This review summarizes and organizes the literature on life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) studies carried out for environmental evaluation of buildings and building related industry and sector (including construction products, construction systems, buildings, and civil engineering constructions). The review shows that most LCA and LCEA are carried out in what is shown as “exemplary buildings”, that is, buildings that have been designed and constructed as low energy buildings, but there are very few studies on “traditional buildings”, that is, buildings such as those mostly found in our cities. Similarly, most studies are carried out in urban areas, while rural areas are not well represented in the literature. Finally, studies are not equally distributed around the world.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) of buildings and the building sector: A review

Zero Energy Building: A Review of Definitions and Calculation Methodologies

Green building is one of measures been put forward to mitigate significant impacts of the building stock on the environment, society and economy. However, there is lack of a systematic review of this large number of studies that is critical for the future endeavor. The last decades have witnessed rapid growing number of studies on green building. This paper reports a critical review of the existing body of knowledge of researches related to green building. The common research themes and methodology were identified. These common themes are the definition and scope of green building; quantification of benefits of green buildings compared to conventional buildings; and various approaches to achieve green buildings. It is found that the existing studies played predominately focus on the environmental aspect of green building. Other dimensions of sustainability of green building, especially the social sustainability is largely overlooked. Future research opportunities were identified such as effects of climatic conditions on the effectiveness of green building assessment tools, validation of real performance of green buildings, unique demands of specific population, and future proofing.

Green building research–current status and future agenda: A review

An energy distribution may include a server and one or more databases. The system may communicate with an energy provider to receive energy provider data, at least one information collector to receive information collector data such as individualized energy usage data, customer preferences, and customer or location characteristics, and the one or more databases for receiving data for optimization. The system may calculate a cost of service or avoided cost using at least one of the individualized energy usage data and a system generation cost at a nearest bus. The system may also forecast individualized demand by end-use, individualized demand by location, energy prices, or energy costs. The system may optimize energy distribution, energy use, cost of service, or avoided cost using the forecasted individualized demand by end-use, the forecasted individualized demand by location, the forecasted energy prices, and the forecasted energy costs.

Optimization of microgrid energy use and distribution

Network architecture, computer system and/or server, circuit, device, apparatus, method, and computer program and control mechanism for managing power consumption and workload in computer system and data and information servers. Further provides power and energy consumption and workload management and control systems and architectures for high-density and modular multi-server computer systems that maintain performance while conserving energy and method for power management and workload management. Dynamic server power management and optional dynamic workload management for multi-server environments is provided by aspects of the invention. Modular network devices and integrated server system, including modular servers, management units, switches and switching fabrics, modular power supplies and modular fans and a special backplane architecture are provided as well as dynamically reconfigurable multi-purpose modules and servers. Backplane architecture, structure, and method that has no active components and separate power supply lines and protection to provide high reliability in server environment.

System, method, and architecture for dynamic server power management and dynamic workload management for multi-server environment

http://faculty.arch.tamu.edu/media/cms_page_media/2861/Dixitetal_2010.pdf

Identification of parameters for embodied energy measurement: A literature review

Buildings consume a vast amount of energy during the life cycle stages of construction, use and demolition. Total life cycle energy use in a building consists of two components: embodied and operational energy. Embodied energy is expended in the processes of building material production, on-site delivery, construction, maintenance, renovation and final demolition. Operational energy is consumed in operating the buildings. Studies have revealed the growing significance of embodied energy inherent in buildings and have demonstrated its relationship to carbon emissions. Current interpretations of embodied energy are quite unclear and vary greatly, and embodied energy databases suffer from the problems of variation and incomparability. Parameters differ and cause significant variation in reported embodied energy figures. Studies either followed the international Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) standards or did not mention compliance with any standard. Literature states that the current LCA standards fail to provide complete guidance and do not address some important issues. It also recommends developing a set of standards to streamline the embodied energy calculation process. This paper discusses parameters causing problems in embodied energy data and identifies unresolved issues in current LCA standards. We also recommend an approach to derive guidelines that could be developed into a globally accepted protocol.

/pdf/need-for-an-embodied-energy-measurement-protocol-for-kd8pzb0o8p.pdf

Need for an embodied energy measurement protocol for buildings: A review paper

Integrating BIM and gaming for real-time interactive architectural visualization

Buildings consume nearly 40% of global energy annually in their production, operation, maintenance, replacement and demolition stages. Energy consumed in their life cycle stages other than the operation is called life cycle embodied energy. Total life cycle energy constitutes the building's embodied and operational energy over its service life. Operational energy constitutes a relatively larger fraction of life cycle energy in a conventional building. However, with the emergence of larger number of low energy buildings the significance of embodied energy is expected to grow. Current embodied energy calculations exhibit problems of variation, inaccuracy and incompleteness. System boundary definition is a key parameter that differs across studies and causes these problems, as studies define their system boundary subjectively. Research studies have proposed various system boundary models that should be applied to the buildings for life cycle analysis; however, the extent of their boundary definition differs. This paper gathers and synthesizes relevant literature opinions to develop a comprehensive system boundary model that can be adopted while performing the life cycle energy analysis of a building. The purpose of developing this model is twofold. Firstly, it would provide a clear picture of the system boundary. Second, it would provide a model to quantify the embodied energy of a building. Three possible approaches to cover the proposed system boundary are also recommended.

System boundary for embodied energy in buildings: A conceptual model for definition

In the Fall of 2002 ASHRAE published Guideline 14-2002 to fill a need for a standard set of energy (and demand) savings calculation procedures. Guideline 14-2002 is intended to be a guideline that provides a minimum acceptable level of performance in the measurement of energy and demand savings from energy management projects applied to residential, commercial or industrial buildings. Such measurements can serve as the basis for commercial transactions between Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and their customers, or other energy conservation providers that rely on energy savings as the basis for repayment of the costs of the retrofit. When applied properly, ASHRAE Guideline 14-2002 is expected to provide adequate assurance for the payment of services by allowing for well-specified measurement methods that provide reasonably accurate savings calculations. ASHRAE Guideline 14-2002 may also be used by governments to calculate pollution reductions from energy efficiency activities. Since Guideline 14-2002 is intended to be applied to an individual building, or a few buildings served by a utility meter, large scale utility energy conservation programs, such as those involving statistical sampling, are not addressed by Guideline 14-2002. Furthermore, metering standards and procedures for calculating savings from modifications to major industrial process loads are also not covered. This paper presents an updated overview of the measurement methods contained in ASHRAE Guideline 14-2002, including a discussion about how they were developed, and their intended relationship with other national protocols for measuring savings from energy conservation programs, such as the USDOE’s International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocols (IPMVP). 1 An earlier version of this paper was presented in Haberl et al. 2001, which discussed the proposed Guideline 14. This paper provides an update to the previous paper, including new references published after the Fall of 2002. At the January 2005 ASHRAE meeting TC 7.6 voted to reinstitute a committee to update Guideline 14-2002, to address many of the references in this paper. INTRODUCTION In many buildings, the calculation of energy savings or demand savings from energy conservation measures (ECMs) can be performed by comparing measurements of energy use and/or demand from before and after implementation of the retrofit. In the simplest cases, such as the replacement of a constantuse, constant-load appliance with a more efficient constant-use, constant-load appliance, the calculation can consist of the subtraction of the post-retrofit use from the pre-retrofit use for similar periods. Unfortunately, many ECMs involve the replacement of heating, cooling or lighting equipment that are influenced by other complicating factors such as weather, and varying occupant schedules. Therefore, ASHRAE felt there was a need for a consensus guideline that can be used to calculate normalized savings that adjusts for non-ECM influences that affect energy use. WHAT IS CONTAINED IN GUIDELINE 142002? Guideline 14-2002 contains seven sections and three appendices. As with most guidelines, sections one through four cover the purpose, scope, utilization and definitions that pertain to the subject matter. Section five covers the requirements and common elements, including a description of the measurement approaches, common elements of the approaches, compliance requirements, and a discussion about the design and implementation of the savings measurement process. Section six covers the specific measurement approaches, including the wholebuilding approach, the retrofit isolation approach, and the calibrated simulation approach. Section seven covers issues involving instrumentation and data management. Due to the importance of a number of related issues, five appendices were added to the report that contains material that supplements the seventy-seven page guideline. In Annex A, supplementary information is provided about the physical measurements required ESL-IC-05-10-50 Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 11-13, 2005 2 to accomplish the specific measurement approaches, including information about sensors, calibration techniques, laboratory measurement standards, cost and instrumentation error information. Annex B contains procedures and examples for determining the uncertainty of the savings analysis, including the sources of uncertainty, formula for calculating uncertainty, and discussions about the impact of uncertainty calculations on the required level of monitoring and verification (M&V). Annex C contains examples of the application of the wholebuilding approach and retrofit isolation approach. This is followed by Annex D that discusses the regression techniques needed to calculate savings, and finally Annex E that discuses techniques for retrofit isolation calculations. WHO CREATED GUIDELINE 14-2002 AND HOW WAS IT WRITTEN? Guideline 14-2002 was created by a committee of ASHRAE members who represented future guideline users, producers of products that would be affected by the guideline (i.e., software, hardware or services), and ASHRAE members with a general interest in the guideline. Table 1 lists the names, affiliations and status of the ASHRAE members who participated in the Guideline. In general, the members of Guideline 14 were ASHRAE members who are widely recognized for their experience and contributions to the field of measurement and verification. As a group, the committee’s combined knowledge represented over 350 years of experience in the field of measurement and verification. Each section of Guideline 14 was assigned a primary and secondary author. The primary author was responsible for generating the first draft of the chapter. Once this was complete ownership of the chapter was then transferred to the secondary author who was responsible for coordinating the review and editing of the chapter. Any discrepancies that arose between the primary and secondary author were resolved by the full committee. All material in each chapter was reviewed and approved by the full committee. Only published, peer-reviewed analysis methods were allowed for inclusion in Guideline 142002. Each chapter contains the references from which the analysis methods were obtained. HOW IS GUIDELINE 14-2002 SUPPOSED TO BE USED? 2 This table was current as of the publication of Guideline 14-2002. In general, Guideline 14-2002 addresses the determination of energy savings by comparing before and after energy use measurements, which are adjusted for non-ECM changes, that affect energy use. The basic method is shown in Figure 1 and involves the projection of energy use or demand patterns of the pre-retrofit (baseline) period into the post-retrofit period as indicated by the dashed line that begins immediately after the ECM installation. Typical adjustments to the baseline energy use or demand include weather, occupancy, and system variables. Savings represent the amount of energy use between the projected baseline and the post-retrofit consumption and are calculated using the following formula: Savings = (Baseline energy use or demand projected to Post-Retrofit conditions) minus (Post-Retrofit energy use or demand) (1) Guideline 14-2002 contains minimum compliance requirements to insure a fair level of confidence in the savings determination. These requirements are set forth in three specific approaches and include compliance paths for each approach. The approaches include: 1) Whole-building metering, 2) Retrofit isolation metering, and 3) Whole-building calibrated simulation. These approaches were provided to balance the accuracy of the chosen approach against the cost of implementation. Proper reference to Guideline 14-2002 should therefore allow for a specific approach and accuracy to be specified, for example “Savings determination shall comply with the ASHRAE Guideline 14-2002, Path 2, wholebuilding performance path, with a maximum allowable uncertainty of 20% at a 90% level of confidence.” The general methodology consists of the following steps, which are illustrated in the flowchart contained in Figure 2: 1. Prepare a Measurement and Verification Plan, showing the compliance path, the metering and analysis procedures and the expected cost of implementing the measurement and verification plan throughout the postretrofit period. 2. Measure the energy use and/or demand before the retrofits are applied (baseline). Record factors and conditions that govern energy use and demand. 3. Measure the energy use and/or demand after the retrofits are applied (post-retrofit period). ESL-IC-05-10-50 Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 11-13, 2005 3 Record factors and conditions that govern postretrofit period use and demand. 4. Project the baseline and post-retrofit period energy use and demand measurements to a common set of conditions. These common conditions are normally those of the post-retrofit period, so only baseline period energy use and demand needs to be projected. 5. Calculate savings by subtracting the projected post-retrofit period use and/or demand from the projected baseline period use and/or demand. 6. Determine the uncertainty in the cumulative savings. In three of the four paths (i.e., Whole Building Performance, Retrofit Isolation, Whole Building Calibrated Simulation) this requires the determination of and reporting of the level of uncertainty in the cumulative savings computed to date. This level of uncertainty in reported savings shall not be greater than 50% of the total savings in the post-retrofit reporting period (at the 68% confidence level). In the Whole Building Prescriptive Path, the tedious uncertainty calculations are replaced by prescribed requirements (e.g., baseline data characteristics, maximum CV(RMSE), etc.). A significant p

Charles H. Culp

Papers

Identification of parameters for embodied energy measurement: A literature review

Need for an embodied energy measurement protocol for buildings: A review paper

Integrating BIM and gaming for real-time interactive architectural visualization

System boundary for embodied energy in buildings: A conceptual model for definition

ASHRAE's Guideline 14-2002 for Measurement of Energy and Demand Savings: How to Determine What Was Really Saved by the Retrofit