Energy Agreements Programme. Commercial Buildings Special Working Group

Transcription

1 Energy Agreements Programme Commercial Buildings Special Working Group Development of new Commercial Buildings Energy Audit Methodology based on the EED principle

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND REVIEW IS EN 16001: EED METHODOLOGY RETROCOMMISSIONING OTHER ENERGY AUDITING /ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGIES PRIORITISING RECOMMENDATIONS & RETROFIT OPPORTUNITIES BUILDING HANDOVER PROCESS TRIAL EED AUDIT EED BASED AUDIT METHODOLOGY CB EED BASED AUDIT METHODOLOGY INSTRUCTIONS FOR EED AUDITORS IDENTIFYING ENERGY SAVING OPPORTUNITIES PRIORITISING RECOMMENDATIONS & RETROFIT OPPORTUNITIES CONCLUSIONS/WAY FORWARD APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 EED AUDIT REPORT TEMPLATE APPENDIX 2 OCCUPIER OPERATING REQUIREMENTS SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE APPENDIX 3 EED ENERGY SERVICE TABLES APPENDIX 4 ENERGY BENCHMARKS APPENDIX 5 PRIORITISATION TOOL

3 Executive Summary This report documents the development of the EED based auditing methodology for Commercial Buildings. The application of the EED Methodology was analysed and elements of it adapted for the commercial buildings EED based Auditing process. The EED (Energy Efficient Design) methodology was originally developed as a design approach for projects in process industries. While elements of the EED are specific to process and design, the core principle, and in particular the concept underpinning the EED Venn diagram tool, are of relevance to a wide range of applications, including energy auditing of commercial buildings. The main function of the EED methodology is to focus analysis, not on the equipment or the control settings, but on the user needs. This shift in thinking has been applied to energy auditing in order to identify whether or not a particular energy service, or effect that is achieved, can be eliminated or reduced before looking at the equipment or other elements in the building. In addition to the EED methodology, a number of other approaches to reducing energy consumption in buildings were reviewed and relevant elements applied in the development of the commercial buildings EED based audit methodology. In particular, retrocommissioning, a practice which is popular in the United States, was analysed. Retrocommissioning is focused primarily on energy using equipment and on re-commissioning an existing building back to the original design parameters. This is a fundamentally different approach to the EED method which focuses on the user needs and on querying the existing design intent based on the energy service. Engaging with the building occupants and seeking to determine the occupants requirements is one element in retrocommissioning which has a parallel with the EED methodology and this has been adapted for the auditing methodology developed. BREEAM credits relating to operation and maintenance of buildings were also found to be useful in identifying target areas for energy saving. For example, guidelines are given for assessing the potential for natural daylighting in an existing building. Prioritising retrofit opportunities or audit recommendations which highlights the preferred options sometimes poses a problem in energy audits. A range of factors were analysed to determine their relevance. The main conclusion reached was that the prioritisation of retrofit opportunities is dependant on client motivation and it is recommended that this be the main factor in determining the order of priority for recommendations or retrofit opportunities. The current building handover process was reviewed and recommendations to improve knowledge transfer from practical completion to building occupancy and operation were developed. The main recommendation is for a non-technical building manual to be developed by the design team and contractor prior to building handover and for the client to assign a suitable member of staff to take responsibility for building systems information. The result of the investigations detailed in this document has been the development of a 12 step EED based auditing methodology for commercial buildings. To implement the methodology, instructions to EED auditors are given and a toolkit consisting of an EED Audit Report Template, Occupier questionnaire and Energy Service tables for use as an aid during the site survey has been developed. The elements of the tool kit are included in the Appendices. The new audit methodology has not yet been formally named. A trial audit was conducted on a test building. This audit was used to test and refine the methodology and to trial means of prioritising recommendations or retrofit opportunities. The EED based audit methodology developed in this report may be used to implement a number of elements of the Planning stage (Section 3) of IS EN 16001:

4 1.0 Introduction/Background The development of an energy auditing methodology based on Energy Efficient Design (EED) principles was a result of Commercial Buildings (CB) Special Working Group (SWG) Deliverable 12: EED Auditing Applications to existing buildings, prioritizing retrofit opportunities in Energy saving terms, retrocommissioning and handover. The new audit methodology has not yet been formally named. In this report, the new methodology is referred to as the EED based audit methodology. It was felt that the term EED is more relevant for design and so should not be applied to an audit methodology. Other proposals for naming the audit methodology are: EEA- Energy Efficient Audit methodology EUN - Energy User Needs audit methodology ESF Energy Service Focused audit methodology The EED Methodology was originally developed for application in project design of industrial, process, chemical and pharmaceutical projects. However, there are several aspects of it which constitute a sound basis for developing an energy auditing methodology which may be applied to existing commercial buildings. The unique core element of the EED methodology is the Venn diagram tool. This provides a structure which may be applied to the analysis of energy use in existing buildings. What makes the venn diagram methodology different from other energy auditing approaches is that it starts with challenging the need for the energy service, e.g. comfort, in the first place and then proceeds outwards to examine the process, the equipment, control of the energy service, operating and maintenance and housekeeping. Traditional energy auditing approaches typically only look at the equipment and optimising controls. The Venn diagram tool takes a more fundamental and rigorous approach to challenging energy use in buildings. In addition to the EED, several other energy assessment and auditing methodologies were evaluated with a view to incorporating relevant elements in the CB EED auditing process. These included: Retrocommissioning BREEAM Assessments Post Occupancy Evaluation CIBSE TM22 Energy Assessment & Reporting Method and TM 46 Energy Benchmarks IS EN 16001:2009 Energy Management Standard One of the elements in the brief was to look at ways of effectively prioritising recommendations and retrofit opportunities to maximise the impact of the energy audit. A range of factors were considered including new rent capability, carbon mitigation statements, lower operating costs and benchmarking of building energy usage. The current building handover process may be incomplete or ineffective. A review was conducted to determine the common weaknesses in handover and recommendations to improve it developed. As a result of the review and analysis conducted on the items above, an EED auditing process was developed. A trial audit was conducted on a two storey office building. The purpose of the trial audit was to test the effectiveness of the EED audit process developed and provide feedback to the audit methodology to optimise it. 4

5 2.0 Review 2.1 IS EN 16001:2009 IS EN 16001: 2009 Energy Management Standard is the European energy management standard developed from IS393. EN applies a PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) approach. It is targeted at organisations and provides a framework for the development of an ongoing energy management strategy. EED may have been developed from IS 393 as the user need focus is similar. The EED based audit, developed in this report, may form part of an ongoing energy management strategy for an organisation or company. In particular, the audit may be applied during the Planning stage, as detailed in Section 3.3 of IS EN 6001, and may form part of the identification and review of energy aspects as outlined in Section The requirement to maintain a register of opportunities for energy saving may be assisted by utilising the recommendations from the EED based audit. The recommendations from the audit may be used in the setting of energy objectives and targets as set out in Section of IS EN 16001: EED Methodology The EED methodology as developed by the SEAI EED SWG in 2008 to provide a guideline on implementing EED in Irish industrial design projects. The EED SWG members consisted of companies participating in the Energy Agreements Programme and engineering design consultancies. The structure of the EED methodology and the relevance of each part was assessed with a view to the development of the commercial buildings (CB) EED based audit methodology. The EED has two main elements: a) Project Organisation b) 3 Step Process The EED methodology is a 3 step process: i. Phase 1: Energy Balance ii. Phase 2: Analyse and Challenge iii. Phase 3: Implementation The EED methodology developed by this project is focused on the Energy Balance and Analyse & Challenge phases. The purpose of the EED building audit is to identify, quantify and prioritise energy saving opportunities in Commercial Buildings. The implementation phase is outside this scope of work and forms a follow up action for the client based on the recommendations of the EED energy audit EED Venn Diagram tool The EED Venn diagram tool is the unique element of the EED methodology. The Venn diagram, which is shown below, outlines the different categories to be considered with seeking to implement the optimum energy efficient solution. The principle of the methodology is to examine the various layers that comprise the overall energy usage, starting at the core (the Energy Service ) and working outwards to encompass all aspects of the process, the equipment, the control, operation and maintenance and housekeeping. 5

6 The energy service as defined by the EED is the effect that is achieved e.g. occupant comfort. The process is the means by which this is achieved e.g. heating / cooling. The equipment is the plant that produces the process e.g. boilers or chillers, building fabric insulation. Control is the control parameters for the system e.g. temperature set points and time schedules. Operations and Maintenance consists of scheduled maintenance such as boiler maintenance, cleaning of filters and split system maintenance. Good housekeeping encompasses staff practices relating to energy efficiency such as turning off lights, turning off PC s when not in use and general energy awareness. It is important to make the distinction between the energy service and the process and this is often overlooked in traditional energy auditing approaches. The EED process encourages decisions to be made at the user need level EED Organisation Assignment of roles: EED Owner EED Expert The EED Owner is to be the client or the client s representative. The EED Expert is typically the energy auditor or energy consultant performing the EED energy audit on the building Energy Balance Actions: Calculation of building energy consumption (using existing bill data) Identification of significant energy users List high level energy saving opportunities 6

7 Deliverable: High level list of Energy Services to target in commercial buildings. Energy data available for commercial buildings is typically not as detailed as that available for process applications. Bill data based on monthly or every two month energy bills is usually the only energy consumption information available. It is not possible to determine the extent of individual loads e.g. lighting, heating etc. from bill data unless the heating is provided from an alternative fuel source such as gas or oil. Most commercial buildings do not have sub-metering of large energy users so it is not likely to be possible to identify significant energy users from bill data energy consumption. The list of energy services to be targeted is likely to be common to most commercial buildings. It is suggested that the list developed as part of the auditing template be used by the EED expert or auditor to select the energy services which are applicable for the particular building being audited. It may be more relevant to incorporate the calculation of building energy consumption stage into the analyse and challenge phase as this will be specific to the building. Energy benchmarks for typical and best practice buildings may be included in the energy balance phase. CIBSE TM22 as well as CIBSE TM46 both have energy benchmarks for commercial buildings which are applicable. However, TM46 benchmarks are more transparent and these have been used in the auditing methodology. Energy Consumption Guide 19 (ECON 19) Energy Use in Offices also contains benchmarks but it s main usefulness is in providing an estimation of energy consumption of significant energy users. Energy Services Target list to include: Illumination Comfort Hot Water Heating Office Administration Fresh air Processes associated with each of these may be: Illumination Lighting, including natural daylighting and artificial lighting Comfort Heating & Cooling, including retention of heating and coolth Hot Water heating heating of hot water and retention of heat Office Admin Services office equipment such as PC s, IT equipment, photocopiers Fresh air Ventilation natural and mechanical It was necessary to re-name some of the above to ensure the EED auditing structure is easy to understand for the building owner and those implementing the audit report recommendations. For example, hot water heating is technically a process but defining an energy service such as Cleaning, may cause confusion to those new to this EED based auditing methodology and to the client. Therefore, it was considered more practical to call it hot water heating. For other SWG s, the energy service name is closer to the process name or sometimes even the equipment name. Examples of energy services identified for the food & dairy group are: Cleaning in Place (CIP) Refrigeration Steam Generation & Distribution Pasteurisation Heat Treatment Dryers/ Evaporators Items such as building fabric are included in the equipment category. 7

8 2.2.4 Analyse & Challenge Actions: Consultation with staff in building to identify user needs and opportunities for energy saving. Application of the Venn diagram tool to the energy services identified in the building Assess the energy saving potential of proposed measures Deliverable: Energy Savings Register EED uses brainstorming sessions for consultation. The retrocommissioning toolkit includes a staff consultation questionnaire which may be applicable here. Brainstorming sessions tend not to be particularly productive unless staff have identified ideas or areas prior to the session, therefore the questionnaire may be more applicable. The energy savings register is to include capital cost, energy savings in kwh and and payback period of the proposed measures. Measures are to be ranked in terms of a hierarchy of opportunities. Priority is to be given to end user needs followed by minimising loads. Prioritisation of recommendations and retrofit opportunities is analysed in Section Implementation Actions: Ensure changes are implemented via EED verification role Evaluate the benefits of the measures implemented Deliverable: Project Summary Report The implementation phase relates to the implementation of recommendations from an energy audit. Therefore, it is not considered to be of relevance for the development of the EED based auditing methodology but is a follow up action for the client after the audit has been completed. 2.3 Retrocommissioning Retrocommissioning is defined as a systematic method for investigating how and why an existing building s systems are operated and maintained and identifying ways to improve overall building performance. Source: California Commissioning Guide: Existing Buildings, California Commissioning Collaborative, Retrocommissioning, in its current form, was first developed in the late 1990 s in the United States. The US department of Energy commissioned a report entitled A Practical Guide for Commissioning Existing Buildings in The report was delivered jointly by Portland Energy Conservation Inc and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It collated the available information on commissioning from sources such as ASHRAE, New York State Energy Research, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory among others, applied it to existing buildings and produced a formal structure for the process of retrocommissioning. A more comprehensive retrocommissioning process was developed by the California Commissioning Collaborative (CCC) in CCC is a working group within the 8

9 Department of General Services in the state government of California. In general, the state government of California is viewed as the most progressive in terms of energy and environmental polices of all the states in the US and has introduced many environmental protection measures which are more stringent than federal policies. An example of this is building code Title 24 Energy Efficient Standards for Residential and Commercial Buildings, first introduced in It s closest, but less comprehensive, equivalent in Ireland is the Building Regulations Part L, which was not introduced until Retrocommissioning consists of 4 Phases: Planning Investigation Implementation Hand-off The planning and investigation phases are similar to an energy audit evaluating energy consumption using bill data, consultation with building occupants and the development of a target list of proposed improvements to reduce energy consumption in the building. The focus in retrocommissioning is on energy using equipment and on optimising their performance and controls to bring the building back in line with the design parameters. To correlate the retrocommissioning process to the EED model, the Planning phase is similar to Phase 1: Energy Balance. The investigation phase is similar to EED Phase 2: Analyse and Challenge. The implementation and hand off phases are analogous to EED Phase 3: Implementation. Roles and responsibilities are also defined in the Retrocommissioning process. The number and types of roles may vary depending on the project but typical roles include: Commissioning lead Building Owner or owners representative Building Manager and staff Design Professionals System Specialists Contractors This assignment of roles correlates with the EED assignment of roles of the EED Owner (typically the client) and the EED expert (typically the energy auditor or consultant). The roles of system specialists and contractors do not apply to the EED auditing process as being developed here. A retrocommissioning methodology and associated toolkit has been developed by the California Commissioning Collaborative (CCC). The toolkit consists of: Request for Proposal Checklist Building Staff Interview form List of preferred building characteristics Owner Operating Requirements Diagnostic Monitoring Plan Ongoing Capital expenditure plan Implementation summary report Sequence of Operation for the commissioning plan Monitoring action plan Calibration plan Training Plan for building staff Other tools available include: Energy calculation tools o Pumping system 9

10 o Fan system Data Analysis Tools o Energy charting and metrics o Utility consumption analysis o Findings workbook The retrocommissioning toolkit is available for download, free of charge, from the following website: Retrocommissioning uses kwh energy consumption based on bill data as the basis for analysis. The building staff interview form may be useful in the analysis and challenge phase of the CB EED audit. Not all of the elements may be relevant but there is some useful information in the toolkit and relevant aspects may be applied to the CB EED. One fundamental difference between retrocommissioning and the EED is that retrocommissioning assumes the original design for the building was correct and seeks to return the building to the original design intent. In the Irish context, the initial design for the building may have been flawed and so seeking to return a building to the design operating parameters may not be the most energy efficient approach to take. Commercial buildings in the US tend to be much larger than in Ireland. They also use air handling systems for heating and cooling much more extensively than commercial buildings in Ireland. There are much more widespread variations in climatic conditions in the US compared with Ireland. Some aspects of the methodology and of the tools may not be applicable on this basis. For larger buildings in the US, there are typically full time maintenance staff who are technically knowledgeable. There may not be a similar level of technical awareness in smaller Irish buildings e.g. the security personnel may double as maintenance. The owner operating requirement and building staff interview concepts in retrocommissioning have been adapted and incorporated into the occupant operating requirements questionnaire element of the EED based audit methodology. 2.4 Other Energy Auditing /Assessment Methodologies BREEAM In BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) credits are assigned for sustainable aspects of the building. BREEAM includes a section for assessing the sustainability of an existing building in operation. This is the operation and maintenance (O&M) section. BREEAM is a holistic sustainability assessment methodology and incorporates more than just energy reducing measures. Health and wellbeing, and pollution are also assessed in the O&M credits but these have been omitted where they are not relevant to energy use. The credits assigned in the O&M section were reviewed to determine if they may be useful in developing the energy savings register and list of target areas. O&M credits relating to energy use include: Daylighting 80% of the building is adequately daylit. This is assessed by using the following factors: o room depth is less than 7m from side windows o Surfaces are generally light in colour o Floor covering is not excessively dark High frequency lighting HF ballasts are installed in light fittings Internal and external lighting levels lighting levels are in accordance with the maintained illuminance levels recommended by CIBSE. 10

11 Lighting zones lighting zoned to allow separate control. Potential for natural ventilation external façade windows to all occupied areas are openable. Ventilation rates - minimum fresh air rates achieved. Thermal zoning local occupant control available for temperature adjustment in each area to reflect differing load requirements. Occupant satisfaction feedback procedures in place for the collection and recording of occupant satisfaction feedback. Occupant satisfaction targets procedures in place to take occupant feedback into account, to address issues which have been highlighted and putting improvement targets in place. Reduction of CO2 emissions where a building demonstrates a percentage improvement over a building which complies with the minimum building regulations. Sub-metering of substantial energy users used to determine the energy consumption of large loads such as space heating, lighting etc. Sub-metering of areas/tenancy used to identify large energy users in a multi-tenant building. External lighting energy efficient luminaries are used and are controlled for the presence of daylight. Maintenance schedules established periodic scheduled maintenance procedures in place for significant systems and equipment in the building e.g. boilers, lighting, HVAC. Energy Policy and audit energy policy endorsed at board level in the company and an energy audit is conducted at least every 3 years. Energy/C02 monitoring, targeting and reductions operational energy to be monitored at least quarterly and historical records are available. Renewable and low emission energy feasibility study carried out, 10% to 15% of total building demand is from local renewable or low emission sources. BREEAM also has a user need focused approach. The main application of the BREEAM criteria to the EED energy auditing methodology is in identifying areas for improvement in the building during the site survey and formulating recommendations for the building occupier. Some of the criteria may be C02 or carbon focused but, in general, the principle remains valid for energy saving. Post Occupancy Evaluation Post occupancy evaluation involves monitoring of building for up to 3 years after practical completion to ensure building performance meets design criteria. It requires significant design team involvement and is not particularly applicable for older buildings. Even for recently constructed or renovated buildings it is unlikely design teams will voluntarily participate in an energy audit as additional fees would be required. Post occupancy evaluation is not considered of particular relevance to the EED based audit methodology. CIBSE TM22 CIBSE TM22 is an energy assessment and reporting method based on energy bill data. The energy assessment is conducted using a spreadsheet tool which outputs energy savings in Carbon and stg. As neither of these are applicable in Ireland, the method is of limited use. kwh evaluation is required for the CB EED energy audit. The TM22 focus on bill data an not on site based assessment is not likely to identify significant retrofit opportunities. The aim of TM22 is to provide feedback for building evaluation and is not an energy auditing tool in itself. CIBSE TM46 CIBSE TM46:2008 contains energy benchmarks for a wide range of buildings from commercial office buildings to hotels, clinics, workshops, airport terminal etc. Energy benchmarks are provided in kwh/m2. The energy benchmarks used in the EED based audit methodology are taken from TM46. Energy benchmarks are used as part of the Phase 1 Energy Balance in particular, Step 2. Or if an energy balance assessment is not possible prior to the site survey, as part of Phase 2 Analyse & Challenge, in particular Step 7. 11

12 2.5 Prioritising Recommendations & Retrofit Opportunities This section proposes means of prioritising recommendations and reviews factors affecting decision making on investment. The EED Venn diagram provides a structure for developing recommendations and it also provides a structure for prioritising recommendations. Traditional energy audits tend to focus on operational and control changes which may be easily implemented with minimum or sometimes no capital cost. However, by using the EED methodology, it is hoped that by focusing on the core Energy Service significantly greater energy savings may be identified. An EED energy audit on an actual building was conducted to determine whether the EED methodology provides an effective means of prioritising recommendations. Other things to consider when prioritising are capital cost, disruption to the building and energy demand reduction. A more conventional approach to prioritising recommendations is in terms of kwh savings and payback. However, often to achieve significant kwh savings a significant capital investment or extensive disruption may be required. For example, insulating a building or improving the existing insulation may produce significant kwh savings, the payback period may be good but if the building is required to be shut down for a month and all the external walls need to be stripped, insulated and dry lined, the disruption caused by this may be more than the building occupier is willing to tolerate. Other measures, such as installing renewable energy technologies, may mask energy inefficiencies in the building and while they produce a kwh reduction, the investment required may sometimes be better applied in reducing energy demand in the building Considerations New Rent Capability New rent capability is sometimes considered a factor when assessing improvements to buildings. However this only applies to properties which are leased to tenants (not owner occupier). Whether or not energy efficiency or energy consumption has an impact depends on a number of factors: Location of building Availability of other commercial property in area Standard of fit out for commercial property in area Estate agent and potential tenant perception of whether energy efficiency adds value to a property. At present it is generally not considered an important factor. Estate agent and potential tenant perception that Air Conditioned offices are more attractive and generally better. Potential tenant priorities e.g. Car parking may be the tenants main priority. The most common way energy performance is assessed by potential tenants is through the BER rating for the building. After consulting with an estate agent, the results confirm the above findings. In general, there are very few new lease transactions taking place. For those that are taking place, securing the lowest possible rent is the main priority. After this, other factors such as location and car parking are more important than energy efficiency or the BER rating of the building. Retail and industrial tenants are typically not at all interested in energy efficiency. There is some interest among commercial office tenants in energy efficiency. Public bodies who have undertaken energy awareness campaigns or have made a strong commitment to reducing energy consumption, such as the OPW, are interested in energy consumption of the buildings they lease. Service charges for common areas is a particular area of concern for tenants in commercial office buildings. In general, tenant expectations for the energy performance of existing buildings is not high and until there are a significant number of low energy premises available, this expectation is unlikely to change. 12

13 To summarise, improving the energy performance of a building is unlikely to increase the rental income from the building. Carbon mitigation statements / Corporate Policy Commitment Some organisations have carbon mitigation statements or high level management commitments to reduce energy consumption or carbon emissions. The ESB, for example, has made a corporate commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2012, reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2020 and to become a zero carbon organisation by This type of defined high level commitment can have a significant impact on the funding made available for energy improvements in buildings. However, the level of funding available depends on the profitability of the organisation as a whole and whether there are funds available to allocate to expenditure on works to reduce energy consumption. Corporate energy or environmental policy statements which are vague and do not contain a firm commitment which has been quantified either in percentage, tonnes of carbon or kwh reductions, generally have no impact on investment decisions for works to improve the energy efficiency of a building. Lower Operational costs Lower operational costs matter most for owner occupiers. Tenants who are leasing a building are often prepared to make operational changes which have no or very low costs but generally very reluctant to make any improvements which require investment as they do not own the building. Energy performance improvement measures are typically viewed as the responsibility of the landlord. Owner occupiers of commercial buildings are much more likely to commit to measures which require investment and will reduce operating costs in the building as they will reap the benefits directly Benchmarking Benchmarking of buildings is a good means of getting a snapshot view of how the building is performing. While energy consumption results may be significantly influenced by occupant behaviour, benchmarking using these is generally considered a good starting point for assessing building energy performance. Energy benchmarks are used as part of the audit in Phase 1 Energy Balance, more specifically, as part of Step 2. Or if an energy balance assessment is not possible prior to the site survey, as part of Phase 2 Analyse & Challenge, in particular Step 7. The BER rating is another means of benchmarking the building s performance. A fundamental point of difference between benchmarking using energy bills and the BER rating is that the BER does not take actual energy consumption into account. The building energy consumption is estimated based on the building fabric, equipment installed, etc. The DEC, on the other hand, is based only on actual bill data and so is more easily influenced by occupant behaviour. A BER assessment may be useful for assessing the energy saving impact of proposed improvement measures or for a before / after assessment of the building energy performance. It is recommended that a BER assessment be conducted as a separate exercise to the EED audit. However, the results may be applied to the EED audit. Benchmarking is useful for setting energy reduction targets as part of an overall energy management plan. For example, a % reduction per annum in energy consumption required to bring building from current kwh/m2 to best practice or above may be identified as the target or objective of the energy management plan for an organisation. 13

14 2.4.3 Prioritising Audit Recommendations & retrofit opportunities A prioritisation tool has been developed to create the hierarchy of opportunities and assist in decision making. The prioritisation tool is included Appendix 5. The decision criteria in the tool may be modified if the energy priorities for a particular site or company vary. For example, if the aim of the audit is to identify energy savings of up to 20%, then having a column with % energy savings at the end of the tool may be useful. Alternatively, a higher weighting may be given to kwh energy saved. The client s motivation and priorities are essential in determining how to prioritise retrofit opportunities. As these priorities may vary from one client to the next, it is important to discuss the recommendations with the client. It is only after this discussion has taken place that the recommendations may be effectively prioritised. In order to understand the client s priorities, it is recommended the following be discussed with the client. Corporate ethos / management drive for energy or carbon reduction or sustainability Short / Medium /Long term plans for the building Cost of implementation (no or low cost items prioritised) Ease of implementation Capital expenditure (CapEx) available Some clients may want a menu of possible measures from which they would like to choose after internal consideration within the company. Other clients may want a critical path identified to achieve a certain percentage of savings per annum as identified in a corporate strategy. It is possible that other clients may focus on using energy saving as a means of reducing operational costs in the business and may only wish to implement measures which have no capital or investment cost associated with them. It may also be possible that the energy audit was commissioned to provide a reasonable basis for works that were already being considered for the building. Using the Prioritisation Tool To use the prioritisation tool, the highest score is given to the most favourable outcome. For example, recommendations which have a no or low cost may score 10 whereas recommendations which have a high capital cost may score 1 or 0. kwh savings and cost savings are directly related and so these may often have the same scores. Having two separate categories of decision criteria is more relevant if there are multiple fuels in use in a building or on a site. Cost savings for electricity are likely to be greater than for gas or oil even if the kwh saving is the same. Fastest time to implementation for recommendations may be scored as follows: Implemented immediately and have immediate effect score 10 May take up to 6 months to implement may be scored around 5 to 7 Up to 1 year may be scored between 2 and 4 Over 1 year may be scored between 1 and 0. Ease of implementation relates to the relative ease or difficulty in implementing the recommendation. Recommendations which require changes in staff behaviour may be difficult to implement even if the potential savings are high. 2.6 Building Handover Process 14

15 The building handover process may be described as the process of handover of a completed building or part of a building to the occupier or building owner. For retrofit projects, the extent of the handover depends on the scale of the works. Significant retrofit projects such as full strip out and refurbishment of the entire building require a handover similar to a new build project. Smaller retrofit projects may be limited to one service in a building or even to one plant item. The level of handover on these minor works may be limited to a brief run through of the system or sometimes there may be no handover. The typical handover process for a significant retrofit project or a new build involves: the occupier or building owner taking possession of the building, ensuring any snag items are dealt with and closed out, receiving the operation and maintenance manuals from the contractors, staff training on operation and maintenance requirements for the equipment in the building. The current building handover process varies depending on whether the occupier is a tenant or an owner occupier. For tenants leasing a commercial office space which is fitted out there is often little or no handover process as the building owner has already taken possession of the building and information such as the O&M manuals are kept by the building owner or may have been lost. For owner occupier buildings, the success of the handover process depends on a number of factors primarily the quality of the information and training provided by the contractor and the capability of the building occupiers staff who receive the training and are responsible for the systems in the building. There are a number of common pitfalls in a typical handover process. These include: a) Contractor rush to finish project and get practical completion signed off. Handover may not be given much attention. b) Incomplete Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Manuals provided to the client. c) Training provided at handover stage is insufficient. d) Member of occupier s staff who receives training on the systems installed does not have the necessary knowledge or may not be sufficiently interested in understanding how the systems work. Sometimes no one particular staff member has responsibility for handover and information or training provided may get lost. To rectify these problems, the following is recommended: i. Design team to ensure contractor prioritises handover process. Emphasis placed on handover requirements in particular specification and tender documents. Schedule of training to be provided by the contractor in advance of practical completion. Monitoring or checking of handover process by M&E engineer during training. ii. O&M manuals to be checked thoroughly by the M&E engineer and any omissions followed up to verify inclusion in the final document. iii. Client /building occupier to prioritise handover. If a facilities management company has been appointed, the handover process is to be made to the FM company. If no FM is in place, a single staff member with the required technical competency is to be given responsibility for the handover process. iv. A handover file or occupier building management manual is to be produced by the design team, contractor or an outside company. This is to be written in a non-technical way and is to provide the following: Non-technical, easy to understand description of the services in the building. How they operate, instructions for setting controls and any other information the occupier may need to know. Maintenance schedules for equipment. Contact details of all contractors, suppliers or manufacturers with whom a maintenance contract may be required, spares may need to be purchased from or the building occupier may need to call for any other reason. List of who to call when a particular system fails or is not functioning correctly. e.g. Fire Alarm. 15

16 Life safety systems mandatory safety checks e.g. emergency lighting and fire alarm. Companies with a portfolio of properties which require management, e.g. banks, may already have some to the above recommendations in place. There are service companies who specialise in the production of non-technical management manuals and it may be useful for this to be outsourced by the building owner, in particular if all manuals are to follow the same format. The building management manual is more likely to be used than an O&M manual and therefore there is a better chance of it being retained by building owners and the information shared with tenants if the building is leased. For significant retrofit projects, it is recommended that the client demand a full handover with the additional recommendations above. For minor works, it is recommended that the client demand a non-technical user manual for the system which has been modified or installed, in addition to training for the relevant staff members in the building or organisation. 2.7 Trial EED Audit A trial EED energy audit was conducted on a two storey office building. The purpose of this audit was to test the EED based audit methodology developed. The main lessons learned from the audit are outlined below. The EED based audit methodology has been amended to take these into account. The trial audit report has been completed and submitted to the building owner. The trail audit was also used to test the prioritisation tool. The prioritised results of the trial audit are included in Appendix 5. Main observations from trial EED audit: a) Occupier operating requirements questionnaire was too focused on equipment and set points and not on user needs. One of the fundamental principles underlining the EED approach is to identify energy savings at the user need level. The concept of the energy service, i.e. the effect that is achieved, and the EED venn diagram tool flow from this approach. It was recommended that the occupier operating requirements questionnaire be revised to reflect the user need approach. b) Using the EED energy service tables (see Appendix 3 of V2 draft report) during the site survey walk around is not very practical. In a site survey, information is typically gathered on a room by room basis or sometimes quite randomly through discussions with the building occupants or the building contact person conducting the walk down with the auditor. It was found that trying to write down recommendations in the energy service tables format involved leafing through pages and the auditor may miss some of the information relating to energy savings. It may be better to just record all observations in general notes during an initial site survey rather than trying to structure the observations in the EED energy service tables format. c) Most energy audits do not include an element of formal analysis during the site survey. It is recommended that the EED auditor conduct a high level site survey, get an overall idea of how the building functions, identify the key features and then sit down in an unoccupied room and conduct a brief analysis using the EED energy service tables. It was found that by doing this, the EED approach forces the auditor to consider all aspects of the energy service and so unknown aspects can be identified and checked on site. Typically, the analysis process is desktop based and the auditor will rely on recollection assisted by photographs to resolve queries or follow up issues. It is much more beneficial if follow up queries can be dealt with on site by inspection or speaking with the building occupants or building contact person. While this may mean that the 16

17 survey time for the EED audit may take longer than traditional audits, it should reduce the office based desktop analysis time later on. d) The EED energy service tables in Appendix 3 were not fully developed at the time of the energy survey. However, it was found that the energy service portion of the tables were not sufficiently focused on the user needs. It is recommended that the energy service tables be revised to focus more on the user need in the building. Supplementary observations: i. Some energy services in a particular building may be quite simple and may not warrant a detailed energy service analysis. E.g. hot water heating. The energy balance stage may be applied to rule out energy services which may not have scope for significant energy savings. ii. The EED auditor may end up spending time on an aspect where there may not be significant scope for energy saving opportunities. This may happen in all energy audits and the best approach is to bear in mind the EED Venn diagram and do a mental run through of the rings to quickly identify the energy saving potential of the particular element. iii. Determining or trying to gauge the occupants or building owners appetite for major or disruptive changes to the building in order to save energy may be something that auditors do. Sometimes the building occupant may already have changes in mind and has requested the energy audit to provide a cost benefit analysis of the proposed change. The best advice is for the auditor to keep an open mind and to recommend what is best for the building and building occupants in energy saving terms. Occupants motivation and priorities are to be considered by the auditor and taken into account when prioritising recommendations. 17

18 3.0 EED based Audit Methodology 3.1 CB EED based Audit Methodology The commercial buildings EED based audit methodology applies the EED Venn Diagram as a tool for the identification and prioritisation of energy saving opportunities. By using the EED Venn diagram as the structure for analysis, the EED based audit methodology aims to encourage auditors to view energy consumption in a more holistic way by focusing on the needs of the occupants rather than primarily on the equipment in the building. The definition of the energy service is key to this approach. Instead of categorising potential energy savings by equipment or technology, e.g. lighting, potential energy savings are categorised by the effect that is achieved, in this case, illumination. This then broadens the scope of the auditor to include other aspects of the occupant s need for illumination such as daylighting, and poses questions such as: can artificial lighting be eliminated in some areas of the building? This type of approach may sometimes be captured in conventional energy audits but whether or not it is will depend very much on the views of an individual auditor. The EED based audit methodology aims to formalise the thought process into the EED Venn diagram structure and therefore ensure that significant energy savings, which may slip through the net of conventional energy audits, may be identified. The audit methodology has been set out in the 12 step process outlined in the next section. In order for the methodology to be relevant, it needed to be easily understood and reasonably straightforward. This resulted in the development of a step based process with the EED Venn diagram as the core philosophy. The focus of the development of the methodology has been on commercial office buildings as these were considered to be the most common type of commercial building. However, the auditing methodology may also be applied to other types of commercial buildings such as retail or warehousing. There are a number of tools available to the EED auditor to assist in implementing and EED audit for a commercial building. These include: Energy Service Tables Occupant Operating Requirements Questionnaire EED Audit Template Report These are included in the appendices. Elements of the other methodologies reviewed as part of deliverable 12, such as retrocommissioning, have been included in the commercial buildings EED based audit methodology. These include: a) Structured approach to determining owner operating requirements from retrocommissioning b) Energy benchmarking from CIBSE Energy Benchmarks TM46:2008. c) BREEAM criteria for identifying energy saving opportunities and formulating recommendations. The new audit methodology has not yet been formally named. In this report, the new methodology is referred to as the EED based audit methodology. It was felt that the term EED is more relevant for design and so should not be applied to an audit methodology. Other proposals for naming the audit methodology are: EEA- Energy Efficient Audit methodology EUN - Energy User Needs audit methodology ESF Energy Service Focused audit methodology 3.2 Instructions for EED Auditors 18

19 To implement an EED audit for a commercial building, the EED Auditor is to follow the following steps outlined below. The EED audit has 3 main stages Desktop Review, Site Survey and Report Development. Desktop Review Step 1: Familiarise themselves with the EED Venn diagram and the EED auditing philosophy outlined in this document. Step 2: Conduct Energy Balance. Review building specific information such as building size, type and systems installed. If energy bill data that is available, review bill data and conduct high level benchmark with typical and best practice building energy consumption. If possible, identify energy services which are particularly relevant to the building and develop a high level list of energy services to target prior to the site survey. The aim of the high level list of energy services is to focus the audit on areas of particular relevance and avoid a generalised audit. If limited information is available on the building prior to the audit site visit, the EED auditor is advised to determine the energy services which are relevant as part of Step 4, the high level survey. The list of energy services which are common to commercial buildings is relatively short. It may be that all energy services identified in this report are relevant for a particular commercial building. The energy services in commercial buildings are as follows: o Illumination o Comfort o Hot Water Heating o Office Administration o Fresh air Site Survey Step 3: Determine the owner operating requirements for the building. This may be done using the Occupier Operating Requirements Questionnaire in Appendix 2. Step 4: Conduct a high level survey of the building identifying the main features of the building. Auditor is to determine how the building operates, types of activities, type of systems and equipment installed in the building and any unusual or key energy aspects of the building. When doing the survey, try to bear in mind the relevant Energy Service in each case and where possible note which element of the EED Venn diagram any particular features may belong to. Take notes during the survey. Document the survey using photographs. Step 5: Identify energy saving opportunities at each level of the EED Venn diagram. This may be best done by sitting down in an unoccupied room and going through the EED Energy Service tables in Appendix 3. It is advised that the auditor compile a list of follow up questions for the building occupants or building contact, and a list of follow up checks on aspects of the building not noted during the high level survey e.g. control of equipment. Step 6: Conduct a follow up survey on specific items identified during step 5. Address any queries resulting from step 5 to the building occupants or the building contact, e.g. office manager or energy champion. Document the survey using photographs. 19

20 Report Development Step 7: Develop recommendations based on the results of the site survey. Step 8: Quantify the kwh potential savings for each recommendation. Carbon savings may also be calculated. Step 9: Quantify high level order of magnitude /approximate Capital Costs, Cost Savings and simple payback period. Step 10: Prioritise recommendations / develop a hierarchy of opportunities. Step 11: Complete report and present to client. Step 12: Discuss implementation of recommendations with client based on: Corporate ethos / management drive for energy or carbon reduction or sustainability Short / Medium /Long term plans for the building Cost of implementation (no or low cost items prioritised) Ease of implementation Capital expenditure (CapEx) available The 12 step process is summarised in the following table: EED Step Input Tools Retrofit Audit Process Step Output Assign Roles Identify building owners energy champion and consultants auditor Roles agreed 1. Review Venn Diagram Building 2. Review building specific information energy use Phase 1: such as building size, type and any SEUs Venn diagram energy bill data that is available. High List of target Energy Balance level benchmark with typical and best energy practice building energy consumption services Phase 2: Analyse & Challenge Phase 3: Implementation Building occupant survey Venn diagram audit templates Audit report template 3. Determine the owner operating requirements for the building 4. Survey the building starting with the Energy Service in each case and working outwards through the layers of the EED Venn diagram 5. Identify energy saving opportunities at each level of the EED Venn diagram 6. Document the survey using template and photographs 7. Develop recommendations based on the results of the site survey 8. Quantify the kwh potential savings for each recommendation 9. Quantify high level order of magnitude approximate capital costs, savings and simple payback period 10. Prioritise recommendations & develop a hierarchy of opportunities 11. Complete report and present to client 12. Assist implementation decision process This remains the responsibility of the owner (not in scope of this work) 20 Complete questionnair e Complete templates Other notes and records as required Prioritised opportunity list Investment decision