Potential Benefits of Commissioning California Homes

Abstract

The electricity savings in the commissioning phase range from 7 to 11% (typical) and 55 to 71% (poor). In the opportunity phase, adding equipment with a TXV and an ECM increases savings only slightly (one to seven percentage points more). Natural Gas. Natural gas savings in the commissioning phase are about 25% for the typical cases and from 18 to 35% for the poor cases. In the opportunity phase, installing a higher efficiency furnace (90% instead of 80%) increases natural gas savings slightly to about 30% for the typical cases and from 22 to 41% for the poor cases. Operating Costs. Operating cost savings in the commissioning phase range from 12 to 17% (typical) and from 50 to 62% (poor). In the opportunity phase, installing the HVAC equipment with a TXV, an ECM, and higher furnace efficiency increases the operating cost savings to 17 to 22% (typical) and from 51 to 63% (poor). Advanced Houses Because the advanced houses are already engineered and designed to be energy efficient, relative savings for the typical cases are lower than those for the typical existing and new houses. For the advanced houses, the primary difference between the typical and the poor cases is the incorrect installation of clear glazing in place of low-e glazing. Correcting LBNL-48258 vii this problem in the poor cases drives the energy consumption and savings closer to the levels seen with the new houses. Electricity. The commissioning phase electricity saving range from 7 to 10% (typical) and from 52 to 73% (poor). Natural Gas. Natural gas savings range from 2 to 3% for the typical cases. Due to a reduction in solar gains when the incorrect clear double-pane windows are replaced with low-e double-pane windows, the poor advanced commissioning cases have higher gas consumption, resulting in negative gas savings, from-19 to-10%.

Building America House Simulation Protocols (Revised)

“…Adjustments to efficiency related to age and quality of maintenance shall be applied in accordance with Equation 20. Performance degradation rates for cooling systems are based in part on a study done by LBNL for the California Energy Commission (Matson et al 2002). For houses with air ducts, the Pre-Retrofit Case shall be modeled using data collected through visual inspections, physical measurements, and duct leakage testing.…”

Building America Performance Analysis Procedures for Existing Homes

“…Adjustments to efficiency related to age and quality of maintenance shall be applied in accordance with Equation 2. Performance degradation rates for cooling systems are based in part on a study done by LBNL for the California Energy Commission (Matson et al 2002).…”

Guidelines for residential commissioning

“…• an analysis of the potential benefits one can realistically expect from commissioning new and existing California houses (Matson et al 2002), and…”

“…Integration allows energy-efficiency measures that make little sense individually (e.g., windows) to be costeffective and attractive together within the whole system, due to concurrent benefits such as reduced equipment size and improved comfort. Matson et al (2002) have assessed the potential benefits of whole-house commissioning for new and existing coastal and inland valley California houses. In this assessment, tuning and tweaking houses as part of commissioning included tightening the building envelope, tightening and insulating ducts, and correcting refrigerant charge and HVAC system airflow deficiencies.…”

“…The two examples are extracted from the set of hypothetical California houses simulated in the potential benefits analysis of Matson et al (2002). In particular, we use the typical pre-Title 24 existing and Title 24 houses located in Sacramento.…”