Searching for Efficiency
The University of Texas School of Nursing and Student Center, http://son.uth.tmc.edu, Houston, Texas, is estimated to be 41% more efficient than code compliant buildings. This building has technology to help reduce heating and cooling loads. It also uses other energy practices such as daylighting and water conservation.
Do you want to find other examples of efficient buildings? A new database allows construction professionals to search and learn about other buildings that have energy-savings strategies.
One of the ways to follow a new trend is to look to those who have already found success. Now, commercial contractors and owners can use a new database to learn about how others in the industry build resourcefully.
The NBI (New Buildings Institute), www.newbuildings.org, White Salmon, Wash., the U.S. Dept. of Energy, www.energy.gov, Washington, D.C., and Building Green, www.buildinggreen.com, Brattleboro, Vt., have teamed up to create a new database that provides construction professionals with examples of green building.
Users can search buildings that perform at least 30% better than the CBECS (Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey) average. The CBECS is a national sample survey of the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and is conducted by the Energy Consumption Division within the Energy Information Admin., www.eia.doe.gov, Washington, D.C.
In the database, contractors can search projects by region, building type, building size, new/renovation, and energy data. With nearly 100 projects already in the database, construction professionals can look to many real world examples of low-energy buildings.
According to the NBI, the project was initially developed in 2007, and was originally planned as a database with buildings that use 50% less energy than the CBECS average. However, at the time of that research, only 1 in 1,000 buildings met that criterion.
Dave Hewitt, executive director, NBI, says the institute still encourages design goals that seek energy performance of at least 50% better than model energy standards, as part of its ‘Getting to 50’ research, which is an initiative aimed at investigating the feasibility of creating buildings that use 50% less energy than the CBECS average.
Now, the projects in the database feature and demonstrate buildings that are at least 30% better than the CBECS average. Users can find the online database at http://buildings.newbuildings.org.