P2-4. Demonstration of the Whole Building Diagnostician > Background

Objectives:

• Test and demonstrate automated commissioning and diagnostics using the Whole-Building Diagnostician (WBD) in actual buildings with actual operators and energy service providers to:
  
  
• Prove WBD efficacy in automatically detecting energy efficiency and outside-air supply problems in buildings
  
  
• Test and demonstrate the ability of users to interpret and act upon the information provided by the tools to correct building operational problems
  
  
• Develop case studies of the impacts of using the tools in terms of the type and number of problems found, the energy savings, and fresh air-supply impacts of correcting the problems
  
  
• Provide feedback from users, based on their experience with the OAE/WBD, to guide development and implementation of the other tools in the future, including those in the program plan.

Approach:

Using demonstration sites, this project demonstrated the WBD's current automated diagnostic tools in three contexts:

• Single Building, Dedicated Operator: The single-building operator demonstration took place at the Symphony Towers building in San Diego, California, a 34-story 601,000 sq. ft., "Class-A", mixed-use development located at the hub of downtown San Diego's financial corridor. Symphony Towers was selected for the demonstration because of its visibility and energy conscious management. The management team had aggressively pursued optimal equipment performance and has accomplished numerous lighting, mechanical, plumbing, and controls enhancements.
  
  The building's HVAC (heating, ventilating and air-conditioning) system consists of two three-stage centrifugal chillers of 550 tons each, and two natural gas hydronic boilers of 3,000 MBtu/hr each. Four variable-air-volume air handlers with variable speed drives, equipped with enthalpy-controlled economizers, serve the occupied space and variable speed drives. The air handlers only supply cooling; no heating coil is present. The control system is controlled manufactured by by a Johnson Controls Metasys building automation system, and provides convenient on-demand access to data by the WBD via a DDE (dynamic data exchange) server.
  
  
• Multi-Building, Dedicated Operator: The County of Alameda currently owns or leases approximately 120 buildings consisting of 6.2 million square feet of owned office space and 1.1 million square feet of leased office space. Among those buildings are a jail, a number of courthouses, clinics, office buildings and juvenile halls. The demonstration sites consist of two courthouses and two emergency buildings.
  
  The building's HVAC system consists of hydronic systems with centrifugal chillers, and natural gas hydronic boilers. Four large variable-air-volume (VAV) air handlers with heating and cooling coils, differential dry-bulb controlled economizers and variable speed drives serve the occupied space. A direct digital control (DDC) system from CSI controls the HVAC systems, which also provides a mechanism for trend logs.
  
  
• Mechanical Services Provider: Marina Mechanical, a mechanical services company headquartered in Oakland, was the demonstration partner. The firm provides HVAC construction and maintenance services to office and industrial building owners in northern California. The demonstration site selected by Marina Mechanical was the Capitol Mall office building, located in Sacramento. The Capitol Mall building is an 18-story 385,000 square foot premier "Class A" office building with integral covered parking structure. In addition to office space, the building houses a Café and a rooftop terrace. The building was built in 1984 and is located at 300 Capitol Mall, approximately six blocks west of the State Capitol. The building is an Environmental Protection Agency "Energy Star" qualified building. The demonstration included six air handlers ranging in capacity from 40,000 to 100,000 cfm, with a total capacity of 380,000 cfm.

Data collected during each demonstration included (1) raw metered data, (2) operator usage, (3) problems found by operators, (4) problems they fixed or tried to fix, and (5) user opinions of the WBD tools and problems with them. Collected Data was analyzed to measure the success of the WBD tools and provide feedback for future automated commissioning and diagnostic tools, including (1) user satisfaction, (2) user success in finding problems using the tools, (3) the number of problems found and fixed, and (4) cost savings, cost to fix problems, and fresh air supply improvements.

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