Green Energy Audit of Buildings: A guide for a sustainable energy audit of buildings

416 Pages·2013·7.858 MB·English

by  Giuliano Dall’O’ (auth.)

Green Energy and Technology
Giuliano Dall'O'
Green Energy Audit
of Buildings
A Guide for a Sustainable Energy Audit
of Buildings
Green Energy and Technology
For furthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/8059
Giuliano Dall’O’
Green Energy Audit
of Buildings
A Guide for a Sustainable Energy Audit
of Buildings
123
Giuliano Dall’O’
Department Architecture
Built environmentand Construction
engineering (ABC)
Politecnico diMilano
Milan
Italy
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Preface
The energy issue has been in recent years, and will be in the years to come, the
most critical factor for a sustainable development of our society. The energy
demand in the entire world, driven by expectations of a better quality of life in
emerging countries, as well as by population increase, has reached levels that
cannot be sustained in the future.
Twoelementsmakethesituationevenmorecriticalforthecomingyears:fossil
fuelsarelimitedandtheirwidespreadusecausessignificantadverseenvironmental
impacts such as the production of carbon dioxide, one of the causes of global
warming, but also acid rain, higher ozone concentration, or particulates, common
emergencies in urban areas.
Thereisawidespreadawarenessofhowtheenergyproblemmustbedealtwith,
being the implementation of long-term energy policies, very different from those
adoptedsofar.Adrasticimprovementinenergyefficiencyatallprocessinglevels
andinallsectors(e.g.industry,transports,construction,services),andasignificant
use of alternative energy sources (e.g. solar, wind, biomass), through a planned
process of replacing the fossil origin fuels, are necessary. A significant and nec-
essary challenge supported by new strategies but, above all, by a new cultural
approach, oriented towards environmental sustainability.
These changes in energy policies have concretely been initiated in the last ten
years:almostallcountriesarecommittedtoachievingthegoalsofreducingcarbon
dioxideemissionsonthebasisofinternationalagreements(e.g.theKyotoprotocol).
The European Union is defining medium- and long-term targets and programmes
throughto2050,byintroducingverificationstepsinordertocorrectthestrategies
adoptedbytheMemberStates.
Thisinternationalchallengeshouldnotonlybeseenasanemergency,butasan
interesting opportunity, as it can generate positive effects in the economy. The
implementation of new energy policies requires the use of new technologies for
energy conversion and end-uses: this stimulates the research in the various fields
involvedandobviouslynewskillsfortheactors(e.g.engineers,architects,energy
managers, specialists, building managers, etc.). The whole of these new technol-
ogies, and the related services, is the basis of the green economy: an interesting
opportunity to develop the economy towards greater sustainability targets.
v
vi Preface
The European Union is promoting among the Member States a common
strategy to face the challenge.
PoliciesforenergyefficiencyhavebeendevelopednotinEuropealonebutalso
in other parts of the world, often with the aim of stimulating the economy in
recession: in 2009 the U.S. Government proposed a series of economic measures
forpublicandprivateemployerstogiveaclearimpetustothedevelopmentofthe
green economy.
The rapid evolution of rules for the energy efficiency of new buildings, results
in a large energy performance gap between new buildings and existing ones that
constitute the real estate. The improvement in the energy performance of existing
buildings,throughenergyretrofitmeasures,isindeedagreatchanceforoperators
and, more generally, for the green building economy. A correct definition of the
retrofitmeasures,thatshouldbecost-effective,ishowevernotsoeasy:itrequiresa
detailed analysis of the causes of energy wastes, through a methodological and
a professional approach. Accurate and complete energy audits are essential as a
means to assess and verify a project’s success at meeting performance goals.
ThebookGreenEnergyAuditfitsintotheframeworkdiscussedabove,asatool
tosupport,fromthetechnicalandeconomicalpointsofview,alltheactionsaimed
atimprovingtheperformanceofexistingbuildingsandtheirfacilities.Theenergy
auditmethodologyproposedinthisbookhasledustodefineanacronymdifferent
from the traditional one: Green Energy Audit.
The added value lies in the ‘‘green’’, a word that refers to and summarizes a
widespread concept; that of environmental sustainability. In fact, the Green
Energy Audit is not limited to providing tools and methods to reduce energy
consumption, but it poses a more ambitious objective: to contribute to an overall
improvement in the sustainability of the building under consideration. The book
also provides the elements to understand what possible benefit will be obtained,
once implemented measures to improve the sustainability, to start a process of
certification under LEED(cid:3) protocols.
Thetechnicalliteratureoffersmanyrigorousbooksandhandbooksdealingwith
the matter related to energy audits, however, the publications are often intended
for experts with in-depth, baseline knowledge of the subject.
Indeedthisbookisdesignedtogivethereader,inasimpleandaccessibleway,
and without requiring in-depth skills, a comprehensive method to analyze the
building and the facilities. It shows how toproperly use the auditinstrumentation
forfieldsurveysandmonitoring,todefinethebaselineenergybalance,toidentify
the retrofit measures assuming different scenarios, tomakeeconomic evaluations,
hence evaluating the improvement of global sustainability, and to prepare a clear
and effective technical report.
ThebookGreenEnergyAuditofBuildingsisaimedatmanytypesofaudience:
• engineers and architects who are already operating at various levels in the
energy fields, andwho may have experience in the field ofenergyaudit.It will
assistincompletingtheirmethodologicalapproachandprovideideastoimprove
their expertise;
Preface vii
• energy assessors who wish to undertake the profession of auditor;
• lecturersandgradate/postgraduatestudentsofscience,engineering,architecture,
and construction who want to improve their knowledge on the issues of sus-
tainability of buildings and energy audit;
• not only those responsible for maintenance of buildings, but also for all non-
technical energy operators, such as real estate managers or building managers.
Thepurposeofthisbookis,aboveall,tospreadknowledgeandinterestonthe
topics of energy and environmental quality of buildings, so contributing, prag-
matically, to the change in real estate.
Iamgratefultomanypeople,beginningwiththecolleagueswhohaveprovided
written contributions, that have been included in the book in specific topics.
AspecialthanksgoestomycolleagueandfriendLucaSarto,whoalsohelpedme
in the review of the entire book. I am also grateful to the colleagues and the
students who provided valuable feedback and encouraging comments on most of
thematerialofthisbook.IamgratefultoMarkIzardwhohelpedmeinfindingthe
correct way to express the concepts, but at the same time his help was for me a
useful comparison in viewpoints on the technical aspects.
Finally I express my thanks to Mr. Anthony Doyle for agreeing to include this
bookintheprestigiousseries‘‘GreenEnergyandTechnology’’ofSpringer,giving
me the opportunity to contribute to this important project.
Milan, April 2013 Giuliano Dall’O’
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Awareness, as Starting Point for Performance
Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 A Comprehensive Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Structure of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.1 Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Part I Methodologies
2 Green Energy Audit: General Aspects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Building Energy and Environmental Enhancement
Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1 Defining the Operational Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.2 Reasons that Lead to Energy and Environmental
Enhancement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Scope and Aims of the Green Energy Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 The Meaning of Auditing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.2 Energy Auditing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.3 Green Energy Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.4 The Green Energy Auditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3 Definition of Operating Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.1 Walkthrough Audit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3.2 Standard Audit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.3 Simulation Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4 Organisational Aspects of the Auditing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5 Contractual Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5.1 The Relationship Between the Auditor and Client . . . 26
2.5.2 The Implementation of the Retrofit Measures . . . . . . 27
ix
x Contents
2.6 Energy Audit and Energy Certification,
an Integrated Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.7 Commissioning Authorities and the Green Energy Audit. . . . . 30
2.7.1 The Conjunction of the Two Methodologies . . . . . . . 30
2.7.2 Commissioning and Retrocommissioning. . . . . . . . . . 31
2.7.3 Commissioning and Retrocommissioning:
From New Buildings to Existing Buildings . . . . . . . . 32
2.7.4 The Re-commissioning Process
for Existing Buildings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3 Application of the Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1 General Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2 Definition of the Contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3 Acquisition of Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.4 Planning of Activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.5 Definition of Consumption and Performance Indicators. . . . . . 42
3.5.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.6 Field Surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.6.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.6.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.6.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.6.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.7 Verification of Indoor Environmental Conditions. . . . . . . . . . 47
3.7.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.7.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.7.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.7.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Contents xi
3.8 Monitoring of Climate Parameters
and Energy Consumption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.8.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.8.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.8.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.8.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.9 Definition of Baseline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.9.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.9.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.9.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.9.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.10 Definition of the Green Energy Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.10.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4 Acquisition of Basic Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.1 General Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2 Technical and Operating Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.3 Energy Usage for Electrical Appliances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.4 Energy Usage for Thermal Appliances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.5 Parameterisation of Performance Through Benchmarking . . . . 65
4.5.1 The Scope of Benchmarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.5.2 Factors that may Affect Benchmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.5.3 The Selection of Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.5.4 International Benchmark Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5 Survey Instrumentation and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.1 Instrumentation for Measuring Thermal Comfort . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.1.1 Thermometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.1.2 Infrared Thermometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.1.3 Anemometers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.1.4 Hygrometers and Psychrometers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.1.5 Microclimate Analysers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.1.6 Carbon Dioxide (CO ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
2
5.2 Instrumentation for Measuring Lighting Comfort . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.3 Instrumentation for Measuring Building Losses . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.3.1 Endoscope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.3.2 Thickness Gauges for Panes of Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.3.3 Heat Flux Meter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.3.4 Blower Door Test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86