Electrical Distribution Systems for Commercial Reference Building Models
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 1
Abstract
Commercial and residential buildings consume approximately 40% of the total energy in the United States and use approximately 70% of the electricity. The electrical energy efficiency of the buildings sector thus plays a vital role in reducing energy use, peak demand, and greenhouse gas emissions. Maximizing the efficiency of electricity use is a key priority for high-performance buildings; however, to date, electrical distribution systems have received little attention. Rather, the focus has been on broad categories of end-use devices. As a result, a relatively small body of literature relates to the energy efficiency of electrical distribution in commercial buildings. Understanding this system and its components will help us examine its efficiency in significantly more detail. This paper describes the determination of an electrical distribution system for a commercial reference building model (CRBM). The purpose of the CRBM project was to develop standard or reference building energy models for the most common commercial buildings to serve as starting points for analysis related to energy efficiency research. Although these models represent realistic building characteristics and construction practices associated with energy consumption, they do not define a building electrical distribution system. Consequently, an electrical distribution system needed to be defined to study the energy loss in the electrical distribution system. Defining a standard electrical distribution system associated with each CRBM provides a common starting point for future efficiency analysis of commercial buildings. The creation of this electrical distribution system was part of a larger project exploring the energy efficiency of a concept for the incorporation of direct current distribution over existing alternating current distribution systems.
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Acknowledgments
The accomplishments described in this paper are the result of work performed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, and are co-funded by the Bonneville Power Administration under BPA TI Project No. 192, Contract No. 51353, and Interagency Agreement No. IAG-11-1801 under Task Nos. BEC7.1320 and WFH6.2000, which the authors gratefully acknowledge. The authors thank Tony Koch, the Contract Officer’s technical representative for the project from Bonneville Power Administration, for support in the performance of this project. Dr. Waters thanks the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, specifically the Commercial Buildings Research group, for the opportunity to work with them during a faculty development leave from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
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Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 1 • March 2014
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 14, 2012
Accepted: Feb 11, 2013
Published online: Feb 13, 2013
Published in print: Mar 1, 2014
Discussion open until: May 10, 2014
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