Abstract
Although buildings smaller than 4,645 m2 account for nearly half of the energy used in U.S. commercial buildings, energy-efficiency programs to date have primarily focused on larger buildings. Stakeholder interviews conducted during a scoping study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) indicated interest in energy efficiency from the small commercial building sector, provided solutions are simple and of low cost. To address this need, an energy management package (EMP) was developed to deliver energy management to small commercial buildings via HVAC contractors, because they already serve these clients and the transaction cost to market would be reduced. This energy-management approach is unique from, but often complementary to, conventional quality maintenance or retrofit-focused programs targeting the small commercial segment. This paper presents an overview of the EMP, the business model to deliver it, and preliminary demonstration findings from a pilot use of the EMP. Results from the pilot validated that contractors could deliver the EMP in 4–8 h per building per year and that energy savings of 3–5% are feasible through this approach.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the U.S. DOE, Building Technologies Office. The objective of this work was to identify a market-viable approach to use energy management to achieve energy savings in the small commercial building segment.
References
2030 Districts. (2016). “2030 Districts.” 〈http://www.2030districts.org/〉 (May 31, 2016).
Alhourani, F., and Saxena, U. (2009). “Factors affecting the implementation rates of energy and productivity recommendations in small and medium sized companies.” J. Manuf. Syst., 28(1), 41–45.
Environmental Protection Agency. (2015). “ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.” 〈https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/facility-owners-and-managers/existing-buildings/use-portfolio-manager〉 (Nov. 15, 2015).
Green Button Connect (2016, May 31). “Apps for energy: Green Button.” 〈http://energy.gov/data/green-button〉 (May 31, 2016).
Haberl, J. S., and Komor, P. S. (1989). “Investigating an analytical basis for improving commercial building energy audits: Early results from a New Jersey mall.” Proc., ASHRAE/DOE Conference, Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Buildings IV, Vol. 587, 587–612.
Institute for Market Transformation. (2015). “Building energy performance policy.” 〈http://www.imt.org/policy/building-energy-performance-policy〉 (Oct. 28, 2015).
Komor, P., Kempton, W., and Haberl, J. (1989). “Energy use, information, and behavior in small commercial buildings.” Technical Rep. 240, Princeton Univ. Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Princeton, NJ.
Langner, R., Hendron, B., Pless, S., Huppert, M., and Cochrane, R. (2013). “Industry research and recommendations for small buildings and small portfolios.” NREL Rep. CP 5500-57776, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO.
LBNL (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). (2015). “Small commercial energy management package for HVAC contractors.” 〈http://eis.lbl.gov/smallcomm.html〉 (Oct. 31, 2015).
Mills, E. (2009). “Building commissioning: A golden opportunity for reducing energy costs and greenhouse-gas emissions.” LBNL Rep. 3645E, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
Mills, E., et al. (2004). “The cost-effectiveness of commercial-buildings commissioning.” LBNL Rep. 56637, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
Mills, E., and Mathew, P. (2009). “Monitoring-based commissioning: Benchmarking analysis of 24 UC/CSU/IOU projects.” LBNL Rep. 1972E, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
NSBA (National Small Business Association). (2011). “2011 NSBA energy survey.” 〈http://www.nsba.biz/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2011_energy_survey.pdf〉 (Oct. 31, 2015).
Parker, C. M., Redmond, J., and Simpson, M. (2009). “A review of interventions to encourage SMES to make environmental improvements.” Environ. Plann. C: Government Policy, 27(2), 279–301.
Schleich, J., and Gruber, E. (2008). “Beyond case studies: Barriers to energy efficiency in commerce and the services sector.” Energy Econ., 30(2), 449–464.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2003). “Commercial building energy consumption survey.” Washington, DC.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 23 • Issue 1 • March 2017
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 3, 2015
Accepted: Apr 29, 2016
Published online: Jul 14, 2016
Discussion open until: Dec 14, 2016
Published in print: Mar 1, 2017
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Architectural engineering
- Benefit cost ratios
- Building management
- Building systems
- Buildings
- Business management
- Client relationships
- Commercial buildings
- Contracts and subcontracts
- Energy efficiency
- Energy engineering
- Engineering fundamentals
- Facilities (by type)
- Financial management
- HVAC
- Laboratory tests
- Practice and Profession
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Tests (by type)
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.