These guidelines are a strategic management approach, not a technical reference, to incorporate energy performance in the building design process. It is a set of suggested actions for design professionals and building owners to establish and achieve energy goals. These guidelines encourage best practices for energy design as part of the overall design process, and can help translate design intent to top energy performing buildings.
- Start Right – Set energy goal and assemble design team
- Pre-Design – Investigate energy design concepts
- Schematic Design – Simulate and compare energy strategies
- Design Development – Confirm that your design energy meets the target
- Construction & Bid Documents – Include energy goal in specs
- Follow Through – Commission building, rate operational performance, and apply for ENERGY STAR
Start Right: Set Goal — Assemble Design Team
Setting a definitive and measurable energy performance target is an important step in designing sustainable buildings that reduce operating costs and prevent pollution. Once your goal is set, a method to achieve it is required.Action Items
- Set an energy performance target by using the EPA Energy Performance Rating — Target Finder — for design projects.
- Use energy design guidance to help choose energy-efficient strategies and technologies that will achieve your target. See Advanced Building Guidelines — E-Benchmark — at Building Design Links.
- Review case studies that demonstrate enhanced energy performance in buildings similar to your project. See Resources for case studies and links to profiles of ENERGY STAR labeled buildings.
- Review your firm’s relevant past projects and compare their energy performance with the target for your new project. Consider touring local facilities to understand how design and energy strategies were successfully implemented.
- Consider financial and environmental impacts by using Target Finder to assess the cost of target energy use and the associated greenhouse gas emissions for the design.
- Work with client to allocate sufficient funds to carry out an integrated design process and reach your energy performance target.
Assemble Design Team
Achieving superior energy performance requires assembling a multi-disciplinary team that works together from goal setting to building operation. The team should investigate energy performance design strategies and determine how these strategies can be integrated in the design. Team buy-in, experience, and early involvement are vital so that they can establish and achieve design and energy performance goals.Action Items
- Select a multi-disciplinary team early in the process, including the building owner, architects, energy consultants, engineers, proposed tenants, state and local government officials, construction contractors, commissioning agent, and Operations & Maintenance (O&M) staff.
- Adopt an integrated design approach and educate the project team on goals, costs, and benefits of the process. Use a front-loaded, research-intensive process to determine strategies for creating buildings that achieve energy performance goals.
Pre-Design
The conventional design process usually introduces energy-efficient technologies during design development. However, the greatest opportunity for cost-effective energy measures occurs earlier in the design process. The pre-design stage is when the team investigates energy-related design concepts that consider the environment, climate, building orientation, and other features that will impact performance well into the future.Action Items
- Have a facilitated charrette that includes addressing energy objectives pertinent to the design. Identify synergies between design concepts and energy use. Develop a plan and adopt a method for delivering a top performing energy-efficient building. Determine requirements needed to start schematic design.
- Develop scope of work, project budget, and schedule, which include energy-efficient strategies and your performance target.
Schematic Design
As the team’s ideas are taking form during schematic design, do preliminary simulations of various energy options and technologies. Compare the results to your energy target to know which strategies meet your goal.Action Items
- Analyze the site based on how it will affect energy and determine building orientation that enhances energy performance. Use natural shading features to reduce cooling load. Consider daylighting to reduce electrical lighting requirement and the air-conditioning load. These contribute to quality of the space.
- Use energy design guidance to select the technologies that help deliver superior energy performance and indoor environmental quality. Right-size mechanical systems based on anticipated systems performance and loads, rather than rules of thumb. Ensure compliance with energy codes and standards during schematic design rather than tweaking the design later in the process. Enhance code compliance by using the Advanced Building Guidelines — E-Benchmark — at Building Design Links.
- Include energy expert to review the selected energy strategies and provide preliminary costs and benefits for various design options. Begin energy analysis of design concepts using appropriate system design tools. Perform progressive analysis during schematic design to determine the relative efficiency of energy strategies and make improvements to your design.
- Compare estimated energy use to design target using Target Finder. Make adjustments and integrate energy performance strategies in building design to achieve your performance target.
Design Development
Refine the project in Design Development and confirm that your energy performance target can be achieved. Include the energy performance goal in specification language.Action Items
- Prepare energy performance specification with estimated energy use target, anticipated outcome, and compliance schedule. Include the Building Energy Performance Specification
in construction documents. - Identify energy-efficient design elements that require careful specification and assemble resources that explain installation, operation, and any other requirements.
- Gather manufacturers’ technical literature for energy systems and components to include in construction documents and for use during building commissioning. Supplement literature with design team’s summaries of intended operation.
Construction & Bid Documents
It is important to select a qualified construction team that is able to execute the specified energy efficiency strategies that meet your design target. Seek a contractor who has a track record for constructing buildings that achieve superior energy performance.Action Items
- Include Statement of Energy Design Intent (SEDI) from Target Finder, which shows the intended energy performance outcome for your design in final construction documents and bid package.
- Specify design team participation during construction to ensure that energy performance features are incorporated and to help produce a more comprehensive set of as-built documents.
- Include approval process for change orders to methods and materials prior to construction, or require design team supervision during construction. Encourage building owner or designee to hold all parties accountable for achieving your energy performance goal.
- Document construction methods associated with specific energy-efficient products and materials by including manufacturers’ literature and contact information for local technical reps. Include design team’s summaries of energy-efficient features in specifications and drawings. Explain anticipated functions of features to assist construction team in understanding desired outcome.
- Select qualified manufacturers and do not accept unapproved alternatives for installing/constructing key energy-efficient features/systems. Be specific with explanations to all manufacturers so that proposals are compatible with one another.
- Seek incentives for meeting your energy performance goal. Local utility companies may offer incentives to offset costs for the design team/owner to explore options that achieve the desired energy performance target.
Communicate your superior energy design intent by placing the “Designed To Earn The ENERGY STAR” graphic on final drawings that achieve 75 or better in Target Finder.
Follow Through: Commissioning — Tracking, M&V — ENERGY STAR
Commissioning is the process of verifying that a new building functions as intended and communicating the intended performance to the building management team. This usually occurs when the building is turned over for occupancy. In practice, commissioning costs aren’t included in design fees and often compete with other activities. As a result, it is seldom pursued properly. It is critical that the building is commissioned to ensure that energy performance and operational goals are met.Action Items
- Communicate your energy performance goal during commissioning to ensure that the design target is met. Encourage energy-use tracking that will allow performance comparisons to be made over time.
- Specify detailed commissioning activities in your project contracts. Seek separate funding for commissioning work to ensure that it is given the appropriate level of importance.
- Hire experts that specialize in building commissioning. Include the commissioning firm as part of the design team early in the project.
- Finalize and transfer a set technical documents including manufacturers’ literature for systems and components. Supplement technical literature with summaries of intended operation. Provide additional explanation for innovative design features.
Tracking, Measurement & Verification
Building automation systems in commercial buildings allow users to track actual energy consumption over time. In contrast, the EPA Energy Performance Rating allows users to evaluate overall annual building performance using a 1-100 scale.Action Items
- Communicate the energy performance target (of your design) to the M&V team and ensure they understand specific performance expectations for the new building.
- Document how sustained energy performance compares to the design intent and best practices from the project design.
- Use EPA’s Web-based Portfolio Manager, once the building has been operating for 12 months, to track and rate annual energy performance. To check a building’s eligibility for ENERGY STAR, see “Evaluate Building Performance” on the ENERGY STAR Web site.
The ENERGY STAR for Commercial Buildings
New buildings created using an integrated design approach with emphasis on energy performance will be strong candidates to meet the design team’s target of 75 or better and qualify for the ENERGY STAR. Architects can follow up with the building owners and encourage them to measure the building’s energy performance using Portfolio Manager and gain EPA recognition for superior energy performance.As soon as a building has one year of utility data, its energy performance can be compared to an industry benchmark of similar space types. Buildings that achieve a score of 75 or higher are eligible for the ENERGY STAR label. The entire process can be completed at EPA’s ENERGY STAR Web site, using Portfolio Manager.
Action item for building owners
- Compare the building’s actual energy consumption to the industry benchmark.
- Apply for the ENERGY STAR. Complete the application letter and the Statement of Energy Performance (SEP) and have a licensed Professional Engineer certify that certain indoor environmental criteria have been met. Submit both documents to EPA.
- Communicate the success of the building design team/firm and their energy design strategies and in case studies and other outreach materials. Promote the fact that the building and the design team have achieved superior energy performance that earned the ENERGY STAR.
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