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Building Monitoring

Monitoring of building systems is critical for ensuring that the systems operate as designed. Improperly operating systems waste energy and water, lead to unacceptable indoor environmental quality, and can cause premature equipment failures. The primary goal of building monitoring is to ensure that all building systems operate at peak efficiency. Over time, building systems controls can drift out of setting or may have been disabled because of poor system performance or lack of understanding of system operation by the maintenance staff.

Contents

1.Definition                                                
2. Use/Application
    a. Established Techniques
    b. Emerging Trends

3. Use an Integrated Approach

4. Resources

5. Associated Strategies

6. Case Studies

Monitoring of building systems is critical for ensuring that the systems operate as designed. Improperly operating systems waste energy and water, lead to unacceptable indoor environmental quality, and can cause premature equipment failures. The primary goal of building monitoring is to ensure that all building systems operate at peak efficiency. Over time, building systems controls can drift out of setting or may have been disabled because of poor system performance or lack of understanding of system operation by the maintenance staff.

A secondary benefit is the use of building monitoring as a teaching tool. In a school, for example, a touch screen display monitor can be set up to display how much power is being used and/or generated at any time. Glass panels, installed in lieu of ceiling tiles, can display the action of HVAC dampers. Such exhibits help make building occupants more aware of building energy use and potential savings.

Among the building systems and equipment that should be monitored are boilers, chillers, electrical equipment, lighting, elevators, fans, pumps, ventilation, filtration, and fire alarm and security systems. Monitoring can be done by building personnel checking individual control devices and systems; it can be computer-based, with all systems monitored at a central location in the building; or it can be remotely monitored as part of a multi-building, multiple location computer-based system.

LV switchboard with multifunction meter     on incoming lines and kilowatt-hour meters on selected outgoing circuits.

Building monitoring is most effectively applied by using computer-aided monitoring for predicting building system performance. Of course, in older buildings, individual systems and equipment can be monitored by building operations personnel to determine whether the equipment is operating efficiently and within specified limits. The value of computer-based monitoring is that alarms will sound and reports will be produced when system parameters go beyond upper and lower limit set points, without requiring operations personnel to check each meter and control device.

Monitoring electrical demand can result in saving significant energy costs by alerting operations personnel to switch off equipment before utility “ratchet clauses” kick in, by identifying the correct fuel to use based on real-time fuel costs, and by efficiently combining utility power with onsite-generated renewable energy sources.

Electronic single-phase sub-meter by E-mon Features: - Scrolling Display of kWh usage - kWh usage in dollars - Current demand load (kW) - Cost per hour, based on the current load - Estimated CO2 emissions in lbs. - Estimated hourly CO2 emissions based on current load - Optional net metering, including delivered, received, and net usage

Building monitoring can help answer these questions:

Are systems and equipment running much longer than originally scheduled? Is equipment running at a time of day that it shouldbe off? Have doors and windows been left open, thereby wasting energy? Is the electric lighting system on at full brightness at times when daylighting sensors should have turned off or dimmed lights to a lower level? Have changes or upgrades to equipment and controls adversely affected system operations? Essentially, are building systems operating at peak efficiency based on their design and specifications?

Building monitoring can include electrical sub-metering for multiple building campuses or for large buildings with very different zones (i.e., office spaces and warehouse area).

Sub-metering can also be applied to gas, steam, and water systems. Also consider applying sub-metering when a building or campus houses different tenants or departments that must be billed separately.

Established Techniques

Controls

Effective building monitoring must include all controls: time switches, occupancy sensors, light-level monitoring, thermostats, demand, and zoning. Building monitoring must monitor all systems: lighting, HVAC, fire alarm, and security. To be most effective, building monitoring must be part of an integrated, intelligent building management system that achieves interoperability among systems. Employing BACnet or LonWorks can provide the interface necessary for controls from different manufacturers to communicate with each other.

Design Tools

Continuous performance monitoring systems in large commercial buildings can provide operators with access to improved information to operate buildings more efficiently and reduce other operating costs. The Specifications Guide for Performance Monitoring Systems (cbs.lbl.gov/performance-monitoring/specifications/) consists of guidance and a set of specifications for continuous performance monitoring systems that can be easily adapted and routinely used by a variety of organizations for both new construction and control system retrofits. The guide discusses the benefits of performance monitoring, identifying key performance metrics and how measurement accuracy requirements relate to the performance metrics that are used in both troubleshooting and routine reporting.

Examples and resources are provided that address the four key aspects of performance monitoring:

• Performance metrics
• Measurement system requirements
• Data acquisition and archiving
• Data visualization and reporting

Adequately Trained Personnel

For building monitoring systems to be most effective, operating personnel must be trained to operate computer terminals, know how to respond to the alarms and reports generated by the monitoring devices, use this information to analyze the source and urgency of building operating system problems, and understand how to set various alarm limits for temperature, humidity, pressure, voltage, and RPMs, among others.

Green Building Rating Tools

The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system has specific requirements related to metering and verification, tenant submetering, fundamental commissioning, and staff education on building operations and maintenance savings to achieve points in the “Energy and Atmosphere” category.

The GreenGlobes rating system by the Green Building Initiative also assigns points for building controls and submetering. An effective building monitoring system can help reduce the overall energy use in a building, which helps meet the LEED and GreenGlobes energy performance goals.

Energy Policy Act

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 contains requirements for metering all federal buildings by 2012 (Section 103) and for net metering (Section 1251), which gives the electric consumer

credit for energy generated on-site to compensate for the energy purchased from the electric utility.

Periodic Recommissioning

Commissioning is a quality assurance process to ensure that building systems perform as intended. Periodic recommissioning is a process intended to ensure persistent energy savings

over the life of a building by reapplying previously conducted commissioning tests. Depending on the complexity of a particular system and changes in the building occupancy or functions, recommissioning may be performed annually or even continuously. Often, a major capital improvement to a building can trigger recommissioning activities. The California Commissioning Guide outlines the following other indicators that can be used to assess when recommissioning is appropriate for a particular building:

• Is there an unjustified increase in energy use?
• Have comfort complaints increased?
• Is the building staff aware of problems, but lacks the time or in-house expertise to fix them?
• Has control programming been modified or overridden to provide a quick fix to a problem?
• Are there frequent equipment or component failures?
• Have there been significant tenant improvement projects (buildouts)?
• Continuous Commissioning® has been pioneered by the Energy Systems Laboratory at Texas A&M University. In this case, a commissioning authority or other independent party works with the building operations and maintenance staff to permanently install monitoring equipment to provide feedback on the performance of building systems over time.

According to the Energy Systems Laboratory, applying the continuous commissioning process adds 15 to 45 percent savings over a normally commissioned building as measured by the methods outlined in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP). IPMVP began as a DOE initiative to develop an international measurement and valuation protocol that would help determine energy savings from energy-efficiency projects in a consistent and reliable manner. In January 2001, IPMVP Volume I (version 3): Concepts and Options for Determining Energy Savings, which clarified the definition of Option A by removing any ambiguity relating to the use of stipulated values in the engineering calculations/models, was published. IPMVP Volume II: Concepts and Practices for Improving Indoor Environmental Quality was published concurrently with Volume I. A nonprofit organization, IPMVP Inc., was formed to maintain and update existing content and develop new content (the name was subsequently changed to the Efficiency Valuation Organization [EVO]).

The flow chart below developed by Texas A&M Energy Systems Lab outlines the steps required as part of Continuous Commissioning®. According to the U.S. Climate Change Technology Program, improved operation and maintenance procedures could save more than 30 percent of the annual energy costs of existing commercial buildings.

A new way of thinking must be adopted in order to meet the goal of reducing carbon emissions associated with buildings.  Your solutions can begin by integrating four possible methods.  None works alone, and they are not all relevant in considering every strategy.  However, considering the following tactics is necessary:

• Reduce the overall energy use in your building
  • Employing building monitoring will reduce the overall energy use by alerting operators when a system or piece of equipment is operating improperly or failing, including HVAC, lighting, pumps, and compressors.
• Specify energy-efficient equipment and technologies
  • Use an integrated system approach to spec out the most cost-effective, energy-efficient equipment and technologies, which can include controls and monitoring devices
• Use renewable strategies and purchase green power
  • Using energy-efficient equipment with effective controls can reduce a building’s overall energy load, require smaller and more cost-effective renewable strategies, and reduce emissions.
• Educate building owners, operators, and occupants
  • On function and operations of installed technology so they can properly use controls and monitoring devices.