TY - JOUR
T1 - The Role of Small Commercial Buildings in Achieving Energy Efficiency
T2 - International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering and Construction, ICSDEC 2016
AU - Santiago, Khalil
AU - Vazquez, Juliana
AU - Parrish, Kristen
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is funded by the Small Commercial 2030 District Program and Toolkit award from the United States Department of Energy (US DOE). This support is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US DOE.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Small commercial buildings, or buildings comprised of 50,000 square feet or less, are responsible for an increasing share of the United States' energy consumption and account for 90% of the total number of commercial buildings in the US. Americans use ∼30% of the world's energy, and in the US, small commercial buildings account for approximately 10% of the nation's energy consumption. As such, small commercial buildings became a focus of a $6 M investment by the US Department of Energy. One project included in the DOE's small building efforts developed a Small Commercial 2030 District Program and Toolkit. This toolkit helps small commercial buildings participate in Architecture 2030 Districts that have been proven successful at reducing energy and CO2 consumption, predominantly in large commercial buildings in urban areas. Part of this toolkit is a case study library that includes more than thirty small commercial building projects that achieved energy savings of up to 100%. The case study library includes small commercial building retrofits that address electricity, natural gas, and steam systems. This paper reports the end uses impacted from the retrofits and explores correlations with retrofit measures implemented, climate zone, end uses impacted, building type, and energy savings. In particular, we explore retrofit measures selected in different 2030 Districts and discuss why these trends may hold true. The paper concludes with a discussion of next steps in the research and possible implications of this project.
AB - Small commercial buildings, or buildings comprised of 50,000 square feet or less, are responsible for an increasing share of the United States' energy consumption and account for 90% of the total number of commercial buildings in the US. Americans use ∼30% of the world's energy, and in the US, small commercial buildings account for approximately 10% of the nation's energy consumption. As such, small commercial buildings became a focus of a $6 M investment by the US Department of Energy. One project included in the DOE's small building efforts developed a Small Commercial 2030 District Program and Toolkit. This toolkit helps small commercial buildings participate in Architecture 2030 Districts that have been proven successful at reducing energy and CO2 consumption, predominantly in large commercial buildings in urban areas. Part of this toolkit is a case study library that includes more than thirty small commercial building projects that achieved energy savings of up to 100%. The case study library includes small commercial building retrofits that address electricity, natural gas, and steam systems. This paper reports the end uses impacted from the retrofits and explores correlations with retrofit measures implemented, climate zone, end uses impacted, building type, and energy savings. In particular, we explore retrofit measures selected in different 2030 Districts and discuss why these trends may hold true. The paper concludes with a discussion of next steps in the research and possible implications of this project.
KW - Energy efficiency
KW - Retrofits
KW - Small Commercial Buildings
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U2 - 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.185
DO - 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.185
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:84999693646
SN - 1877-7058
VL - 145
SP - 1470
EP - 1477
JO - Procedia Engineering
JF - Procedia Engineering
Y2 - 18 May 2016 through 20 May 2016
ER -