energy assessment guide for commercial buildings - ECO-III

LEVELS OF ENERGY ASSESSMENT
3.
Levels of Energy Assessments
3.1 General information
There are three levels of assessment, varying
in detail and comprehensiveness. Each level of
assessment builds upon the previous level, meaning
that all the requirements for data collection and
analysis to be undertaken in the previous levels are
included as a part of higher levels of assessment.
For each level; the purpose of the level of analysis,
data requirements and gathering guidelines, and
analysis are described in the following sections.
As a general rule, any level of assessment should
include analysis of general building and energy
use, description and analysis of the energy using
systems, and an engineering and financial analysis
[ASHRAE 2004].
3.1.1
General Building and Energy
Information
The general description of the commercial
building includes the age of the building, location
and orientation, number of stories, what materials
the building is constructed of, and how it was
constructed. The complete building area should
be listed, and further broken down into areas
of specific usage. Each of these areas should
be described by function, such as office space,
storage, etc., hours of use and area. The original
intended use of the building should be considered,
as changes to the building function may contribute
to inefficiencies in energy use. Also operational
and maintenance practices should be considered
with respect to their impact on energy efficiency.
Analysis of energy and related costs should be
based on a minimum of two years of utility bills.
Energy use should be summarized on an annual
basis and an energy use index of kilowatt hours
per square metre should be calculated. Over the
same period, the cost such as energy should be
evaluated and a cost index such as cost per square
metre is calculated. These energy and cost indices
can be used to benchmark the building to other
similar buildings.
3.1.2
General Building and Energy Information
• Building information
•• Building type description
•• Overall building use
•• Area
•• Breakdown of building use:
ºº Function
ºº Hours of use
ºº Area
•• Use different from original design
Energy Using Systems
Energy Using Systems are:
•• Building envelope
•• Lighting
•• Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
•• Hot water
•• Mechanical systems
•• Other system
••
•• Operation and maintenance
Energy and cost information
•• Energy analysis
ºº Use
º º Energy use index
•• Cost analysis
ºº Average utility costs
ºº Cost index
•• Benchmarking
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