“ENERGY CONSUMPTION REDUCTION OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF VIRTUAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ENERGY AUDIT ANALYSIS“
According to the EIA, about 40 EJ of the total U.S. energy consumption was consumed by residential and commercial buildings in 2017, which is about 39% of the total 2017 annual U.S. energy consumption (EIA 2018). The potential for energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions reduction in existing buildings today remain largely untapped and that there is still much left to explore in respect to determining the best protocols for reducing building energy consumption on a national and even a global scale. The present work investigates the effectiveness of integrating an initial virtual screening to the conventional, hands-on, energy audit processes to more quickly and less costly obtain the potential energy savings for high energy consumption buildings. The virtual screening tool takes advantage of a customized energy efficiency management program and the readily available building energy consumption data to identify the buildings that have the highest energy savings potential and should be given priority for performing onsite walkthroughs, detailed energy audits, and the subsequent implementation of the identified energy conservation measures (ECM’s). By applying the proposed procedure to a group of buildings, the results of this study demonstrated that a combination of the software-based screening tools and a detailed experimental/onsite energy audit as necessary can effectively take advantage of the potential energy consumption and carbon footprint reduction in existing buildings today.
“CURRICULUM VITAE”
I am a full-time Mechanical Engineer at an MEP engineering consulting firm called CMTA, which is located in Arlington, Virginia. CMTA specializes in sustainability and net-zero building design. I design mechanical systems for commercial buildings using CAD software (Revit, AutoCAD, etc.) and perform building load and energy calculations using energy modeling software (IES, Trane Trace, etc.). For mechanical designs, I determine equipment capacities, airflows, duct/pipe sizes, and ventilation required by the local codes. I provide construction administration by performing contractor submittal reviews and respond to RFI’s. I also perform site surveys in order to gather data, obtain design ideas, and observe project progresses.
I graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a M.S. Mechanical Engineering degree in 2022. I am currently a member with a leading role on the energy audit team at the Smart and Small Thermal Systems Laboratory. I lead a team to perform energy audits and submit energy reports for government buildings. I train, mentor, and assign tasks for team members in order to meet project goals and deadlines. For our work, we propose energy saving methods by analyzing utility data and calculating expected reductions as well as construct 3D building energy models in energy modeling software (Trane Trace 3D Plus, eQuest, OpenStudio, SketchUp, etc.) We also attend building surveys with facility managers in order to identify existing conditions and deficiencies.