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The Advanced Energy Retrofit Guide for K-12 Schools is one of five retrofit guides commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy. By presenting general project planning guidance as well as more detailed descriptions and financial payback metrics for the most important and relevant energy efficiency measures, the guides provide a practical roadmap for effectively planning and implementing performance improvements in existing buildings. The K-12 Schools guide provides convenient and practical guidance for making cost-effective energy efficiency improvements in public, private, and parochial schools.

This paper illustrates the challenges of integrating rigorous daylight and electric lighting simulation data with whole-building energy models, and defends the need for such integration in order to achieve aggressive energy savings in building designs. Through a case study example, we examine the ways daylighting – and daylighting simulation – drove the design of a large net-zero energy project.

The California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program sponsors the development and demonstration of energy-efficient building technologies. Over the past several years, PIER has developed strategic partnerships with the University of California, California State University, California Community Colleges, and California Department of General Services. These partnerships include a series of demonstration projects coupled with programmatic support to ensure continued deployment of energy-efficient technologies and practices across California. Examples of the latest energy-efficient innovations are described.