Bullitt team releases energy information for Cascadia Center
This week, the Bullitt Foundation's Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction released a report detailing its energy performance metrics. For all you energy nerds out there, this is a pretty exciting development.
The document outlines how the six-story building will meet net-zero energy. The big
Image courtesy The Bullitt Foundation.
highlight is that it releases the planned EUI of the building, or Energy Use Intensity. An EUI score is expressed in units of thousands of BTUs per square foot of gross floor area. Based on 52,000 square feet of gross floor area, the project should have an EUI of 16. Based on 39,000 square feet treated floor area, a common European measurement, it would have an EUI of 21.
I was recently discussing EUI with members of a ZGF team. They told me the average EUI for an office building in the Pacific Norhtwest is 106.
The report also says the U.S. Department of Energy's Zero Energy Building database currently contains no comparable buildings.
The report includes a pie chart with sections for the center's different energy uses. The largest percentage at 23 percent will feed lights. The next highest amount of energy, at 10 percent are pumps. About 9 percent of the building's energy will feed monitors while 8 percent will feed workstations. Toilets will get .2 percent of the building's energy use.
To read the report, click here.
P.S. The Bullitt Foundation is hiring an administrative and grants assistant. The job description is here.
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June 17th, 2011 - 11:00
This is great, but I do want to caution you to take these numbers with a grain of salt. Although in the report they use solid confident language “The EUI for the project is”, the data is based on computer models. Even if the computer models are perfect (few ever are), there’s absolutely no way of predicting occupant behavior. If people work just an extra hour a day, then the energy use can go up more than 12%. If they aren’t perfect at opening and closing windows at the right time, use more than the predicted .8W/sf plug loads, or if the building isn’t commissioned properly, then you could end up far from the goal.
I wish them luck, and this looks like a great project. But maybe it’s best to report energy numbers after they’re actually consuming energy.
June 17th, 2011 - 18:26
Matt the Engineer is absolutely correct. This is a forecast. We have not yet broken ground!
We prepared this forecast so that we could provide a standard, carefully-thought-out response to all the questions we’ve been receiving about how well we expect the building to perform. We believe we have constructed our models conservatively, and we plan to have systems in place to reward tenants for energy-smart occupancy. But the real world sometimes delivers surprises.
As Matt recommends, we will also report how the building actually performs after it is occupied. If it performs below expectations, we will figure out why; we will attempt to correct any problems; and we will share any lessons with all interested parties. I think there is an excellent chance that it will exceed our high expectations.
FWIW, we are not counting on short work days to achieve this performance, although we do hope for intelligent behavior when they are in the facility.
June 23rd, 2011 - 07:41
This is great! It’s absolutely a step in the right direction, but now the building needs to actually be built.