Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: New Construction

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.2, v3 - LEED 2009

Inquiry

The project is an approximately 40,000 sqft research and development building designed to develop and test air and water cooled chillers, compressors and heat pumps for a multinational manufacturer of HVAC equipment for the commercial, industrial and institutional building market. The principal focus of the energy consuming systems is to create a precise simulation of a wide range of ambient conditions and simulated building loads on the tested equipment to meet national and international testing protocols. In addition, the facility tests the equipment to research and develop innovative technologies for the HVAC industry. Control of the testing conditions is critical to the function of the facility. The facility\'s large process heating and cooling plants are used to simulate heating and cooling loads on the tested equipment. The subsequent heating and cooling energy created from the tested equipment is then rejected to the environment. This research and testing system is highly energy intensive. Recognizing the opportunity for energy use reduction, the owner\'s research and development team and the project\'s design team developed a process heating and cooling system that reduces the energy use of the system while maintaining the ability to simulate ambient conditions and building loads. Heating and cooling energy created by tested equipment is captured and reused in the process heating and cooling plants. Closed-loop heat recovery systems connect evaporator and condenser systems of the process plants to the tested equipment to reduce energy usage. Variable flow pumping and varying temperature control provide the necessary control functions for testing. For this project, the process energy associated with the research and testing system is greater than 90% of the total energy load. If the reductions in process load are not included, the opportunities for energy reduction are minimized. The project utilizes commercially available energy reduction strategies, including enhanced envelope systems, premium efficient chillers and high efficiency boilers for process loads, high efficiency comfort heating and cooling equipment, variable frequency drives on fans and pumps, and higher efficiency lighting systems. Building energy simulations indicate that minimal energy reduction is achieved (