What Can you Learn from High-Performance, Low-Energy Buildings?
As momentum increases toward net-zero energy buildings, our knowledge of best strategies must increase as well. To this end, an article âLearning from Performanceâ published in High Performance Buildings referenced a dataset of 70 geographically diverse, high-performance buildings to identify the common technologies they share. The dataset includes a California university campus building that achieves aggressive energy savings. Whatâs exciting about this kind of research is that energy-efficient solutions no longer operate in isolationâthey are starting to become an integrated set of solutions that work together to maximize energy savings and minimize costs.
The common technologies mentioned in the article fell into five major strategies:
Load reduction, including insulation, shading, plug load reduction and lighting reduction.
Passive strategies such as daylighting, natural ventilation and thermal mass.
Efficient systems like LED lighting, chilled beams/ceiling and district loop.
Energy recovery, including air recirculation, heat pipes and district loop recovery.
Renewables, such as photovoltaic, fuel cells and tri-generation.
Certain technologies had a huge impact on a buildingâs efficiency, while others, though important, were less significant. Daylighting was one common thread throughout all high-performance buildings and played a starring role in a buildingâs efficiency. It includes controlling electric lighting through dimmers or step relays. Daylightingâs benefits are twofold: Not only does it reduce watts per square foot, but it also reduces the cooling load. Although natural ventilation and under-floor air displacement generate less impressive energy savings, they are growing trends in the high-performance building sector.
These cutting-edge buildings are not just kind to the environmentâthey are kind to business. The buildings reviewed for the survey performed at roughly half of typical building energy use. Many of the energy use intensities suggest that the goal of net zero energy is actually within reach. Whatâs more, the diversity of the dataset means that low-energy buildings can be constructed in most climates. And they donât have to be new, as many of the buildings were retrofitted in the last five years.
All this adds up to green buildings that have come a long way. At the turn of the century, high-performance buildings were an obscurity. According to the US Green Building Council, 41 percent of all nonresidential building starts in 2012 are green, as compared to 2 percent 2005.
From light dimmers to natural ventilation and personal comfort controls, we are on the vanguard of a wealth of new technologies that add function, value, and high performance to todayâs commercial buildings. And letâs not forget the impact high performance buildings have on their tenantsâtypically offering healthier and more satisfying work environments. Even human performance gets a boost when design and technology come together to serve the goal of optimal efficiency.
