research support facility: three years of net zero operations, occupants, and analytics

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Research Support Facility:

Three Years of Net Zero

Operations, Occupants

and Analytics

Shanti Pless

Senior Research Engineer

National Renewable Energy

Laboratory

CBE Industry Advisory Board

October 8 2015

Innovation for Our Energy Future

Lets Review

I have a new net zero energy building that meets the

Executive Orders – now what?

– Year 3 in our own net zero operations efforts in the Research

Support Facility at NREL

– Real Performance for Real Buildings


Our Net Zero Effort


NREL/DOE Research Support Facility

Location: Golden, CO

Primary Use: Office

Size: 360,000 ft2

Occupants: Approximately 1,325

LEED Rating: Platinum

Construction Cost: $254/ft2

Energy Budget: 35 kBtu/ft2/yr

Site Net Zero Energy Goal:

Offices, datacenter, and parking with on-site PV and campus wood chip boiler

Utilize warranty and incentive program to ensure soft landing


Zero Energy Building Operations Realities (data)


First year at Net Zero!

Innovation for Our Energy Future http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/feature_detail.cfm/feature_id=11369


Zero Energy Building Operations Realities (data)


Net Zero Site Energy Building

Net Zero Source Energy Building

Net Zero Energy Emissions Building

Net Zero Energy Cost Building


Current Zero Energy Building Drivers

Organization Effort Type Definition

Living Building Challenge certification

Site energy

Massachusetts task force Site energy

California pilot program Source TDV energy

University of California campus-wide initiative Emissions

GSA Task force Source energy

Federal Government Executive Order 13693 Source energy

“… ensuring, beginning in fiscal year 2020 and thereafter, that all new construction of Federal buildings greater than 5,000 gross square feet that enters the planning process is designed to achieve energy net-zero and, where feasible, water or waste net-zero by fiscal year 2030; "net-zero energy building" means a building that is designed, constructed, or renovated and operated such that the actual annual source energy consumption is balanced by on-site renewable energy;

Innovation for Our Energy Future 12

http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/articles/doe-releases-common-definition-

zero-energy-buildings-campuses-and


DOE / NREL: Client

Haselden Construction: General Contractor

RNL: Architecture, Interiors, Landscape, Lighting

Stantec: MEP Engineering, Energy Modeling

KL&A: Structural Engineering

Martin/Martin: Civil Engineering

AEC: LEED, Daylight Modeling, Commissioning

Namaste Solar: Solar Consultant


NREL: 2006

NREL PIX


220,00 SF

Office Building

Golden, CO Image courtesy of RNL


138,000 SF

Office Building

Golden, CO Image courtesy of RNL


NREL: Today

Used with Permission from Haselden


NREL Campus Growth with Design-Build

Procurement process attributes pre-2007: o Design-bid-build project delivery

o LEED-driven sustainability goals

Procurement process attributes post-2007: o Design-build project delivery with firm fixed price for >$400 Million of new

facilities

o Specific energy performance requirements in the Request for Proposal

– RSF, office example: 35 kBtu/ft2/yr

– SEB, guard house example: net zero energy

o Energy modeling required to substantiate goals

o Energy end-use metering requirement

o Voluntary incentive ($) program to ensure measurement and verification outcome has a chance to meet predicted performance


• Performance based design-build with absolute energy use requirements o These are NOT bridging documents.

– Owner has significant input into the preliminary design

– Some overlap of A/E costs

o These ARE performance specifications.

– What something must do, not what it must be

– Subcontractor must substantiate that the design meets requirements

– Owner must not give the subcontractor technical direction

No drawings/plans in RFP!

Don’t change your mind

20

Energy Performance Based Design-Build Process


DOE/NREL Research Support Facility

RFP Design/Build Requirements:

50% energy cost savings over

ASHRAE 90.1

35.1 kBtu/ft2/yr

Net zero energy use

Performance assurance plan with

incentives

Design/Build Results:

Net zero energy use

36.4 kBtu/ft2/yr in 2014

$259/sqft construction costs

22


DOE/NREL RSF 3rd Wing


27 kBtu/ft2/yr

50% Energy Cost Savings

Performance assurance plan with

incentives


20 kBtu/ft2/yr measured

Demonstration of additional cost

savings, energy efficiency, and

schedule gains over phase 1

• 17% more efficient than the

RSF

• Cost savings of 5%

($14/ft2 cheaper)

23


DOE/NREL 1800 Car Staff Parking Garage

Design/Build Requirements:

• 0.5 kBtu/ft2

• 175 kBtu/stall

• Net-zero energy Site

Entrance Building


• 90% Energy savings

• 138 kBtu/parking stall

• $14,172 per parking space

• $15,500 to $24,500 for

typical parking space in

Denver area


DOE/NREL Cafeteria


• 35% energy cost savings over

ASHRAE 90.1

• Best in class commercial

kitchen equipment

• Performance assurance plan

with incentives

• LEED Gold


• 36% energy savings and Platinum

• Demonstration of max efficiency in a commercial kitchen using energy performance based design/build delivery and procurement methods

• Continuous improvement requirements in vendor contract to ensure performance assurance


DOE/NREL Energy Systems Integration Facility

Design/Build Requirements:

27 kBtu/ft2 Office wing

1.06 PUE Super computer

• No mechanical cooling

• Waste heat reuse

30% savings for all labs

LEED Gold


26 kBtu/ft2 Office wing

World class efficient super computer

• 1.05 PUE

36% savings in labs

LEED Platinum

26


https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/energy_based_acquisition/

https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/energy_based_acquisition/


Scale performance-

based procurement

100 buildings

three years

This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

(EERE), under Award Number DE-EE0007068.

http://www.seventhwave.org/accelerateperformance


Extended partnerships and stakeholder group forming now

TEAM

Seventhwave

National Renewable Energy

Laboratory

Institute for Sustainable Energy

UTILITY PARTNERS

ComEd

Eversource

United Illuminating

OWNER PARTNERS

University of Chicago

Lend Lease

Photos courtesy of University of Chicago


Energy Use

Credit: Stantec

Credit: Chad Lobato/NREL

Space Heating 24%

Space Cooling 3%

Pumps 1%

Ventilation Fans 5%

Domestic Hot Water

3%

Exterior Lights 0%

Lights 6%

Office Plug Loads 22%

Task Lights 0%

Data Center 35%

Data Center Cooling

0%

Data Center Fans 1%

NREL RSF Energy Model Breakdown

kBtu/ft2 kWh/m2 kWh/ft2

Cooling 0.46 1.46 0.14

Heating 9.68 30.52 2.84

Mechanical Systems 2.19 6.90 0.64

Lighting 2.83 8.92 0.83

Plug Loads 5.76 18.18 1.69

Data Center 14.43 45.53 4.23

Building Total 35.35 111.51 10.36


•100% of the workstations are daylit

•No employee more than 30 feet from a window

Daylighting


Daylighting: Glare Control

A light redirecting

device reflects

sunlight to the

ceiling, creating an

indirect lighting

effect.

Fixed sunshades

limit excess light and

glare.

Credit: RNL


6 watt task light

50 fc

Ambient daylight

Ambient lighting with

daylight sensors for 25 fc


RSF Addition Daylighting Enhancements


Weekday Lighting Power Density

Credit: Chad Lobato/NREL

0.00

0.03

0.05

0.08

0.10

0.13

0.15

0.18

0.20

0.23

0.25

0.28

0.30

0.33

0.35

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Po

wer

Den

sit

y (

W/f

t2)

Time of Day

Model Average

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011


Heating 12.5%

Cooling 9.5%

Fans 2.8%

Pumps 1.5%

DHW 1.0%

Lighting 28.0%

Equipment 44.7%

DOE Commercial Reference Building: Large Office, Boulder, CO


MANAGER TRAINING NEWSLETTER

MOVE MEETINGS

STAFF OPEN HOUSE

RSF EMAIL BOX

WEB PAGE


What is the

occupant’s role?


A Solution: Occupant Engaged

A control philosophy for engaging occupants in high

performance buildings operations as active users

Requires occupant engagement to take a system from off

to occupied state

– Default mode is maximum efficiency mode

• off or setback

– No automatic ON

– Occupant engages control to turn on if service needed

• Intelligence to turn off or go to unoccupied state if occupant “forgets”

to turn off

– MUST have simple local occupant engagement interface

• On/off switches the best


Occupant Education?

MUST have simple occupant engagement controls!

• You have light switches- you can use them

• If you open a window – close it

• If you are stuffy- open your window

• If you have a local glare issue, turn on your electrochromics

• Turn on your power strip in the morning

Occupants have to and will “figure it out”

Adaptive lighting comfort – Actual office lighting levels measured before occupants engage to

turn on open office ambient lights are 10 FC and below

– 70% savings over occupancy sensor in daylit break rooms


• Thermal comfort

reporting

– Air and Radiant temperature

– Air speed

– Humidity

• Window operation


• Initial survey consisted of 65 questions based on LEED requirements

• The app may be used to disseminate other surveys in the RSF or in other buildings across the NREL campus


PRODUCTIVITY Please estimate how your productivity is increased or decreased by the environmental conditions in this building (e.g., thermal, lighting, acoustics, cleanliness):

76% of the respondents felt that their productivity

was improved by the IEQ conditions in the building

Credit: CBE (Gail Brager and Margaret Pigman)


Database

LEED

NREL

Mixed-Mode

Naturally Ventilated

Legend Mean value

-0.13

0.40

0.92

0.32

1.43

RSF

TEMPERATURE

Credit: CBE (Gail Brager and Margaret Pigman)


NOISE LEVEL / PRIVACY


PINK NOISE


EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION


HVAC Systems

•Radiant ceiling space heating and cooling in open offices

•Dedicated outdoor air with underfloor delivery

•Displacement cooling in conference rooms

•Natural ventilation

• Automatic and manual windows

• Security waiver


Natural Ventilation • During mild weather,

operable windows allow

for natural ventilation

and economizer.

• Automatic windows are

controlled and operated

primarily to support

nighttime precooling.

• Occupants are notified

when conditions allow

for manual windows to

be opened.


User Friendly Windows


Construction Innovation

73

5 days per deck allowed

– 2 days per deck

– 85% faster

Offsite pre-fab of zones

Offsite pre-pressurized


Effective Visualization?

What does this tell us?


Building Agent Dashboard

Graphic Design: Marjorie Schott, NREL

What about this?


On Track Today (07:00 MST 10/8/15)


Creating Expectations

77

Upper Expectation

Measured Performance Lower Expectation

Expectations combine statistical and physical energy models


Modeling Consumption

Vertical Irradiance (W/m2)

LPD

(W

/m2

)

Statistical Models Lighting

Physical Models PV Generation

Combined Models Plug Loads

Henze, G.P.; Pless, S.; Petersen, A.; Long, N.; Scambos, T. (2015). “Control limits for building energy end use based on frequency analysis and quantile regression." Energy Efficiency, published online. DOI: 10.1007/s12053-015-9342-6


Fault Detection Example: Daylighting

Lighting higher than expected

Lighting out of range despite full daylighting potential

Root Cause: Daylighting controls overridden during repair of ballast and fixtures; controls weren’t reset

6-Nov-2013 6-Nov-2013


Fault Detection Example: Lighting

Controls

Lighting load is too high in evening hours (6–10 PM)

Response: Reduce auto-off delays; staff outreach; lessons learned for future lighting system design

Multiple Causes: Cleaning staff, individuals working late

1-Jan-2014 5-Apr-2014


Fault Detection Example: Air Handler

Solution: Installation of new evaporative cooling unit to meet local demand, enabling the AHU to turn off at night

Problem: Large AHU on all night: manually overridden to provide air and cooling to a few night shift security employees

16-Aug-2013

7-Oct-2013


Fault Detection Example: PV Inverter

Offline

PV output too low. Why?

Time series suggests inverter outage; offline inverter confirmed via vendor web portal and repair dispatched

20-Mar-2015 20-Mar-2015


Photovoltaic System


Photovoltaics

•PV contractor involved with installation

•Installation technique improvements

•Standing Seam Roof

C-Wing PV

RSF Addition PV RSF PV


Production Tracking

Innovation for Our Energy Future HOT AISLES

Image courtesy Stantec


Operational Lessons- Datacenter

89

•Fully containing hot aisle difficult

• Custom aisle floor and door seals

• Ensure equipment designed for

cold aisle containment

• And installed to pull cold air

– Not hot air…

•Have run ~1.1-1.35 PUE

•A few hot spots were driving up PUE

•Summer time PUE of 1.35 because

of increased cooling

Control hot aisle based on return

temperature of ~90F

NR

EL/P

IX 1

7897

Cre

dit:

Marj

orie S

chott/N

RE

L


Data Center load goes down?

90


Fix PV faults as soon as they are found

– 12% improvements possible

Continued datacenter metric tracking

– 1.15 PUE and total 120 kW goals

Lighting controls commissioning

– Occupancy sensors, daylighting set points

Wood chip boiler controls improvements

– Over 50% natural gas savings planned

Additional PV planned

More thin clients

All while trying to fit in another 100 occupants…

91

Plan to return to net positive


Uncontrolled Load Profile for

a Zero Office Building

-2000

-1500

-1000

-500

0

500

1000

Ho

url

y El

ectr

icit

y U

se (

+) a

nd

Pro

du

ctio

n (

-) (

kW)

Car Charging

Total cooling

Total Lighting (kW)

Total Plug Loads (kW)

Total Mechanical (kW)

Total Data Center (kW)

PV (kW)

Net Building Utility Draw (kW)


The Solution:

Grid-Friendly, Islandable Net Zero Vision

1. Net zero with deep energy efficiency moving into

marketplace now

2. Leverage net zero and efficiency for active load

shape management

• Inherent capacitance of building systems

3. Add stationary electric and thermal storage for peak

demand management

• Storage as a service

4. Add islanding capabilities and controls that utilize

net zero and grid friendly hardware

Renewable Building-Scale Microgrid


100% Renewable, Grid Friendly, AND Energy Secure


High Performance Building Operators

Owners/Operators

Jim Dewey, City of Santa Barbara

John Elliott, UC Merced

Matt Ellis, Army

Jake Gedvilas, NREL

Rodney Martin, NASA

Scott Poll, NASA

Len Pettis, California State University

Kevin Rodgers, University of Chicago

Jason Sielcken, GSA

Darrell Smith, Microsoft

Scott Williams, Target

Designers and Energy Consultants

Porus Antia, Stantec

Matt Ganser, Carbon Lighthouse

Rob Peña, University of Washington and the Integrated Design Laboratory

Zack Rogers, Daylighting Innovations

Phil Saieg, McKinstry


Resources

General HPB operations process linked by project phase • Present a storyline for all HPB operations

key actions (above and beyond current practice)

Unique sections for topics that create a base recipe that can be used by all HPB owners and building types

Examples of unique lessons given to generate motivation and confidence to take action

• Setting and requiring energy targets

• Procuring an EIS

• Procuring MELs

• Datacenters

• Occupancy and occupant feedback

• Closing the loop with action plans

https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/1913


How Much Did It Cost?

97

• $259/ft2 construction costs for site work, infrastructure,

and building

o Includes interiors, furniture, and cabling

o Does not include PV, land, or design costs

• $246/ft2 construction cost for third wing

• Third-party-owned power purchase agreement for PV

o $29/ft2 or 11% additional cost if NREL had purchased

all PV without tax breaks or subsidies (at $5/Watt)


Compare

98

$201

$215

$240

$246

$247

$253

$254

$259

$259

$266

$266

$271

$273

$275

$281

$284

$288

$291

$293

$298

$308

$311

$316

$318

$326

$354

$369

$371

$384

$393

$412

$418

$442

$460

$503

$521

$530

Heifer International Center - Platinum

NVCI Cancer Research - Silver

Kitsap County Admin Building - Other

RSF Expansion - Total Construction Cost without PV - Platinum

The Signature Centre - Platinum

Great River Energy Headquarters - Platinum

Ft. Carson Brigade/Battalion HQ - Gold

RSF - Total Construction Cost without PV - Platinum

International Fund for Animal Welfare - Gold

Omega Center - Platinum

Chevron Office - Other

Bremerton BEQ - Certified

University of Denver Sturm College - Gold

RSF Expansion - Total Construction Cost with PV - Platinum

Naval Facilities Southeast Engineering Operations Center - Other

Ft. Lewis Barracks and Dinning - Silver

RSF - Total Construction Cost with PV - Platinum

RSF - Total Project Cost without PV - Platinum

Dillard University - Gold

EPA Region 8 Headquarters - Other

Fernald Visitors Center - Platinum

Commerce City Civic Center - Silver

Leo Trombatore Office - Silver

Arizona State University School of Journalism - Silver

Arizona State University College of Nursing & Health - Gold

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City - Other

Leprino Building - Other

San Joaquin Admin Building - Gold

1800 Larimer - Platinum

Las Cruces Courthouse - Other

NASA Sustainability Base - Platinum

Applied Research & Development - Platinum

Aircraft RSF - Silver

National Association of Realtors - Silver

Fort Bragg Forces Command HQ - Gold

San Joaquin Comm. College - Other

DC Federal Building - Other

Data used by permission from the Design-Build project database hosted by DBIA at www.dbia.org

http://www.dbia.org/


• Firm fixed price with required energy goals in design-

build contract

• Integrated architecture and envelope as efficiency

measures

• Simple and commercially viable

• No unique technologies required

• Modular precast wall panels with minimal finishes

• Optimized glazing area

• Repeatable office floorplate

• Takes a coordinated effort with the owner (and all user

groups), architect, builder, and engineers

99

Replicable – Cost Control Review


How-to Guides for Cost Control

Guide:

– https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/1655

– Discusses the recommended strategies

– Pairs strategies with industry examples of success in

ZEBs and other high-performance buildings where

possible

– Describes how to balance key decision-making factors

– Provides quick reference tables to help building owners

and project teams apply the recommended strategies to

their projects.

Fact sheet:

– https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/1654

– Highlights key ideas from the guide

– Directs readers to the guide for more details.




Thanks and Questions

Shanti Pless

[email protected]

www.nrel.gov/rsf

101

mailto:[email protected]