ASHRAE Journal - April 2014 - 15

Technical FeaTure
Fea

Renovation Quick Facts
92% of building structure/shell retained
91% of construction waste was diverted from
landfills and recycled (2,200 tons)
22% of the total materials cost for the project
came from recycled content
25% of the total materials cost for the project
came from regionally supplied materials
(extracted and manufactured within 500 miles
from building site)
Abated remaining asbestos on-site in exterior
building soffit paneling
LEED New Construction (NC) 2.2 rated Platinum
building: 55 points attempted; 54 points earned;
69 possible points
Energy Star-Labeled Building in 2010, and 2012
Prior to Renovation (2007) Energy Star Score:
35; Site EUI: 79 kBtu/ft2·yr (908 MJ/m2·yr)

The green roof of the Learning Center consists of three types of sedum and one ice plant that each bloom multiple times per year. The
weather station is connected to the BAS and measures min./max. dry bulb air temp, RH, dew point, solar radiation, hours of sun, net
radiation, barometric pressure, min./max. wind speed, wind direction, gusts, gust directions, and CO2.

1,300 points are monitored and stored on the systems and
spaces in this building. The stored and real-time data are
then made available to our members around the world
via Internet. Only a small group of building owners would
allow their building to be used in such a fashion.
ASHRAE hopes to learn more about the long-term operation, maintenance and performance of buildings with
the various types of systems used throughout this project.
We also hope to link to similar data from other high performance buildings around the world so that our website
can someday serve as a Web portal to this type of data.
Lesson Learned A need was identified through this project
for developing a standard naming convention for data
points so that such information can be easily used across
all projects and understood by various parties.

First Floor System
The first floor is conditioned for heating and cooling
using a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system with heat
recovery, which consists of five inverter driven, outdoor
DX heat pumps, three ductless fan coil units, and 22
ducted fan coil units operating on HFC-410A refrigerant
(system capacity 28 tons [98 kW] total). Unlike traditional
AC systems, this system automatically adjusts the compressor speed and the flow of refrigerant in the system to
automatically meet changes in the indoor load, reducing

After Renovation (2012) Energy Star Score: 95;
Site EUI: 38 kBtu/ft2·yr (437 MJ/m2·yr)
52% EUI reduction between 2007 and 2012

energy consumption. It can automatically reroute refrigerant from one zone that is in cooling mode to another zone
that requires heat, bypassing the rooftop DX heat pump
and avoiding its energy consumption (heat recovery).
Lessons Learned The VRF and building automation system
(BAS) manufacturers had never worked together before.
As a result, the control interface was challenging, and the
interface may not be fully optimized to reflect the true performance of the VRF system. It would be interesting to see
how the VRF system performs on its own built-in controls
for scheduling, etc., without the interface to the BAS.
The refrigerant lines for the VRF units in the new
ASHRAE Foundation Learning Center initially crossed a
means of egress hallway. To comply with the then current version of ASHRAE Standard 151 (Section 8.10.2,
Location of Refrigerant Piping) (similar requirements
exist in the Uniform Mechanical Code and International
Mechanical Code), the hall crossing had to be rerouted
to the roof level. This issue highlighted a difference
between ASHRAE Standard 15 and some international
refrigerant safety standards, suggesting discussion was
needed to better harmonize these standards.

Second Floor System
The second floor and north stairwell are conditioned
for heating and cooling using 12 ceiling-mounted
Apri l 2014

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ASHRAE Journal - April 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - April 2014
