The energy savings impact of the existing building commissioning process by building type

Abstract

This study presents the energy savings impact of the Continuous Commissioning® (CC^®) version of the Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx) process in 197 projects (592 buildings) since the inception of the process in the early 1990s. These are the results of a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of EBCx projects. The evaluation of the impact of EBCx by building type included 316 education buildings, 141 health care facilities, 13 laboratory facilities, 32 office buildings, as well as 90 miscellaneous facilities. The annual energy cost savings, as of December 2016, exceeded $29.7 million (2017 $), for 197 EBCx projects (over 59 million ft² (5.48 million m²) of area). The median annual cost savings were $0.24/ft² ($2.26/m²) for individual education buildings, $0.40/ft² ($4.31/m²) for individual health care facilities, $1.54/ft² ($16.58/m²) for individual laboratory facilities, $0.59/ft² ($6.35/m²) for individual office buildings, $0.50/ft² ($5.38/m²) for individual miscellaneous facilities. The median percent savings for electricity were up to 14%, the demand savings up to 14%, the natural gas savings up to 33%, the CHW savings ranged from 21 to 36%, and the HW savings ranged from 28 to 71%. The median percent savings are remarkably consistent by building type.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in figshare at http://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14450121.

Notes

1 The terms Continuous Commissioning^® and CC^® are registered trademarks of the Energy Systems Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, Texas A&M University System.

2 At that time the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station was known as the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, however the TEES acronym has not changed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alaina Ruffin

Received September 28, 2020; accepted April 13, 2021. Alaina Ruffin, PhD, is a Research Engineer Associate; David E. Claridge, PhD, Fellow/Life Member ASHRAE, is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Energy Systems Laboratory; and Juan-Carlos Baltazar, PhD, Member ASHRAE, is an Associate Professor of Architecture, Associate Director and Manager, Building Performance Analytics Group, Energy Systems Laboratory, Texas A&M, College Station, TX, USA.