Energy Efficiency Package for Tenant Fit-Out: Laboratory Testing and Validation of Energy Savings and Indoor Environmental Quality

Paul Mathew,Cindy Regnier,Jordan Shackelford,Travis Walter

doi:10.3390/en13205311

Paul Mathew, Cindy Regnier + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en13205311

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Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Oct 13, 2020
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Abstract

Approximately 40% of the total U.S. office floor space of 1.5 billion sq.m (16 billion sq.ft.) is leased space occupied by tenants. Tenant fit-out presents a key opportunity to incorporate energy efficiency within the real estate business cycle. We designed a package of energy efficiency measures tailored to the scope of a tenant fit-out. This tenant fit-out package (TFP) includes advanced lighting and heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) controls as core measures, with ceiling fans, automated shading, and plug load controls as additional optional measures. We conducted laboratory testing of six configurations of the package to evaluate energy savings, indoor environmental quality, and identify installation, commissioning, and operational issues. Combined savings for HVAC, lighting, and plug loads ranged from 33–40%. Lighting savings ranged from 69–83%, and HVAC savings from 20–40%. The laboratory testing also revealed some minor but tractable challenges with installation and commissioning of HVAC controls. Overall, the results demonstrate that significant savings can be realized in existing office buildings by incorporating relatively low-risk, proven measures at the time of a tenant fit-out.

Highlights

We focused on medium-to-larger scale fit-outs in which scope included lighting and HVAC controls that are within the tenant’s purview
There is not a significant difference in savings between the August/September test period and the December/January test period. We found this to be the case for the other configurations, as well
This paper presented the design and performance of a package of energy efficiency measures that can be applied at the time of a tenant fit-out

Summary

Introduction

Office buildings are one of the most significant sectors of non-residential building energy use in the. Various market studies over the last decade have shown significant potential for energy savings from retrofits of commercial buildings [3,4,5,6,7,8]. A number of retrofit case studies have documented energy savings up to 25% using no/low-cost measures and up to 50% or more using deeper retrofit measures [9,10,11,12]. Lighting upgrades are the most common retrofit measure in commercial buildings, largely due to their cost-effectiveness and ease of implementation [13]. A number of tools and guides have been developed to assist building owners, designers and other stakeholders [9,14,15,16]

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