Hicks, Dave C. (2008-12). Development of a Pre-Screening Methodology to Aid in Determining Potential Energy Savings in Commercial Building. Master's Thesis. Thesis uri icon

abstract

  • This thesis presents a methodology developed to aid in the determination of

    potential sources and the potential scale of energy savings in commercial buildings. As

    a pre-screening tool, the methodology is designed to serve as the first analysis of the

    building's potential for energy savings using limited data prior to a site visit. A

    Microsoft(R) Excel-based tool was developed to perform this analysis semi-automatically

    with user operation. A fundamental concept used in this methodology is that of the

    energy balance load, defined as heating plus electricity minus cooling.

    The methodology is designed to require only historical weather data, historical

    whole-building energy consumption data, the total conditioned floor area, and the basic

    function of the building. Upon following a short procedure developed and outlined in

    this thesis, this limited data yields information that can lead to conclusions about the

    building's energy consumption. The output information includes estimates of a major

    building thermal parameter--the building's overall heat transfer coefficient including the

    total outside air flow rate into the building. In addition to providing this information, the

    Excel tool includes already-formatted plots of the energy consumption commonly used in energy analysis. These include cooling, heating, and electricity vs. both outside air

    temperature and time.

    Three case studies illustrate the utility of this methodology. The calculated

    energy balance load--calculated using parameters determined through this

    methodology--yielded values on average within 5.4% of measured values.

publication date

  • December 2008