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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.

Few third-party guidance documents or tools are available for evaluating thermal energy storage (TES) integrated with packaged air conditioning (AC), as this type of TES is relatively new compared to TES integrated with chillers or hot water systems. To address this gap, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory conducted a project to improve the ability of potential technology adopters to evaluate TES technologies. Major project outcomes included: development of an evaluation framework to describe key metrics, methodologies, and issues to consider when assessing the performance of TES systems integrated with packaged AC; application of multiple concepts from the evaluation framework to analyze performance data from four demonstration sites; and production of a new simulation capability that enables modeling of TES integrated with packaged AC in EnergyPlus. This report includes the evaluation framework and analysis results from the project.

The rooftop unit (RTU) decision tree can be used for preliminary screening for replacement of RTU units with more efficient units. This decision tree organizes RTUs into bins for “retrofit,” “replacement,” “no action,” or “needs further analysis.”

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.

Re-tuning focuses on a number of commonly occurring operational problems in buildings. These guides, through examples, provide details on how to detect good (normal) and bad (abnormal) operations. The purpose of the air-handling unit (AHU) minimum outdoor-air operation control guide is to show, through examples of good and bad operations, how AHU outdoor-air operations can be efficiently controlled.

Re-tuning focuses on a number of commonly occurring operational problems in buildings. These guides, through examples, provide details on how to detect good (normal) and bad (abnormal) operations. The purpose of the air-handling unit (AHU) heating and cooling control guide is to show, through examples of good and bad operations, how AHU heating and cooling can be efficiently controlled.

Re-tuning focuses on a number of commonly occurring operational problems in buildings. These guides, through examples, provide details on how to detect good (normal) and bad (abnormal) operations. The purpose of the air-side economizer control guide is to show, through use of examples of good and bad operation, how air-side economizers should be utilized and efficiently controlled. An air-side economizer is a duct/damper arrangement in an air-handling unit (AHU) along with automatic controls that allow an AHU to use outdoor-air to reduce or eliminate the need for mechanical cooling.

Re-tuning focuses on a number of commonly occurring operational problems in buildings. These guides, through examples, provide details on how to detect good (normal) and bad (abnormal) operations. The purpose of the air-handling unit (AHU) static pressure control guide is to show, through examples of good and bad operations, how the static pressure can be efficiently controlled.

Re-tuning focuses on a number of commonly occurring operational problems in buildings. These guides, through examples, provide details on how to detect good (normal) and bad (abnormal) operations. The purpose of the air handling unit (AHU) discharge-air temperature control guide is to show, through use of examples of good and bad operations, how the discharge-air temperature can be efficiently controlled.

Re-tuning focuses on a number of commonly occurring operational problems in buildings. These guides, through examples, provide details on how to detect good (normal) and bad (abnormal) operations. The purpose of the zone heating and cooling control guide is to show, through use of examples of good and bad operations, how the heating and cooling at the zone level can be efficiently controlled.