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Plug and process loads (PPLs) in commercial buildings account for almost 5% of U.S. primary energy consumption. Minimizing these loads is a primary challenge in the design and operation of an energy-efficient building. PPLs are not related to general lighting, heating, ventilation, cooling, and water heating, and typically do not provide comfort to the occupants. They use an increasingly large fraction of the building energy use pie because the number and variety of electrical devices have increased along with building system efficiency. Reducing PPLs is difficult because energy efficiency opportunities and the equipment needed to address PPL energy use in office spaces are poorly understood.

The Research Support Facility was designed with energy efficiency and sustainability in mind. Many of its innovative technologies use passive and active processes to provide energy for its operations, such as electricity, heating, and cooling. The goal of this unique office building is to reach net zero energy use by engaging staff in best energy practices.

This checklist packet is a team-focused guide to realizing energy savings in high-performance office buildings through carefully considered lighting and control design. The checklists should be distributed among the integrated project team, including the owner, lighting designer and engineer, commissioning agent, and facility manager, at the beginning of a project and referred to regularly during design meetings and drawing reviews.

This guide provides design teams with best practices for parking structure energy efficiency in the form of goals for each design aspect that affects energy use.

This Fact Sheet provides an overview of the Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines project. The Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) are working with industry stakeholders to develop voluntary national guidelines that will improve the quality and consistency of commercial building workforce training and certification programs for five key energy-related jobs.

A case study of the overview, process, and results of the re-tuning that was conducted in a building in Arlington, Virginia by Vornado Realty Trust in October 2012. Re-tuning provided the facilities management team with the ability to identify and understand building scheduling opportunities that drove significant, low-cost energy savings. Five measures were conducted, many of which pertained to the HVAC system.

This dynamic document provides background information to any potential audience of building re-tuning training. This document provides background information specifically geared toward small- to medium-sized commercial building operations. It introduces basic building energy terminology associated with building energy use to “prime” targeted participants to get the most out of the building re-tuning training. The intent is for participants who are less familiar with the concepts to review this material before taking the building re-tuning training class.

The primary audience for this instructor manual is the person who will be teaching the re-tuning course. In addition, community college instructors, retro-commissioning training providers and building operator training providers may find value in the material presented in this instructor manual as well. The purpose of this course is to help building operations staff to learn how to operate buildings more efficiently, reduce operating cost and provide energy savings. The knowledge and skills learned through the training will be highly valued by organizations and companies seeking to improve the performance of their buildings. Provides additional information on what to highlight in each of the small building re-tuning slides.

The intent of this user guide is to provide a description of the functionality of the Energy Charting and Metrics plus Building Re-tuning and Measurement and Verification (ECAM+) tool. ECAM+ facilitates the charting and analysis of energy use and point-level data from utility meters, building automation systems (BASs), and data loggers. This document describes the tool’s general functions and features, including installation, use, guidance, and limitations.The Energy Charting and Metrics Tool (ECAM) is an add-on for Microsoft Excel® which was developed to facilitate analysis of data from building (energy and other data). Key features of ECAM+ include the creation of charts to help re-tuning.

Tower Companies, a DC based owner of large multi-tenant buildings and Better Buildings Challenge partner, engaged in an aggressive program to take measured data from their buildings and turn it into real energy savings. This case study, completed by Tower in partnership with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) describes outcomes at three properties. The case study was highlighted on a Better Buildings Webinar on February 5, 2014.