Table Of ContentGreen Energy and Technology
Giuliano Dall'O'
Green Energy Audit
of Buildings
A Guide for a Sustainable Energy Audit
of Buildings
Green Energy and Technology
For further volumes:
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Giuliano Dall’O’
Green Energy Audit
of Buildings
A Guide for a Sustainable Energy Audit
of Buildings
123
Giuliano Dall’O’
Department Architecture
Built environment and Construction
engineering (ABC)
Politecnico di Milano
Milan
Italy
Additional material to this book can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com/8059.
ISSN 1865-3529 ISSN 1865-3537 (electronic)
ISBN 978-1-4471-5063-3 ISBN 978-1-4471-5064-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-5064-0
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Preface
The energy issue has been in recent years, and will be in the years to come, the
most critical factor for a sustainable development of our society. The energy
demand in the entire world, driven by expectations of a better quality of life in
emerging countries, as well as by population increase, has reached levels that
cannot be sustained in the future.
Two elements make the situation even more critical for the coming years: fossil
fuels are limited and their widespread use causes significant adverse environmental
impacts such as the production of carbon dioxide, one of the causes of global
warming, but also acid rain, higher ozone concentration, or particulates, common
emergencies in urban areas.
There is a widespread awareness of how the energy problem must be dealt with,
being the implementation of long-term energy policies, very different from those
adopted so far. A drastic improvement in energy efficiency at all processing levels
and in all sectors (e.g. industry, transports, construction, services), and a significant
use of alternative energy sources (e.g. solar, wind, biomass), through a planned
process of replacing the fossil origin fuels, are necessary. A significant and nec-
essary challenge supported by new strategies but, above all, by a new cultural
approach, oriented towards environmental sustainability.
These changes in energy policies have concretely been initiated in the last ten
years: almost all countries are committed to achieving the goals of reducing carbon
dioxide emissions on the basis of international agreements (e.g. the Kyoto protocol).
The European Union is defining medium- and long-term targets and programmes
through to 2050, by introducing verification steps in order to correct the strategies
adopted by the Member States.
This international challenge should not only be seen as an emergency, but as an
interesting opportunity, as it can generate positive effects in the economy. The
implementation of new energy policies requires the use of new technologies for
energy conversion and end-uses: this stimulates the research in the various fields
involved and obviously new skills for the actors (e.g. engineers, architects, energy
managers, specialists, building managers, etc.). The whole of these new technol-
ogies, and the related services, is the basis of the green economy: an interesting
opportunity to develop the economy towards greater sustainability targets.
v
vi Preface
The European Union is promoting among the Member States a common
strategy to face the challenge.
Policies for energy efficiency have been developed not in Europe alone but also
in other parts of the world, often with the aim of stimulating the economy in
recession: in 2009 the U.S. Government proposed a series of economic measures
for public and private employers to give a clear impetus to the development of the
green economy.
The rapid evolution of rules for the energy efficiency of new buildings, results
in a large energy performance gap between new buildings and existing ones that
constitute the real estate. The improvement in the energy performance of existing
buildings, through energy retrofit measures, is indeed a great chance for operators
and, more generally, for the green building economy. A correct definition of the
retrofit measures, that should be cost-effective, is however not so easy: it requires a
detailed analysis of the causes of energy wastes, through a methodological and
a professional approach. Accurate and complete energy audits are essential as a
means to assess and verify a project’s success at meeting performance goals.
The book Green Energy Audit fits into the framework discussed above, as a tool
to support, from the technical and economical points of view, all the actions aimed
at improving the performance of existing buildings and their facilities. The energy
audit methodology proposed in this book has led us to define an acronym different
from the traditional one: Green Energy Audit.
The added value lies in the ‘‘green’’, a word that refers to and summarizes a
widespread concept; that of environmental sustainability. In fact, the Green
Energy Audit is not limited to providing tools and methods to reduce energy
consumption, but it poses a more ambitious objective: to contribute to an overall
improvement in the sustainability of the building under consideration. The book
also provides the elements to understand what possible benefit will be obtained,
once implemented measures to improve the sustainability, to start a process of
Ò
certification under LEED protocols.
The technical literature offers many rigorous books and handbooks dealing with
the matter related to energy audits, however, the publications are often intended
for experts with in-depth, baseline knowledge of the subject.
Indeed this book is designed to give the reader, in a simple and accessible way,
and without requiring in-depth skills, a comprehensive method to analyze the
building and the facilities. It shows how to properly use the audit instrumentation
for field surveys and monitoring, to define the baseline energy balance, to identify
the retrofit measures assuming different scenarios, to make economic evaluations,
hence evaluating the improvement of global sustainability, and to prepare a clear
and effective technical report.
The book Green Energy Audit of Buildings is aimed at many types of audience:
• engineers and architects who are already operating at various levels in the
energy fields, and who may have experience in the field of energy audit. It will
assist in completing their methodological approach and provide ideas to improve
their expertise;
Preface vii
• energy assessors who wish to undertake the profession of auditor;
• lecturers and gradate/postgraduate students of science, engineering, architecture,
and construction who want to improve their knowledge on the issues of sus-
tainability of buildings and energy audit;
• not only those responsible for maintenance of buildings, but also for all non-
technical energy operators, such as real estate managers or building managers.
The purpose of this book is, above all, to spread knowledge and interest on the
topics of energy and environmental quality of buildings, so contributing, prag-
matically, to the change in real estate.
I am grateful to many people, beginning with the colleagues who have provided
written contributions, that have been included in the book in specific topics.
A special thanks goes to my colleague and friend Luca Sarto, who also helped me
in the review of the entire book. I am also grateful to the colleagues and the
students who provided valuable feedback and encouraging comments on most of
the material of this book. I am grateful to Mark Izard who helped me in finding the
correct way to express the concepts, but at the same time his help was for me a
useful comparison in viewpoints on the technical aspects.
Finally I express my thanks to Mr. Anthony Doyle for agreeing to include this
book in the prestigious series ‘‘Green Energy and Technology’’ of Springer, giving
me the opportunity to contribute to this important project.
Milan, April 2013 Giuliano Dall’O’
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Awareness, as Starting Point for Performance
Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 A Comprehensive Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Structure of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.1 Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Part I Methodologies
2 Green Energy Audit: General Aspects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Building Energy and Environmental Enhancement
Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1 Defining the Operational Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.2 Reasons that Lead to Energy and Environmental
Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Scope and Aims of the Green Energy Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 The Meaning of Auditing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.2 Energy Auditing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.3 Green Energy Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.4 The Green Energy Auditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3 Definition of Operating Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.1 Walkthrough Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3.2 Standard Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.3 Simulation Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4 Organisational Aspects of the Auditing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5 Contractual Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5.1 The Relationship Between the Auditor and Client . . . 26
2.5.2 The Implementation of the Retrofit Measures . . . . . . 27
ix
x Contents
2.6 Energy Audit and Energy Certification,
an Integrated Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.7 Commissioning Authorities and the Green Energy Audit . . . . . 30
2.7.1 The Conjunction of the Two Methodologies . . . . . . . 30
2.7.2 Commissioning and Retrocommissioning. . . . . . . . . . 31
2.7.3 Commissioning and Retrocommissioning:
From New Buildings to Existing Buildings . . . . . . . . 32
2.7.4 The Re-commissioning Process
for Existing Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3 Application of the Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1 General Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2 Definition of the Contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3 Acquisition of Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.4 Planning of Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.5 Definition of Consumption and Performance Indicators. . . . . . 42
3.5.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.6 Field Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.6.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.6.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.6.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.6.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.7 Verification of Indoor Environmental Conditions . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.7.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.7.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.7.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.7.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Contents xi
3.8 Monitoring of Climate Parameters
and Energy Consumption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.8.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.8.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.8.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.8.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.9 Definition of Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.9.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.9.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.9.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.9.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.10 Definition of the Green Energy Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.10.1 Actors Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.3 Deliverable Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.4 Critical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4 Acquisition of Basic Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.1 General Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2 Technical and Operating Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.3 Energy Usage for Electrical Appliances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.4 Energy Usage for Thermal Appliances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.5 Parameterisation of Performance Through Benchmarking . . . . 65
4.5.1 The Scope of Benchmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.5.2 Factors that may Affect Benchmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.5.3 The Selection of Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.5.4 International Benchmark Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5 Survey Instrumentation and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.1 Instrumentation for Measuring Thermal Comfort . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.1.1 Thermometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.1.2 Infrared Thermometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.1.3 Anemometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.1.4 Hygrometers and Psychrometers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.1.5 Microclimate Analysers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.1.6 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.2 Instrumentation for Measuring Lighting Comfort . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.3 Instrumentation for Measuring Building Losses . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.3.1 Endoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.3.2 Thickness Gauges for Panes of Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.3.3 Heat Flux Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.3.4 Blower Door Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
