streams to heat its buildings in the winter and cool them in the summer.
College Sustainability Report Card: Green Buildings
College Sustainability Report Card provides in-depth sustainability profiles for hundreds of colleges in all 50 U.S. States and Canada. See the results. There are several categories of sustainability used in their report card. The Green Building category 51 schools earned “A” grades in the green building category, which looks at schools’ adoption and use of high-performance green building design. Most of them have numerous LEED certified buildings on campus. The average grade for the green building category was “C+.”
Click on the green building leaders listed below to view report cards.
Closed-loop ground source heat pump systems in schools
ASHRAE recently featured a cursory review of Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems in schools. According the U.S. Department of Energy, Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems reduce energy use by 25% to 50% in schools, compared to traditional systems, and result in typical payback periods of eight years. The full article was originally published in the September 2007 edition of ASHRAE Journal. Click here to download the full article for free. After Nov. 12, this article will remain available for free download by ASHRAE Members here and for purchase by nonmembers in the ashrae.org bookstore.
Wireless building automation system and energy management system technology
ASHRAE recently featured an article describing the application of wireless communication technologies to manage HVAC, security, and other systems within buildings. The three main competing technologies are distributed antenna systems (DAS), pico-cellular networks, and cellular repeater systems. The full article was originally published in the June 2007 edition of ASHRAE Journal. Click here to download the full article until Nov. 5, 2008. After Nov. 5, the article will remain available for free download by ASHRAE Members here and for purchase by nonmembers in the ashrae.org bookstore.
Wal-Mart moves toward more environmentally and socially responsible global supply chain
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. hosted a gathering of more than 1,000 leading suppliers, Chinese officials and NGOs in Beijing, China for their Sustainability Summit this week. The company outlined a series of aggressive goals and expectations to build a more environmentally and socially responsible global supply chain. Wal-Mart put forth a series of requirements to attain responsible sourcing. Read more
Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008
On October 3, 2008, following weeks of contentious negotiations between the House and Senate, Congress approved, and the President signed into law the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 as part of (i.e. Division B) H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 — a.k.a. the bailout bill.
Sec. 303 of the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 extends the Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction from 2008 through 2013.
SEC. 303. ENERGY EFFICIENT COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS DEDUCTION - Subsection (h) of section 179D is amended by striking `December 31, 2008′ and inserting `December 31, 2013′.
What is the Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction?
- The Energy Policy Act of 2005 created the Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Deduction, which allows building owners to deduct the entire cost of a lighting or building upgrade in the year the equipment is placed in service, subject to a cap.
How does the Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction apply to lighting upgrades?
- From January 1, 2006 until the Treasury Department issues final regulations defining savings targets for individual building systems, the Commercial Buildings Deduction’s Interim Rules for Lighting Systems are in effect. The Interim Rules offer an accelerated tax deduction that is the lesser of: The complete cost of installing energy-efficient interior lighting; or $0.30 to $0.60/sq.ft. proportional to lighting power density (watts per square foot) savings of 25% to 40% below ASHRAE the 90.1-2001 standard lighting power density, which varies by building type.
Click here for the full text of the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 as well as H.R. 1424. Table of contents provided below.
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NYMEX: Light, Sweet Crude Oil (CL)
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NYMEX: Natural Gas (NG)
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NYMEX: Heating Oil (HO)
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EIA: Retail Prices
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Bloomberg: Wind Energy Index
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MAC: Global Solar Energy Index