Long-term savings persistence from existing building commissioning and retrofits.

Ssembatya, Martin; Fu, Hongxiang; Claridge, David E.

The persistence of energy savings due to the implementation of Existing-Building Commissioning (EBCx) is an important measure of the benefit of EBCx. This study analyzes the persistence of energy savings achieved from the implementation EBCx in nine buildings from 1997 to 2018. Each is served by a central utility plant (CUP) with metered chilled water (CHW) and heating hot water (HHW). EBCx was initially implemented in 1996/97. All buildings had follow-up ongoing commissioning or retrofit measures applied from 1997 to 2018. These and other building changes prevent accurate direct comparisons of 1997 EBCx savings with 2018 savings, but the overall 2018 savings are comparable to the 1997 savings due to the combination of ongoing commissioning measures and other energy efficiency measures implemented in the intervening years. This study examined the rate of savings degradation following each active intervention and the ability of exponential and linear decline expressions to model the savings degradation. Average degradation for HHW, CHW, and electricity savings was modeled equally well by exponential and linear decline expressions. HHW, CHW, and electricity showed predicted savings persistence of 59.3%, 80.6%, and 88.2%, respectively 10 years after the implementation of energy-saving projects if no follow-up were to be conducted.

BUILDING commissioning; RETROFITTING of buildings; HOT water; ENERGY consumption

Science & Technology for the Built Environment, 2021, Vol 27, Issue 6, p730

2374-4731

Academic Journal

10.1080/23744731.2021.1898820