Decision Support Tool for Deep Energy Efficiency Retrofits in DoD Installations

摘要

Retrofitting existing buildings represents the fastest way to reduce energy consumption for Department of Defense (DoD) installations. However, the current retrofit process is labor intensive, is scoped at the level of a single building or small group of buildings, prioritizes equipment selection based on initial cost, provides solutions that depend on the expert performing the assessment, and results in 10-30% reduction in energy use through conventional energy conservation measures that are component- or sub-system-based, such as lighting system and central cooling/heating plant upgrades. To address these gaps in the current building retrofit assessment process, United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) developed an energy performance analysis methodology and tool to analyze solutions with the potential to reduce energy use in existing DoD facilities by 50% or more. The resulting Deep Energy Efficiency Retrofit Analysis Tool (DeepRetro Tool) is a userfriendly tool aimed at speeding up the building energy audit process from data gathering to running supporting tools by 10x, and accuracy within 10% of total measured or reported annual energy consumption, and within 15% of measured or reported annual building energy consumption broken down by major energy sources (e.g., gas, electricity, oil, steam) when the building characteristics are well known. The methodology is also aimed at providing a portfolio analysis capability that can analyze thousands of buildings simultaneously. In order to evaluate the aforementioned performance objectives (PO), the DeepRetro Tool was applied to 33 DoD buildings and validated against relevant test cases provided by American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 140 for the evaluation of building energy analysis computer programs. Inter-model validation was performed, comparing the DeepRetro Tool results with results from eQuest models for 8 buildings located at Fort Bragg, NC.