Low-Investment Energy Retrofit Framework for Small and Medium Office Buildings. (2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rios, Fernanda Cruz; Parrish, Kristen; Chong, Wai K.
• Is Part Of: Procedia engineering. Volume 145(2016)
• Page Start: 172
• Page End: 179
• Publication Date: 2016
• Subjects: Retrofit -- office buildings -- energy -- HVAC -- plug loads -- MELs.; Engineering -- Congresses; Engineering -- Periodicals; Engineering; Conference proceedings; Periodicals; 620.005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.057
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1877-7058

Abstract

Abstract: Small and medium office buildings consume a significant parcel of the U.S. building stock energy consumption. Still, owners lack resources and experience to conduct detailed energy audits and retrofit analysis. We present an eight-steps framework for an energy retrofit assessment in small and medium office buildings. Through a bottom-up approach and a web-based retrofit toolkit tested on a case study in Arizona, this methodology was able to save about 50% of the total energy consumed by the case study building, depending on the adopted measures and invested capital. While the case study presented is a deep energy retrofit, the proposed framework is effective in guiding the decision-making process that precedes any energy retrofit, deep or light.