Research Support Facility: Three years of net zero operations, occupants, and analytics

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
Research Support Facility:
Three Years of Net Zero
Operations, Occupants
and Analytics
Shanti Pless
Senior Research Engineer
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory
CBE Industry Advisory Board
October 8 2015

Innovation for Our Energy Future
Lets Review
I have a new net zero energy building that meets the
Executive Orders – now what?
– Year 3 in our own net zero operations efforts in the Research
Support Facility at NREL
– Real Performance for Real Buildings

Our Net Zero Effort

NREL/DOE Research Support Facility
Location: Golden, CO
Primary Use: Office
Size: 360,000 ft2
Occupants: Approximately 1,325
LEED Rating: Platinum
Construction Cost: $254/ft2
Energy Budget: 35 kBtu/ft2/yr
Site Net Zero Energy Goal:
Offices, datacenter, and parking
with on-site PV and campus
wood chip boiler
Utilize warranty and incentive
program to ensure soft landing

Zero Energy Building Operations Realities (data)

First year at Net Zero!

Innovation for Our Energy Futurehttp://www.nrel.gov/news/features/feature_detail.cfm/feature_id=11369

Net Zero Site Energy Building
Net Zero Source Energy Building
Net Zero Energy Emissions Building
Net Zero Energy Cost Building

Current Zero Energy Building Drivers
Organization Effort Type Definition
Living Building Challenge certification Site energy
Massachusetts task force Site energy
California pilot program Source TDV energy
University of California campus-wide initiative Emissions
GSA Task force Source energy
Federal Government Executive Order 13693 Source energy
“… ensuring, beginning in fiscal year 2020 and thereafter, that all new
construction of Federal buildings greater than 5,000 gross square feet that
enters the planning process is designed to achieve energy net-zero and,
where feasible, water or waste net-zero by fiscal year 2030;
"net-zero energy building" means a building that is designed, constructed,
or renovated and operated such that the actual annual source energy
consumption is balanced by on-site renewable energy;

Innovation for Our Energy Future12
http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/articles/doe-releases-common-definition-
zero-energy-buildings-campuses-and

DOE / NREL: Client
Haselden Construction: General Contractor
RNL: Architecture, Interiors, Landscape, Lighting
Stantec: MEP Engineering, Energy Modeling
KL&A: Structural Engineering
Martin/Martin: Civil Engineering
AEC: LEED, Daylight Modeling, Commissioning
Namaste Solar: Solar Consultant

NREL: 2006
NREL PIX

220,00 SF
Office Building
Golden, CO
Image courtesy of RNL

138,000 SF
Office Building
Golden, CO
Image courtesy of RNL

NREL: Today
Used with Permission from Haselden

NREL Campus Growth with Design-Build
Procurement process attributes pre-2007:
o Design-bid-build project delivery
o LEED-driven sustainability goals
Procurement process attributes post-2007:
o Design-build project delivery with firm fixed price for >$400 Million of new
facilities
o Specific energy performance requirements in the Request for Proposal
– RSF, office example: 35 kBtu/ft2/yr
– SEB, guard house example: net zero energy
o Energy modeling required to substantiate goals
o Energy end-use metering requirement
o Voluntary incentive ($) program to ensure measurement and verification
outcome has a chance to meet predicted performance

• Performance based design-build with absolute energy
use requirements
o These are NOT bridging documents.
– Owner has significant input into the preliminary design
– Some overlap of A/E costs
o These ARE performance specifications.
– What something must do, not what it must be
– Subcontractor must substantiate that the design meets requirements
– Owner must not give the subcontractor technical direction
No drawings/plans in RFP!
Don’t change your mind
20
Energy Performance Based Design-Build Process

DOE/NREL Research Support Facility
RFP Design/Build Requirements:
50% energy cost savings over
ASHRAE 90.1
35.1 kBtu/ft2/yr
Net zero energy use
Performance assurance plan with
incentives
Design/Build Results:
Net zero energy use
36.4 kBtu/ft2/yr in 2014
$259/sqft construction costs
22

DOE/NREL RSF 3rd Wing
27 kBtu/ft2/yr
50% Energy Cost Savings
Performance assurance plan with
incentives
20 kBtu/ft2/yr measured
Demonstration of additional cost
savings, energy efficiency, and
schedule gains over phase 1
• 17% more efficient than the
RSF
• Cost savings of 5%
($14/ft2 cheaper)
23

DOE/NREL 1800 Car Staff Parking Garage
Design/Build Requirements:
• 0.5 kBtu/ft2
• 175 kBtu/stall
• Net-zero energy Site
Entrance Building
• 90% Energy savings
• 138 kBtu/parking stall
• $14,172 per parking space
• $15,500 to $24,500 for
typical parking space in
Denver area

DOE/NREL Cafeteria
• 35% energy cost savings over
ASHRAE 90.1
• Best in class commercial
kitchen equipment
• Performance assurance plan
with incentives
• LEED Gold
• 36% energy savings and
Platinum
• Demonstration of max
efficiency in a commercial
kitchen using energy
performance based
design/build delivery and
procurement methods
• Continuous improvement
requirements in vendor
contract to ensure performance
assurance

DOE/NREL Energy Systems Integration Facility
Design/Build Requirements:
27 kBtu/ft2 Office wing
1.06 PUE Super computer
• No mechanical cooling
• Waste heat reuse
30% savings for all labs
LEED Gold
26 kBtu/ft2 Office wing
World class efficient super computer
• 1.05 PUE
36% savings in labs
LEED Platinum
26

https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/energy_based_acquisition/

Scale performance-
based procurement
100 buildings
three years
This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
(EERE), under Award Number DE-EE0007068.
http://www.seventhwave.org/accelerateperformance

Extended partnerships and stakeholder group forming now
TEAM
Seventhwave
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory
Institute for Sustainable Energy
UTILITY PARTNERS
ComEd
Eversource
United Illuminating
OWNER PARTNERS
University of Chicago
Lend Lease
Photos courtesy of University of Chicago

Energy Use
Credit: Stantec
Credit: Chad Lobato/NREL
Space Heating
24%
Space Cooling
3%
Pumps
1%
Ventilation Fans
5%
Domestic Hot
Water
3%
Exterior Lights
0%
Lights
6%
Office Plug Loads
22%
Task Lights
0%
Data Center
35%
Data Center
Cooling
0%
Data Center Fans
1%
NREL RSF Energy Model Breakdown
kBtu/ft2 kWh/m2 kWh/ft2
Cooling 0.46 1.46 0.14
Heating 9.68 30.52 2.84
Mechanical
Systems 2.19 6.90 0.64
Lighting 2.83 8.92 0.83
Plug Loads 5.76 18.18 1.69
Data Center 14.43 45.53 4.23
Building Total 35.35 111.51 10.36

•100% of the workstations
are daylit
•No employee more than 30
feet from a window
Daylighting

Daylighting: Glare Control
A light redirecting
device reflects
sunlight to the
ceiling, creating an
indirect lighting
effect.
Fixed sunshades
limit excess light and
glare.
Credit: RNL

6 watt task light
50 fc
Ambient daylight
Ambient lighting with
daylight sensors for 25 fc

RSF Addition Daylighting Enhancements

Weekday Lighting Power Density
Credit: Chad Lobato/NREL
0.00
0.03
0.05
0.08
0.10
0.13
0.15
0.18
0.20
0.23
0.25
0.28
0.30
0.33
0.35
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
PowerDensity(W/ft2)
Time of Day
Model Average
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011

Heating 12.5%
Cooling 9.5%
Fans 2.8%
Pumps 1.5%
DHW 1.0%
Lighting 28.0%
Equipment 44.7%
DOE Commercial Reference Building: Large Office, Boulder, CO

MANAGER TRAINING NEWSLETTER
MOVE MEETINGS
STAFF OPEN HOUSE
RSF EMAIL BOX
WEB PAGE

What is the
occupant’s role?

A Solution: Occupant Engaged
A control philosophy for engaging occupants in high
performance buildings operations as active users
Requires occupant engagement to take a system from off
to occupied state
– Default mode is maximum efficiency mode
• off or setback
– No automatic ON
– Occupant engages control to turn on if service needed
• Intelligence to turn off or go to unoccupied state if occupant “forgets”
to turn off
– MUST have simple local occupant engagement interface
• On/off switches the best

Occupant Education?
MUST have simple occupant
engagement controls!
• You have light switches- you can use them
• If you open a window – close it
• If you are stuffy- open your window
• If you have a local glare issue, turn on your electrochromics
• Turn on your power strip in the morning
Occupants have to and will “figure it out”
Adaptive lighting comfort
– Actual office lighting levels measured before occupants engage to
turn on open office ambient lights are 10 FC and below
– 70% savings over occupancy sensor in daylit break rooms

• Thermal comfort
reporting
– Air and Radiant temperature
– Air speed
– Humidity
• Window operation

• Initial survey consisted of 65
questions based on LEED
requirements
• The app may be used to
disseminate other surveys in
the RSF or in other buildings
across the NREL campus

PRODUCTIVITY
Please estimate how your productivity is increased or decreased by the
environmental conditions in this building (e.g., thermal, lighting, acoustics,
cleanliness):
76% of the respondents felt that their productivity
was improved by the IEQ conditions in the building
Credit: CBE (Gail Brager and Margaret Pigman)

Database
LEED
NREL
Mixed-Mode
Naturally Ventilated
Legend Mean value
-0.13
0.40
0.92
0.32
1.43
RSF
TEMPERATURE
Credit: CBE (Gail Brager and Margaret Pigman)

NOISE LEVEL / PRIVACY

PINK NOISE

EMPLOYEE
SATISFACTION

HVAC Systems
•Radiant ceiling space heating and cooling in open offices
•Dedicated outdoor air with underfloor delivery
•Displacement cooling in conference rooms
•Natural ventilation
• Automatic and manual windows
• Security waiver

Natural Ventilation
• During mild weather,
operable windows allow
for natural ventilation
and economizer.
• Automatic windows are
controlled and operated
primarily to support
nighttime precooling.
• Occupants are notified
when conditions allow
for manual windows to
be opened.

User Friendly Windows

Construction Innovation
73
5 days per deck allowed
– 2 days per deck
– 85% faster
Offsite pre-fab of zones
Offsite pre-pressurized

Effective Visualization?
What does
this tell us?

Building Agent Dashboard
Graphic Design: Marjorie Schott, NREL
What about
this?

On Track Today
(07:00 MST 10/8/15)

Creating Expectations
77
Upper Expectation
Measured
Performance
Lower Expectation
Expectations combine
statistical and physical
energy models

Modeling Consumption
Vertical Irradiance (W/m2)
LPD(W/m2)
Statistical Models
Lighting
Physical Models
PV Generation
Combined Models
Plug Loads
Henze, G.P.; Pless, S.; Petersen, A.; Long, N.; Scambos, T. (2015).
“Control limits for building energy end use based on frequency analysis
and quantile regression." Energy Efficiency, published online. DOI:
10.1007/s12053-015-9342-6

Fault Detection Example: Daylighting
Lighting higher
than expected
Lighting out of range
despite full daylighting
potential
Root Cause: Daylighting controls overridden
during repair of ballast and fixtures; controls
weren’t reset
6-Nov-20136-Nov-2013

Fault Detection Example: Lighting
Controls
Lighting load is too high
in evening hours (6–10
PM)
Response: Reduce auto-off delays; staff
outreach; lessons learned for future lighting
system design
Multiple Causes: Cleaning staff, individuals
working late
1-Jan-2014 5-Apr-2014

Fault Detection Example: Air Handler
Solution: Installation of new
evaporative cooling unit to meet
local demand, enabling the AHU to
turn off at night
Problem: Large AHU on all night:
manually overridden to provide air
and cooling to a few night shift
security employees
16-Aug-2013
7-Oct-2013

Fault Detection Example: PV Inverter
Offline
PV output too low.
Why?
Time series suggests inverter
outage; offline inverter confirmed
via vendor web portal and repair
dispatched
20-Mar-2015 20-Mar-2015

Photovoltaic System

Photovoltaics
•PV contractor involved with installation
•Installation technique improvements
•Standing Seam Roof
C-Wing PV
RSF Addition PV
RSF PV

Production Tracking

Innovation for Our Energy FutureHOT AISLES
Image courtesy Stantec

Operational Lessons- Datacenter
89
•Fully containing hot aisle difficult
• Custom aisle floor and door seals
• Ensure equipment designed for
cold aisle containment
• And installed to pull cold air
– Not hot air…
•Have run ~1.1-1.35 PUE
•A few hot spots were driving up PUE
•Summer time PUE of 1.35 because
of increased cooling
Control hot aisle based on return
temperature of ~90F
NREL/PIX17897
Credit:MarjorieSchott/NREL

Data Center load goes down?
90

Fix PV faults as soon as they are found
– 12% improvements possible
Continued datacenter metric tracking
– 1.15 PUE and total 120 kW goals
Lighting controls commissioning
– Occupancy sensors, daylighting set points
Wood chip boiler controls improvements
– Over 50% natural gas savings planned
Additional PV planned
More thin clients
All while trying to fit in another 100 occupants…
91
Plan to return to net positive

Uncontrolled Load Profile for
a Zero Office Building
-2000
-1500
-1000
-500
0
500
1000
HourlyElectricityUse(+)andProduction(-)(kW)
Car Charging
Total cooling
Total Lighting (kW)
Total Plug Loads (kW)
Total Mechanical (kW)
Total Data Center (kW)
PV (kW)
Net Building Utility Draw (kW)

The Solution:
Grid-Friendly, Islandable Net Zero Vision
1. Net zero with deep energy efficiency moving into
marketplace now
2. Leverage net zero and efficiency for active load
shape management
• Inherent capacitance of building systems
3. Add stationary electric and thermal storage for peak
demand management
• Storage as a service
4. Add islanding capabilities and controls that utilize
net zero and grid friendly hardware
Renewable Building-Scale Microgrid

100% Renewable, Grid Friendly, AND Energy Secure

High Performance Building Operators
Owners/Operators
Jim Dewey, City of Santa Barbara
John Elliott, UC Merced
Matt Ellis, Army
Jake Gedvilas, NREL
Rodney Martin, NASA
Scott Poll, NASA
Len Pettis, California State University
Kevin Rodgers, University of Chicago
Jason Sielcken, GSA
Darrell Smith, Microsoft
Scott Williams, Target
Designers and Energy Consultants
Porus Antia, Stantec
Matt Ganser, Carbon Lighthouse
Rob Peña, University of Washington and the
Integrated Design Laboratory
Zack Rogers, Daylighting Innovations
Phil Saieg, McKinstry

Resources
General HPB operations process linked by
project phase
• Present a storyline for all HPB operations
key actions (above and beyond current
practice)
Unique sections for topics that create a base
recipe that can be used by all HPB owners
and building types
Examples of unique lessons given to
generate motivation and confidence to take
action
• Setting and requiring energy targets
• Procuring an EIS
• Procuring MELs
• Datacenters
• Occupancy and occupant feedback
• Closing the loop with action plans
https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/1913

How Much Did It Cost?
97
• $259/ft2 construction costs for site work, infrastructure,
and building
o Includes interiors, furniture, and cabling
o Does not include PV, land, or design costs
• $246/ft2 construction cost for third wing
• Third-party-owned power purchase agreement for PV
o $29/ft2 or 11% additional cost if NREL had purchased
all PV without tax breaks or subsidies (at $5/Watt)

Compare
98
$201
$215
$240
$246
$247
$253
$254
$259
$259
$266
$266
$271
$273
$275
$281
$284
$288
$291
$293
$298
$308
$311
$316
$318
$326
$354
$369
$371
$384
$393
$412
$418
$442
$460
$503
$521
$530
Heifer International Center - Platinum
NVCI Cancer Research - Silver
Kitsap County Admin Building - Other
RSF Expansion - Total Construction Cost without PV - Platinum
The Signature Centre - Platinum
Great River Energy Headquarters - Platinum
Ft. Carson Brigade/Battalion HQ - Gold
RSF - Total Construction Cost without PV - Platinum
International Fund for Animal Welfare - Gold
Omega Center - Platinum
Chevron Office - Other
Bremerton BEQ - Certified
University of Denver Sturm College - Gold
RSF Expansion - Total Construction Cost with PV - Platinum
Naval Facilities Southeast Engineering Operations Center- Other
Ft. Lewis Barracks and Dinning - Silver
RSF - Total Construction Cost with PV - Platinum
RSF - Total Project Cost without PV - Platinum
Dillard University - Gold
EPA Region 8 Headquarters - Other
Fernald Visitors Center - Platinum
Commerce City Civic Center - Silver
Leo Trombatore Office - Silver
Arizona State University School of Journalism - Silver
Arizona State University College of Nursing & Health - Gold
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City - Other
Leprino Building - Other
San Joaquin Admin Building - Gold
1800 Larimer - Platinum
Las Cruces Courthouse - Other
NASA Sustainability Base - Platinum
Applied Research & Development - Platinum
Aircraft RSF - Silver
National Association of Realtors - Silver
Fort Bragg Forces Command HQ - Gold
San Joaquin Comm. College - Other
DC Federal Building - Other
Data used by permission from
the Design-Build project
database hosted by DBIA at
www.dbia.org

• Firm fixed price with required energy goals in design-
build contract
• Integrated architecture and envelope as efficiency
measures
• Simple and commercially viable
• No unique technologies required
• Modular precast wall panels with minimal finishes
• Optimized glazing area
• Repeatable office floorplate
• Takes a coordinated effort with the owner (and all user
groups), architect, builder, and engineers
99
Replicable – Cost Control Review

How-to Guides for Cost Control
Guide:
– https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/1655
– Discusses the recommended strategies
– Pairs strategies with industry examples of success in
ZEBs and other high-performance buildings where
possible
– Describes how to balance key decision-making factors
– Provides quick reference tables to help building owners
and project teams apply the recommended strategies to
their projects.
Fact sheet:
– https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/1654
– Highlights key ideas from the guide
– Directs readers to the guide for more details.

Thanks and Questions
Shanti Pless
Shanti.pless@nrel.gov
www.nrel.gov/rsf
101

Research Support Facility: Three years of net zero operations, occupants, and analytics

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Research Support Facility: Three years of net zero operations, occupants, and analytics