EnergyIQ
Action-oriented benchmarking for non-residential buildings
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With sponsorship from the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is creating the next generation of non-residential energy benchmarking tools. In isolation, benchmarking can inspire action but provides no practical guidance. Our "action-oriented" benchmarking tool--EnergyIQ--bridges this gap by providing a standardized opportunity assessment based on benchmarking results, along with decision-support information to help refine action plans. EnergyIQ represents major advancement beyond LBNL's widely-used CalArch tool. The tool is built as a web service using the LBNL Action-oriented Benchmarking System, which is available to third parties for the creation of custom user interfaces.
A wide array of benchmark metrics are offered, with visual as well as tabular display. Metrics include energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, costs, and characteristics (e.g. building components or operational strategies). The tool supports cross-sectional benchmarking for comparing the user's building to its peers, as well as longitudinal benchmarking for tracking an the performance of an individual building or enterprise portfolio over time.
Once a list of actions has been generated, the user can explore the “Decision Support” module for helpful information on how to refine action plans, create design-intent documentation, and implement improvements. This will include information on best practices, links to other energy analysis tools, and more. EnergyIQ is tailored for preliminary screening purposes, helping lay the groundwork for investment-grade audits and professional engineering modeling of energy-efficiency upgrades.
The project draws on the latest California Commercial End-Use Survey (CEUS), which provides details on energy use and characteristics for about 2800 buildings (and 62 building types). CEUS is likely the most thorough survey of its kind ever conducted. Using the tool, the CEUS data can be visually browsed and used as a backdrop against which to view a variety of energy benchmarking metrics for the user’s own building. Other datasets are being added to provide more flexibility to users in constructing peer groups for benchmarking comparisions.
Energy-IQ is for preliminary opportunity-assessment purposes, and helps lay the groundwork for investment-grade audits and professional engineering calculations.
To provide your input into the design of EnergyIQ, please complete our 10-question survey. Preliminary survey results can be viewed here.
Overview presentation.
To be kept informed of the progress of this project, please register here.