Conducting Retrospective Analyses of Building Energy Models with Various Levels of Available Data
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 22, Issue 4
Abstract
Building owners and design teams rely greatly on building energy models to identify effective strategies for maximizing building energy performance. However, past studies of building energy-model performance, particularly among Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings, have shown that models can vary significantly at the individual building level. Conducting retrospective analyses of building energy models can provide more insight regarding empirical variation and models’ sources of error than past studies that reported the observed difference between predicted and actual annual energy performances. This paper describes a method for conducting retrospective analyses on building-energy models, and then applies the method to three LEED-certified dormitory buildings that are owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense. All three buildings contained varying levels of actual building-energy data, which served to illustrate the extent to which model error may be explained. Significant changes in building occupancy, as evidenced through building occupancy reports as well as building water-consumption data, represented the greatest source of deviation.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their gratitude to members of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, and U.S. Navy for their support and providing access to the building energy models and actual energy-consumption data used for this study. Any opinions, findings, or recommendations presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DOD.
References
Amato, A. D., Ruth, M., Kirshen, P., and Horwitz, J. (2005). “Regional energy demand responses to climate change: Methodology and application to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” Clim. Change, 71(1–2), 175–201.
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). (2010). “Energy standard for buildings except low-rise residential buildings (I-P edition).” ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.1-2010, Atlanta.
Barley, D., Deru, M., Pless, S., and Torcellini, P. (2005). “Procedure for measuring and reporting commercial building energy performance.” Technical Rep. NREL/TP-550-38601, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO.
Cohen, R., Standeven, M., Bordass, B., and Leaman, A. (2001). “Assessing building performance in use 1: The probe process.” Build. Res. Inform., 29(2), 85–102.
Degelman, L. O. (1999). “A model for simulation of daylighting and occupancy sensors as an energy control strategy for office buildings.” Proc., IBPSA Building Simulation Conf., Int. Building Performance Simulation Association, 〈http://www.ibpsa.org/proceedings/BS1999/BS99_A-20.pdf〉 (Apr. 1, 2012).
Deru, M., and Torcellini, P. (2005). “Performance metrics research project—Final report.” Technical Rep. NREL/TP-550-38700, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO.
Diamond, R., Opitz, M., Hicks, T., Von Neida, B., and Herrera, S. (2006). “Evaluating the energy performance of the first generation of LEED-certified commercial buildings.” Proc., American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) 2006 Summer Study, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
EPA. (2013). Energy Star portfolio manager technical reference: Thermal energy conversions, Washington, DC.
Fowler, K., and Rauch, E. (2008). “Assessing green building performance: A post occupancy evaluation of 12 GSA buildings.” PNNL-17393 Prepared for the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA.
Fowler, K., Rauch, E., Henderson, J., and Kora, A. (2011). “Re-assessing green building performance: A post occupancy evaluation of 22 GSA buildings.” PNNL-19369 Prepared for the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA.
Fowler, K. M., Rauch, E. M., Spees, K., Hathaway, J., Kora, A. R., and Solana, A. E. (2009). “Building cost and performance metrics: Data collection protocol.” PNNL-18325 Prepared for the U.S. DOE, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA.
Freire, R. Z., Oliveira, G. H. C., and Mendes, N. (2008). “Development of regression equations for predicting energy and hygrothermal performance of buildings.” Energy Build., 40(5), 810–820.
Hunn, B. D., Banks, J. A., and Reddy, S. N. (1992). “Energy analysis of the Texas capitol restoration.” Proc., 8th Symp. on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX.
Jennings, J. D., Rubinstein, F. M., DiBartolomeo, D., and Blanc, S. L. (2000). “Comparison of control options in private offices in an advanced lighting controls testbed.” J. Illum. Eng. Soc., 29(2), 39–60.
Kwok, S. S. K., and Lee, E. W. M. (2011). “A study of the importance of occupancy to building cooling load in prediction by intelligent approach.” Energy Convers. Manage., 52(7), 2555–2564.
Newsham, G. R., Mancini, S., and Birt, B. J. (2009). “Do LEED-certified buildings save energy? Yes, but...” Energy Build., 41(8), 897–905.
Page, J., Robinson, D., Morel, N., and Scartezzini, J.-L. (2008). “A generalised stochastic model for the simulation of occupant presence.” Energy Build., 40(2), 83–98.
Pedrini, A., Westphal, F. S., and Lamberts, R. (2002). “A methodology for building energy modelling and calibration in warm climates.” Build. Environ., 37(8–9), 903–912.
Preiser, W. F. E., and Vischer, J. C., eds. (2005). Assessing building performance, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, U.K.
Raftery, P., Keane, M., and O’Donnell, J. (2011). “Calibrating whole building energy models: An evidence-based methodology.” Energy Build., 43(9), 2356–2364.
Reddy, T. A. (2006). “Literature review on calibration of building energy simulation programs: Uses, problems, procedures, uncertainty, and tools.” ASHRAE Trans., 112(1), 226–240.
Rubinstein, F., Colak, N., Jennings, J., and Neils, D. 2003. “Analyzing occupancy profiles from lighting controls field study.” Proc., Int. Commission on Illumination (CIE) Conf., Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
Sailor, D. J. (2001). “Relating residential and commercial sector electricity loads to climate—Evaluating state level sensitivities and vulnerabilities.” Energy, 26(7), 645–657.
Scofield, J. H. (2009). “Do LEED-certified buildings save energy? Not really...” Energy Build., 41(12), 1386–1390.
Stoppel, C. (2013). “Refining building energy modeling through aggregate analysis and probabilistic methods associated with occupant presence.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Stoppel, C., and Leite, F. (2013). “Evaluating building energy model performance of LEED buildings: Identifying potential sources of error through aggregate analysis.” Energy Build., 65(Oct), 185–196.
TRACE 700 6.2.8.3 [Computer software]. La Crosse, WI, Trane.
Turner, C. (2006). LEED building performance in the Cascadia region: A post occupancy evaluation report, Cascadia Region Green Building Council, Seattle, WA.
Turner, C., and Frankel, M. (2008). “Energy performance of LEED for new construction buildings.” Final Rep. Prepared for U.S. Green Building Council, New Buildings Institute, White Salmon, WA.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2012). “Annual energy review 2011.” DOE/EIA-0384(2011), U.S. DOE, Washington, DC.
U.S. Green Building Council. (2006). LEED for new construction and major renovation guide, version 2.2, Washington, DC.
Wang, D., Federspiel, C. C., and Rubinstein, F. (2005). “Modeling occupancy in single person offices.” Energy Build., 37(2), 121–126.
Wilcox, S., and Marion, W. (2008). “Users manual for TMY3 data sets.” Technical Rep. NREL/TP-581-43156, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO.
Yoon, J., Lee, E. J., and Claridge, D. E. (2003). “Calibration procedure for energy performance simulation of a commercial building.” J. Sol. Energy Eng., 125(3), 251–257.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 22 • Issue 4 • December 2016
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 16, 2013
Accepted: Jan 22, 2014
Published online: May 12, 2014
Published in print: Dec 1, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.