Moving Toward Transparency and Disclosure in the Energy Performance of Green Buildings

Adam Hinge, Sustainable Energy Partnerships
Donald Winston, The Durst Organization
Byron Stigge, Buro Happold

ABSTRACT

Some new high performance, green buildings are cited in the literature as what is needed in the future to achieve carbon reduction targets in the buildings sector. Growing anecdotal information suggests that some of these buildings, while built with the latest technologies, are in fact operating at a higher energy intensity than predicted. In one of the more public examples, the new Seattle City Hall, which had received LEED Gold Certification, has been shown to use more energy per square foot than the “less efficient” building that it replaced. In many cases, there are valid reasons for the higher energy intensity, perhaps due to more outside air ventilation or innovative water recycling systems. Additionally, technologies in these buildings, and the interaction of these newer technologies, can be quite complex, and may be challenging to operate as designed and modeled.  Continue reading


Documenting Performance

Does it Need to Be So Hard?

BY ADAM W. HINGE, P.E., MEMBER ASHRAE; AND DONALD J. WINSTON, P.E., MEMBER ASHRA

In the Winter 2008 issue of HPB, we wrote an article entitled “The Proof is Performance,” where we reviewed the measured energy consumption of one of the first well-known green buildings in the United States — the Condé Nast Building at 4 Times Square in New York City. In that guest commentary, we reviewed some of the challenges in measuring and reporting building energy performance, but given the experience of the first year of HPB we felt compelled to weigh in with some additional thoughts on the topic of energy consumption reporting for buildings.

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The Proof Is Performance

How Does 4 Times Square Measure Up?

BY ADAM W. HINGE, P.E., MEMBER ASHRAE; AND DONALD J. WINSTON, P.E., MEMBER ASHRAE

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