Building stakeholders need practical metrics, data, and tools to support decisions related to sustainable building designs, technologies, standards, and codes. The Engineering Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has addressed this high priority national need by extending its metrics and tool for sustainable building products, known as Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES), to whole buildings. Whole building sustainability metrics have been developed based on innovative extensions to life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle costing (LCC) approaches involving building energy simulations. The measurement system evaluates the sustainability of both the materials and the energy used by a building over time. It assesses the "carbon footprint" of buildings as well as 11 other environmental performance metrics, and integrates economic performance metrics to yield sciencebased measures of the business case for investment choices in high-performance green buildings.Building Industry Reporting and Design for Sustainability (BIRDS) applies the new sustainability measurement system to an extensive whole building performance database NIST has compiled for this purpose. The BIRDS database includes energy, environmental, and cost measurements for 12 540 new commercial and non low-rise residential buildings, covering 11 building prototypes in 228 cities across all U.S. states for 9 study period lengths. The sustainability performance of buildings designed to meet current state energy codes can be compared to their performance when meeting four alternative building energy standard editions to determine the impact of energy efficiency on sustainability performance. The impact of the building location and the investor's time horizon on sustainability performance can also be measured.
Building stakeholders need practical metrics, data, and tools to support decisions related to sustainable building designs, technologies, standards, and codes. The Engineering Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has addressed this high priority national need by extending its metrics and tools for sustainable building products, known as Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES), to whole-buildings. Wholebuilding sustainability metrics have been developed based on innovative extensions to life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle costing (LCC) approaches involving whole-building energy simulations. The measurement system evaluates the sustainability of both the materials and the energy used by a building over time. It assesses the "carbon footprint" of buildings as well as 11 other environmental performance metrics, and integrates economic performance metrics to yield science-based measures of the business case for investment choices in high-performance green buildings. Building Industry Reporting and Design for Sustainability (BIRDS) applies the new sustainability measurement system to an extensive whole-building performance database NIST has compiled for this purpose. Based on the NIST Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF), the BIRDS Low-Energy Residential building database includes energy, environmental, and cost measurements for 240 000 design variations of the NZERTF for Gaithersburg, MD for study period lengths ranging from 1 year to 40 years. Focusing on a single location allows for the consideration of incremental building energy efficiency measures, both those specified in the most recent International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) as well as those adopted in the NZERTF design that lead to net-zero energy performance for a one-year period of experimental operation. The sustainability performance of buildings designed to meet current energy codes can be compared to a number of alternative building designs to determine the impacts of improving building energy efficiency on overall sustainability performance. This report describes the latest version of BIRDS v3.0 including additional options that were not included in previous versions such as varying discount rates, home purchase financing, and quality of construction options.
Due to concerns about potential airborne chemical and biological (chembio) releases in or near buildings, building owners and managers and other decision makers are considering retrofitting buildings to provide some degree of protection against such events. A wide range of technologies and approaches are being proposed with varying levels of efficacy and cost, as well as varying degrees of applicability to particular buildings and ventilation systems. This document presents the results of an effort to evaluate chembio retrofit options for buildings. A number of retrofit options are identified, and their potential to protect building occupants from a number of generic contaminant releases is evaluated using building airflow and contaminant transport modeling. In addition, a case study is presented in which specific retrofit options were considered for two actual buildings and pre-installation designs and cost estimates were developed. Based on the analyses performed, the results of the case study and other available information, guidance on the application and effectiveness of various retrofits are presented. An economic analysis software tool employing life cycle cost analysis techniques was developed as part of this project, and its use is described in an appendix to this report. The retrofit options considered fall into two categories, the first being stand-alone technologies or devices such as enhanced particulate filtration that are installed and implemented as purchased. The second category includes retrofit approaches that employ operational strategies or building modifications to increase building protection, such as outdoor air purging or building envelope airtightening. The guidance section describes each retrofit technology and approach in some detail, presenting relevant performance data and the level of protection that might be expected from the retrofit. Potential disadvantages and knowledge gaps are also discussed for each technology. The retrofit technologies considered include enhanced particle filtration, sorbent based gaseous air cleaning, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, photocatalytic oxidative air cleaning, and work area air capture and filtration equipment such as mail handling tables. The approaches include ventilation system recommissioning, building envelope airtightening, building pressurization, relocation of outdoor air intakes, shelter-in-place (SIP), isolation of vulnerable spaces such as lobbies, system shutdown and purge cycles, and automated heating, ventilating and airconditioning (HVAC) operational changes in response to contaminant sensing. The filtration and air cleaning options are noted to have an advantage of always being operational, which is an advantage as long as the systems are properly designed, installed and maintained. However, the lack of standard test methods for sorbent-based gaseous air cleaning and other air cleaning approaches is identified as a critical issue in the application of these technologies. Building envelope air sealing and pressurization can be ...
This is the 2017 edition of energy price indices and discount factors for performing life-cycle cost analyses of energy and water conservation and renewable energy projects in federal facilities. It will be effective from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018. This publication supports the federal life-cycle costing methodology described in 10 CFR 436A and OMB Circular A-94 by updating the energy price projections and discount factors that are described, explained, and illustrated in NIST Handbook 135 (HB 135, Life-Cycle Costing Manual for the Federal Energy Management Program.) Disclaimer:Certain trade names or company products are mentioned in the text to specify adequately the software and operating systems used for performing the life-cycle cost analyses. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the software and operating systems are the best available for the purpose. At the request of a number of users, a text file of the EIA energy price projections underlying this Annual Supplement has been made available by NIST. To obtain this file (ENCOST17.txt), please visit the DOE/FEMP web site at http://energy.gov/eere/femp/building-life-cycle-cost-programs.The life-cycle costing methods and procedures, as set forth in 10 CFR 436A, are to be followed by all federal agencies, unless specifically exempted, for evaluating the cost effectiveness of potential energy and water conservation and renewable energy investments in federally owned and leased buildings. For most other federal LCC analyses OMB Circular A-94 provides the relevant guidelines.As called for by legislation (Energy Policy and Conservation Act, P.L. 94-163, 1975, 92 Stat 3206, 42 USC 8252 et seq), the NIST has provided technical assistance to the U.S. Department of Energy in the development and implementation of life-cycle costing methods and procedures. The following publications and software products provide the methods, data, and computational tools for federal lifecycle cost analysis:( BLCC 5.3 provides comprehensive economic analysis capabilities for the evaluation of proposed capital investments that are expected to reduce the long-term operating costs of buildings and building systems. It computes the LCC for project alternatives, compares project alternatives in order to determine which has the lowest LCC, performs annual cash flow analysis, and computes net savings (NS), savings-to-investment ratio (SIR), and adjusted internal rate of return (AIRR) for project alternatives over their designated study period. The BLCC program can be used to perform economic analysis of capital investment projects undertaken by federal, state, and local government agencies. In the application to federal energy conservation and renewable energy projects, BLCC5 is consistent with NIST Handbook 135, and the federal life-cycle cost methodology and procedures described in 10 CFR 436A and OMB Circular A-94.BLCC 5.3 has six modules, all of them consistent wit...
n o lo g y A d m in istra tio n N atio n al In stitu te o f S tan d a rd s an d Tech n o lo g y P repared for U n ited S ta tes D ep a rtm en t o f E n erg y F ed eral E n erg y M an ag em en t P ro g ram
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