September 5, 2003—Some $175 billion is spent each year on energy by United States businesses and institutions.
Performance contracts and energy service agreements whose primary objective is to reduce energy use without compromising comfort is growing, aided by cheaper monitoring technology and integration with energy management and control systems, says ASHRAE.
Building energy simulation programs are used for estimating potential savings when various energy conservation measures are installed as well as to verify savings from installed retrofits.
While they are highly accurate under specified inputs, the reliability of the results is frequently compromised by a lack of certainty that the simulation results reflect actual conditions, according to Agami Reddy, Ph.D., P.E.
“While it is easy to match simulation results with utility bills, it is considerably harder to reconcile hourly or even daily monitored data,” he said. “There is little systematic guidance available to practitioners as to how to modify simulation programs so as to match measured data.”
Research to develop a systematic methodology by which the discrepancy between the results of building energy simulation computer programs and measured energy data from actual buildings can be minimized will be conducted by ASHRAE.
ASHRAE approved funding totaling $986,953 for eight research projects in the areas of indoor air quality, comfort and health, energy conservation, operating and maintenance tools, environmentally safe materials and design tools at its 2003 Annual Meeting held here June 28-July 2.
Among them is 1051-TRP, Procedures for Reconciling Computer-Calculated Results with Measured Energy Data. Reddy, a faculty member at the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa., is the principal investigator. The project is expected to take 18 months with ASHRAE contributing $79,660. The research is sponsored by ASHRAE Technical Committee 4.7, Energy Calculations.
The results of the research will be featured in an ASHRAE publication, containing methodology, algorithms, recommendations, presentation formats and quantitative references of how to reconcile results of simulation programs developed with ASHRAE toolkits with actual measured building energy use data.
