August 14, 2009

Group creating energy efficiency report cards for commercial buildings

Implementation possible by 2010

JESSICA KRIPPENDORF

correspondent

Commercial buildings in Canada could begin receiving energy efficiency report cards as early as 2010.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is developing an energy rating system that is making headway with federal and provincial governments.

ASHRAE’s Building Energy Labeling Implementation Committee presented its label prototype and the results of a pilot project at the association’s annual meeting in June.

The Building Energy Quotient or Building EQ focuses exclusively on energy use.

It provides an “as designed” (asset) rating for new buildings based on the components specified in the design, including mechanical systems, building envelope, orientation and day-lighting.

New buildings with a year’s worth of data on actual energy use can achieve an “in operation” (operational) rating based on a combination of the structure of the building and how it is operated.

Existing buildings can receive both.

It is meant to improve the energy components of green building systems like LEED, and aims to surpass the current reach of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star program, which provides recognition for buildings in the top 25 per cent without differentiation between the 12 types of commercial buildings and five types of manufacturing plants.

Building EQ labels will provide numerical and qualitative scores on a broader spectrum of building types.

Because it provides information on a vertical scale, with report card grades from F to A+, a Building EQ Label offers incentive for building owners to continuously improve their operations, said Dieter Bartel, commercial energy specialist for Manitoba Hydro and a member of ASHRAE’s Building Energy Labeling Implementation Committee.

He said Building EQ has potential in Canada, as the committee is now on the edge of discussions with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) about the development of a building rating system here.

“NRCan wants to keep it simple so the public can understand its implications and value, and it should also be something that works for existing buildings,” he said.

While Building EQ’s actual label will be simple to follow and targeted to the general public, a certificate will also provide technical information that will give owners and maintenance personnel peak demand reduction and other opportunities to improve energy efficiency.

The certificate is the golden point in the system because it will allow comparison between buildings similar in age, occupancy and size, with climate normalization factored in.

“That’s the horsepower behind the label that would make it a living, breathing entity,” said Bartel.

Building EQ also has potential at the provincial level.

One of the objectives of the B.C. government’s energy plan is to develop a commercial building labelling pilot.

The provincial government has undertaken the development of a framework and Building EQ may be one of many tools people can use to monitor energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

BC Hydro is working with municipalities to develop a system, where labelling a building for energy usage will be a policy requirement.

The requirement will mainly be related to new construction and possibly retrofits.

Before the full execution of Building EQ, ASHRAE will need a robust data set, from which characteristic building comparisons with climate normalization can be drawn.

Bartel said one possibility would be to work alongside the EPA, which reports the results of a Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) every four years.

The results populate a database that allows commercial building owners to receive a comparative analysis with buildings of similar operational characteristics and with climatic factors adjusted.

Canada could also draw from the EPA’s expertise and resources to develop a survey for Canada, said Bartel.

The idea of benchmarking or labelling and rating is easy to formulate, but not to execute, said Philip Jago, director of buildings division of the office of energy efficiency of Natural Resources Canada.

He said a knowledge gap exists in Canada, where the market still isn’t necessarily in tune with energy efficiency.

“People don’t know where to begin or how to recognize if they have a problem,” he said.

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