Ashrae Journal - October 2008 - (Page 14) ASHRAE has reduced its estimated annual energy use by more than 31.5% through enhancements to the building envelope and use of dedicated outdoor air system with energy recovery, ground-source heat pumps, and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems with heat recovery. ability to selectively disable building systems. These capabilities will be managed through the ASHRAE research program. The Need for the Living Lab Photo credit: Rebecca Matyasovski LEED points for EA5-Measurement and Verification as well as EQ1-Outdoor Air Delivery Monitoring. In addition, flat screen displays of building performance address the need for educational requirements of the LEED rating. With 40% of the energy use in the U.S. being attributable to buildings, it should be no surprise that the greatest Overview of Headquarters Building Systems potential for improvement in energy use comes from the One of the distinguishing characteristics of the newly renoconstruction and operation of buildings. For ASHRAE to vated headquarters building is the number of energy systems contribute significantly to reducing energy use in buildings, serving the building. A diverse set of systems provides a rich continuing research and efforts to improve opportunity for data collection and analysis educational materials on energy-efficient that will ultimately exercise the living lab to building construction and operations are its fullest while delivering greater value to needed. Research and development using the ASHRAE membership. the living lab can contribute significantly to A separate dedicated outdoor air system the body of knowledge in this field. (DOAS) provides tempered and dehumidified Since relatively few of ASHRAE’s 50,000 ventilation air for the building. The DOAS members actually have the opportunity to system includes dual desiccant energy recovvisit the headquarters building in Atlanta, ery wheels, direct expansion (DX) cooling the living lab also serves as a medium to alcoils and variable frequency drive (VFD) low all members to participate in and benefit controllers for supply and exhaust fans. from the improvements in the building and The first floor of the building is heated and its systems. Effectively, the building now can cooled by variable refrigerant flow (VRF) serve as a “laboratory without walls,” extendheat pumps operating in a heat recovery mode ing its capability and information reach to a supplied by inverter-driven DX condensworldwide audience. Much can be learned ing units. The second floor of the building about the real-world issues and benefits of is heated and cooled by two-stage ground operating the ASHRAE headquarters buildsource heat pumps using variable speed fans Ground-source heat pumps operate ing more efficiently in the future, with all and pumps. with a geothermal field of 12 wells members sharing in that experience. The headquarters building produces that are 400 ft (122 m) deep and a The Headquarters Renovation Committee on-site renewable energy through a roofclosed loop piping system. decided to pursue a LEED-NC1 Gold rating as mounted photovoltaic (PV) array. Additional well as a LEED-EB2 Gold rating from the U.S. Green Buildings systems control the daylighting in the building, as well as the Council for the headquarters building. The LEED-NC rating is security, phones, and white noise generators for conversation being pursued initially and the living lab contributes to earn- masking. Monitoring equipment is provided for refrigerant leak ing that rating. For the NC rating, the living lab helps to gain detection as well as indoor air quality (IAQ) sensing. 14 ASHRAE Journal ashrae.org October 2008 http://www.ashrae.org
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Ashrae Journal - October 2008 Ashrae Journal - October 2008
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.