The Role of Building Energy and Environmental Assessment in Facilitating Office Building Energy-Efficiency

Abstract

Ten years ago, the primary author developed the Building Energy-Efficient Hive (BEEHive) concept in order to demonstrate in theory that environmental design – which is aimed at addressing environmental parameters – can support the design and operation of energy-efficient office buildings. This was a result of his analysis of the spheroid form’s efficiency in nature, and his development of a spheroid-like energy-efficient office built form. The BEEHive incorporates environmental design principles such as: site considerations; built form; ventilation strategy; daylighting strategy; and services strategy. Furthermore, several notable environmental design advocates and practitioners have made significant contributions in order to improve building performance. However, in practice environmental design has had limited success in the attainment of balance and optimisation in all aspects of energy use; hence there is typically a gap between predicted and actual office building energy use. The primary author’s previous study established the impacts of contributory factors in the gap between predicted and actual office building energy use. It has contributed to this current study, which is also a part of the primary author’s doctor of philosophy (Ph.D) research, and it has established the role of a key contributory factor, that is, the role of building energy and environmental assessment in facilitating office building energy-efficiency. It involved a combination of literature reviews, multiple case study research and comparative studies in order to build theory. It also established the methods and tool to be used in the primary author’s Ph.D research for multiple case studies and simulation studies of office building energy-efficiency. Analysis of the literature revealed that the role of building energy and environmental assessment involves assessment of the impacts of environmental design principles, and the impacts of factors that contribute to office building energy use gap decreases, for example: solar gain minimisation orientations; energy-efficient strategies for built forms, ventilation, lighting and services; and decreases in hours of operation and occupancy. Its role also involves assessment of the impacts of factors that contribute to office building energy use gap increases, for example: weather variation and microclimates; and increases in hours of operation and occupancy. There are three key types of building energy and environmental assessment, and these are: building energy use audit method; building energy simulation analysis method and tools; and building energy and environmental assessment rating method and tools. Their respective roles include: tracking building energy use over time; predicting future building energy use within multiple environmental design scenarios and parameters; and assessing, rating, and certifying building energy and environmental efficiency. However, limitations of building energy and environmental assessment, and impacts of factors that contribute to office building energy use gap increases need to be addressed in order to achieve: optimum building energy use assessments and predictions; optimum environmental design principles; and building energy use gap decreases for improved energy performance. This study has contributed to ideas for the development of a Building Management System (BMS-Optimum) for Bridging the Gap, which is comprised of optimum conditions and considerations such as: optimum environmental design principles; optimum weather and microclimate considerations; accessibility to reliable office building energy use data; optimum building energy and environmental assessment; optimum hours of operation; and optimum level and nature of occupancy. Future work will include further development of BMS-Optimum, using methods such as: multiple case study research supported by building energy use audits, observations, questionnaire surveys, interviews, benchmarking and comparative studies; building energy simulations within multiple scenarios, parameters and variables, and supported by benchmarking and comparative studies; and peer reviews and focus group sessions. These will also help establish and validate a Framework for Improved Environmental Design and Energy Performance (FEDEP).