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1. What is the final step in the typical retrofit steps? A. Performing a Detailed Building Audit B. Training Your Staff C. Implementing Controls D. Verifying Your Findings 2. What cash incentive does ActOnEnergy offer for natural gas savings realized installing HVAC controls? A. $0.80 per therm saved B. $1.00 per therm saved C. $1.20 per therm saved D. $1.40 per therm saved 3. Which of the following is true about energy benchmarking? A. An initial benchmark can only be performed by a trained professional with years

of experience B. Benchmarking answers the question of “Are we saving energy?” C. Successful benchmarking is always time consuming D. An initial benchmark can be done using just a utility bill and a web browser

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Reinhard Seidl is a Principal at Taylor Engineering, a California based Engineering Consultancy specializing in Mechanical and Control System Design and Commissioning. Mr. Seidl has 20 years of experience in HVAC and Controls Design, is a member of several ASHRAE committees responsible for the creation of commissioning guidelines and standards, and has been an active member of the team designing a free trend review tool for commissioning providers and building managers, available at www.utonline.org

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1. An initial benchmark that provides an orientation does not need to be very costly. In fact, it can often be done in-house, using just utility bill data and a web browser. This answers the very first question for an owner or building manager “is there a problem or are we doing well” in terms of energy. Several quick and easy to use resources are listed below.

2. EnergyStar: http://www.energystar.gov/ (get a free account for the portfolio manager, and benchmark a property in ~ 30 minutes with building size, utility data and basic operating schedule)

3. ARCH: http://poet.lbl.gov/arch/ similar in entry to EnergyStar, compares building using CBECS data. CBECS is DOE study of all commercial real estate in US, see also http://www.eia.gov/emeu/cbecs/

4. For Labs: http://www.labs21century.gov/toolkit/benchmarking.htm

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1. If an initial benchmark indicates that perhaps action is warranted, the first subsequent step is a more detailed audit. This typically takes the form of a due diligence review, combined with an audit aimed specifically at investigating energy use. There are well-established guidelines for both

2. Get a number of professionals per trade to review building; typical: 1 day walkthrough and review of available documentation for report (similar to ASHRAE level 1 audit)

3. Possibly perform more detailed study with energy modeling (ASHRAE level 2 audit)

4. ASHRAE building energy audit, see http://www.ashrae.org/pressroom/detail/ashrae-provides-guidance-on-the-how-tos-of-energy-audits

5. Other audit guidelines: example S&P property condition assessment rules http://ivi-intl.com/pdfs/S&P_PCACriteria.pdf

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1. A good energy profile is very easy to obtain: simply turn off boilers and chillers, and throttle the outside air so you don’t have to condition it. This is energy efficient but obviously not comfortably (or, typically, legal).

2. To get a somewhat objective idea of how building performance is doing in terms of comfort and not just energy, a full building audit may include a comfort study. Not many resources exist to do this in a manner that allows meaningful benchmarks and comparison to other buildings.

3. Center for the Built Environment (CBE) offers a cheap ($1,000) and fast internet based survey that can also be used for a LEED credit, see http://www.cbe.berkeley.edu/research/survey.htm

4. See also http://www.leeduser.com/credit/EBOM-2009/IEQc2.1

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A. Reviewing Incentive Programs

1. Find out who your local representative is, and determine if you are eligible for rebates. Check your utilities website http://www.actonenergy.com/

2. Do this early on – depending on program structure, time may be required to perform a detailed audit, to inspect the property, or to determine which program and program timelines best fit your property

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The Ameren Illinois’ ActOnEnergy program offers cash incentives to customers to be more energy-efficient. The Ameren Illinois’ ActOnEnergy initiative helps businesses use less energy and save more money. The ActOnEnergy programs include electric and gas incentives, where the cash incentive is paid to you after you complete the project.

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Cash incentives for EMS available under Custom Program • $0.07/(annual kWh saved) for all other components (HVAC, equipment

control, etc.) • $1.20/(annual therm saved) for natural gas savings

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If you have any questions about the ActOnEnergy program, feel free to contact the Ameren Illinois ActOnEnergy Energy Advisor from your territory to request a free walk-through of your facility.

This map shows the Ameren Illinois territories covered by each ActOnEnergy Energy Advisor. These Energy Advisors will do a Level 1 walk-through and let you know what upgrades you can make to save energy and money at your facility. You can email me or call me if you’d like the phone number of the Energy Advisor in your area of the state.

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Scheduling Activities

1. Engineering studies may be necessary to determine the possible impact of upgrading equipment, the energy savings involved and the possible rebates.

2. Conducting such studies may take several months.

3. Developing an energy baseline, or current operating condition, may involve sub-metering of equipment or systems, and may involve engineering activities such as placing power meters which involves temporary shutdown (an hour or two, but requires scheduling) for placement and removal.

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Step 3 in a typical building retrofit is to perform a detailed building audit. To do th8is you will:

A. Commissioning – Costs and Benefits

B. Building assessment programs: current and future

C. Some notes on energy modeling

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A. Building Commissioning

1. Should you consider Commissioning (Cx)? Selecting a Cx Authority early on can help cut time by identifying viable options, providing peer reviews of engineer’s and contractor’s work, and providing an owner with a technical set of “eyes and ears”. Cx is an overall process that is aimed at providing quality control during construction projects, for both existing and new buildings.

2. If your long-term plans include LEED certification, using a commissioning process is probably advisable, the results can then be used for multiple purposes.

3. A commissioning provider may be able to perform the audit, or to recommend engineers that can perform an audit. Your utility representative may also be able to recommend engineers or have 3rd party agreements for the engineering work involved in the initial audit process.

4. Background information on Commissioning:

5. California Commissioning Collaborative: Free Guides http://www.cacx.org/

6. ASHRAE Guideline zero: http://tinyurl.com/6rbed6r

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7. Building Commissioning Association: www.bcxa.org

8. Costs and Benefits: see 2009 report of commissioning conducted on roughly 650 buildings at http://cx.lbl.gov/cost-benefit.html

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Cash incentives for Retro Commissioning are available under Retro Commissioning Program to complete an audit and make no cost and low cost improvements. 50% to 80% of survey cost, plus additional incentives For retrofits with 0-1 year payback For more information on the ActOnEnergy Retro commissioning program, visit the ActOnEnergy Website, talk with an ActOnEnergy Energy Advisor, or ask your preferred service provider.

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B. Audits, Building Labels and Look-ahead to regulatory requirements

1. Also look at local regulations – Commissioning, building audits and/or LEED certification may become mandatory over the next few years.

2. ASHRAE Building labeling: http://buildingeq.com/

3. Worldwide rating requirements: see map under “where is this happening?” at http://www.buildingrating.org/

4. See local code requirements at http://www.municode.com/

5. In the California Bay Area, LEED is rapidly becoming a mandatory element of new construction for most municipalities. Along with LEED certification, Commissioning is mandatory. Green Code also requires Commissioning for all new projects > 10,000 sqft. San Francisco just enacted a requirement for annual EnergyStar benchmarking, and a full ASHRAE level 2 audit every 5 years for commercial properties. See http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/02/10/sf-requires-energy-audits-benchmarking-commercial-buildings

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C. Energy Modeling

A. Along with possible requirements for LEED certification which typically involve energy modeling, it is likely that some kind of energy modeling will be used on any energy efficiency retrofit, to determine the viability of proposed changes, and to get an idea of the payback.

B. Typical industry energy models will not predict your utility bill, they will provide a difference between different systems (i.e. old chiller vs new chiller) but will not accurately portray tenant behavior, plug-loads etc. See link at top right http://www.newbuildings.org/measured-performance/benchmarking-feedback

C. So for an energy retrofit, expect to provide data that allows some calibration of an energy model (typically at least a year’s worth of utility data). Using this data, and possibly sub-metering of existing equipment, an engineer can make predictions about expected changes in utility bills as a result of proposed changes to control logic, new control system components, or new equipment like boilers, chillers, and the like.

D. Some measures may not require modeling, because incentives may be granted based on simplified rules (example: fixed $$$ per Hp for variable speed drives or similar rules) but almost always, multiple measures are investigated, and ranked for their expected payback, so an energy model

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is usually created.

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Now we’ll talk about step 4: Choosing a controls platform. This step entails:

A. Commercial vs. Industrial

B. Major systems and vendors

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A. Control Systems Selection

1. Typically, look at commercial, not industrial (SCADA) systems, for better pricing. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition and typically denotes a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) based Industrial type system. The difference between a PLC and a typical commercial building controller in a DDC system (Direct Digital Control) is not defined exactly; however, PLC’s tend to be more robust, expensive, capable of trending tens or hundreds of thousands of control points at very short time intervals (think seconds or less) and are used for refineries, processing plants and the like, where high precision, speed and reliability are key.

2. The commercial world for offices, retail and the like uses DDC controller which are more price-oriented, and typically offer less precision and durability, but then again, this is not really necessary in an office environment. The components in a typical DDC system are rapidly becoming off-the shelf commodity items for several hundred dollars a piece (like laptops or phones).

3. The most common large control platforms/vendors are, roughly in order of 2004 market share (per page 5-2 , figure 5-1 in the 2005 TIAX report at http://s3.amazonaws.com/zanran_storage/www.tiaxllc.com/ContentPages/42428345.pdf)

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1. Johnson controls

2. Siemens

3. Honeywell

4. Automated Logic (now owned by Carrier corp, UTC)

5. Invensys (now Schneider/TAC)

6. Andover (now Schneider/TAC)

7. Trane

8. Alerton (now owned by Honeywell)

9. Other (remaining 20%)

1. Energy Efficiency Upgrades often related to control systems changes.

2. Select a platform with local providers you are comfortable with. Having multiple providers greatly enhances likelihood that you will be satisfied with the system for the life of the building.

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A. Major Vendors

1. Landscape of commercial control systems: main platforms (akin to PC and Mac) are BACnet and Lonworks. BACnet standard created by ASHRAE, LonMark is private company (Echelon) with licensing agreement.

2. See Iowa State compilation of marketplace http://www.ddc-online.org/

3. See figure 5-1 on page 87 in TIAX report on major platforms: http://tinyurl.com/7dt4cu9

4. See BACnet compatible platforms at http://www.bacnetinternational.net/btl/

5. See LonMark products: http://www.lonmark.org/products/

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C. Controls – common measures

1. Conversion from pneumatic controls to DDC

i. Mechanical room only ($$)

ii. Down to the zone level ($$$$)

2. Fixing economizer controls (operating when air is too hot, or not operating when air is cool and could be used).

3. Fixing (or implementing) scheduling to stop equipment running 24/7. Also applies very commonly to lighting. Either with scheduling tool, or demand-based (daylighting controls, occupancy sensors, zone override buttons for after-hours use)

4. Adding demand controlled ventilation (DVC) which reduces airflow in conference rooms unless CO2 levels rise.

5. Fixing existing control sequences that are either correctly programmed but badly specified by engineer, or are incorrectly programmed (or both) and have been running in “hand” or “override” mode as a result

6. Fixing broken sensors, actuators, dampers, valves, and calibrating sensors whose readings have drifted over time.

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C. Controls – common measures cont’d

7. Adding Variable speed drives to fans and pumps (very common) and chillers (somewhat less common).

i. Correcting the way these drives operate to more sophisticated logic (from “Old Style” = control to fixed temperature/pressure setpoints, to “New Style” = control to variable temperature/pressure setpoints, also called demand based reset, requires DDC to the zone level).

ii. Reduce excessively high setpoints if “old style” fixed setpoint method is retained.

8. Add airside or waterside economizers and associated controls (usually requires some Btu meters)

9. See additional examples for common measures on

i. LBL’s report “Building Commissioning - A Golden Opportunity for Reducing Energy Costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions”, Pages 8 and 25 in http://cx.lbl.gov/documents/2009-assessment/LBNL-Cx-Cost-Benefit.pdf

ii. PECI’s Building Optimization Tool (BOA) report, page 3 in

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http://tinyurl.com/7gc9tgb

10. See for more details on demand based resets

5. Scheduling resets and DCV: http://tinyurl.com/6tflhsg ,

6. Temperature and pressure resets: http://www.peci.org/ncbc/2008/docs/Seidl.pdf

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Step 5 is Choosing a contracting team. To do this you will:

A. Find Providers and Contractors

B. Choose delivery Methods

C. Finding Providers and Contractors

1. If you have a Commissioning Authority involved, they can help by bringing experience with local contractors to the table, and assist you in selecting the right fit in terms of project size and complexity

2. Your utility representative may have information and background on local contractors, and may also have 3rd party agreements for parts of the work to be done (engineering and contracting work)

3. Check your local ASHRAE chapter membership – HVAC and controls engineers usually know the local marketplace fairly well. See http://www.ashrae.org/members/page/281 for listings of local chapters (region 6 for IL)

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One way to get started with your project is to contact a Program Ally to help you apply for cash incentives for your project. Program Allies have been trained in how the program works and have experience in conducting projects with the ActOnEnergy program. You can find a list of Program Allies on the ActOnEnergy Website.

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B. Delivery Methods

1. Contract methods vary, but there are two main types that are pretty well established, namely Plan and Spec (also called design-bid-build) where a registered engineer is Engineer of Record (E of R) and the contractor builds from a set of bid plans, and Design-Build where the contractor is also the E of R. In existing construction, the second route is often cheaper overall as long as you have a reputable contractor you feel confident is able to handle the project.

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Step 6 is to verify benefits. This involves:

A. Initial Testing and Trend Reviews

B. Benchmarks, Targets, Metrics

C. Incentive structure and verification

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A. Verifying Benefits

1. Typically, measurement and verification (M&V) protocols are used to determine whether expected savings occur. Some utility programs require M&V, others do not. The field of M&V is a complex one, since projected savings and related calculations and measurements have to account for predicted weather, occupancy, plug loads, production rates and the like.

2. To provide some uniformity in the marketplace, many providers use the IPMVP guidelines (International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol, see http://www.evo-world.org)

3. Typically involves adding sensors, so their cost must be evaluated in light of expected savings. Some programs are explicitly based on sensors (MBCx or monitoring-based commissioning), and incentives tied to measured results.

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Testing and trend reviews

1. Ensuring that predicted savings occur can be done in several ways. The most common is to let several weeks of time elapse after the improvements have been implemented, and to review data from loggers or the building management system. The resulting data is then analyzed in a trend review, which shows actual performance.

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Step 7 is to train your staff. In this step you’ll consider how to maintain operations and ongoing incentives.

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C. Staff training

1. Most of the literature associated with commissioning and retro-commissioning points to a decay over time in results achieved during an initial retrofit or upgrade.

2. Training staff and operators is key to maintaining benefits – explaining what measures were taken and why, and ensuring that new equipment (and especially, control systems) are operated as intended are a requirement to ensure that savings persist.

3. Using a commissioning process can help ensure that training actually takes place, and that a feedback mechanism is put in place that allows staff to find information about the systems, and the key personnel involved so they can be contacted again for questions or refresher-training.

D. Incentive Structure

1. Some programs may require staff training, or even dispatch utility representatives to provide training and operator reviews.

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Office Building

1. Building is high-rise office, about 30 years old, with central rooftop equipment.

2. Initial assessment reveals numerous issues with central systems (Chiller, Cooling tower, Boiler, Air Handlers, pneumatic control systems)

3. Retrofit involves new equipment with control system at the roof level (not down to the zone level).

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1. Due Diligence report

2. Matrix of measures

3. More detailed questions and modeling after preparation of bid documents and evaluation of proposed equipment alternatives from contractors.

4. Retrofit involves new equipment with control system at the roof level (not down to the zone level).

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Example: Incentive form

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Example: Detailed design

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Example

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Example: Approximately 27% Overall energy savings

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Here are some additional resources where you can get more information about the ActOnEnergy Program. Please visit our website to learn more and determine which projects are right for you.

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1. What is the final step in the typical retrofit steps? A. Performing a Detailed Building Audit B. Training Your Staff C. Implementing Controls D. Verifying Your Findings 2. What cash incentive does ActOnEnergy offer for natural gas savings realized installing HVAC controls? A. $0.80 per therm saved B. $1.00 per therm saved C. $1.20 per therm saved D. $1.40 per therm saved 3. Which of the following is true about energy benchmarking? A. An initial benchmark can only be performed by a trained professional with years

of experience B. Benchmarking answers the question of “Are we saving energy?” C. Successful benchmarking is always time consuming D. An initial benchmark can be done using just a utility bill and a web browser

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ActOnEnergy is hosting Certified Energy Manager training from March 26th through March 30th along with the Association of Energy Engineers at the Ameren Illinois building in Peoria. The cost is $1695. See the ActOnEnergy website for more information and to register for any of these events.

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