A Systematic Approach to Quantifying Energy Savings Potential Because of Improved Operations of Commercial Building Stocks

Abstract

In an effort to achieve large-scale energy savings, governments have been developing energy conservation policies that target large numbers or stocks of commercial buildings. While actions performed by occupants and facility managers significantly impact building energy performance, current policies overlook the importance of human actions and the potential energy savings from a more efficient operations of buildings. This slow policy adoption is mainly attributed to the absence of energy modeling tools and frameworks that evaluate non-technological drivers of energy use and quantify energy savings for large stocks of buildings to support policy-making efforts. Such an evaluation is in fact essential to help policy-makers set specific energy conservation targets, highlight the need for operation-focused policy tools, and justify corresponding investment costs. Therefore, this study proposes a systematic approach to quantifying the energy savings potential due to improved operations of any stock of commercial buildings. The proposed framework is general and combines energy modeling, existing studies on human actions in buildings, and surveying methods. The framework’s capabilities are illustrated in a case study performed on medium-sized office buildings in the United States (US). Results indicate a potential 18 percent reduction in the current energy use levels of these buildings through realistic changes in the operation pattern of different building systems.