Nicholas L Long | National Renewable Energy Laboratory (original) (raw)

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Papers by Nicholas L Long

Developments in the Built Environment, 2021

Numerous data formats exist to exchange building related information throughout a building's life... more Numerous data formats exist to exchange building related information throughout a building's lifecycle; many are all-encompassing formats while some newer formats are focused on specific software data exchange between actors such as system to system, system to user, or user to user. Despite this, data format challenges occur during each iteration of a commercial building energy audit. To overcome these challenges, BuildingSync has been designed to harmonize building data exchange during building energy audits. The schema was developed to be interoperable to support various use cases such as reporting audits in an electronic format, tracking proposed, implemented, and discarded energy conservation measures, and storing building characteristics (at multiple levels) for audits, benchmarking, and building energy analysis. This article will review the commercial building data exchange landscape, detail the development of BuildingSync, and provide examples of its use in the built environment.

Proceedings of 14th Modelica Conference 2021, Linköping, Sweden, September 20-24, 2021, 2021

In line with the mission of the National Park Service, its staff and the authors designed the Zio... more In line with the mission of the National Park Service, its staff and the authors designed the Zion National Park Visitor Center to use 70% less energy than a comparable visitor center built to Federal Energy Code 10 CFR 435 (DOE 1995). The authors used an integrated design process, including extensive simulations, to minimize the building's energy consumption. The result was a passive solar commercial building that makes good use of the thermal envelope, daylighting, and natural ventilation. Passive downdraft cooltowers provide all the cooling. Two Trombe walls provide a significant amount of heat for the building. After two years of metering, the results show a net energy use intensity of 24.7 kBtu/ft 2 and a 67% energy cost saving. Low energy use and aggressive demand management result in an energy cost intensity of $0.43/ft 2. The paper discusses lessons learned related to the design process, the daylighting, the PV system, and the HVAC system. Design Development 7. Identify the HVAC system that will meet the predicted loads. The HVAC system should complement the building architecture and exploit the specific climactic characteristics of the site for maximum efficiency. Often, the HVAC system capacity is much less than in a typical building. Verify that simulations are updated with design changes. Construction Documents and Bid 8. Finalize plans and specifications. Ensure that the building plans are properly detailed and that the specifications are accurate. The final design simulation should incorporate all cost-effective features. Savings that exceed 50% from a base-case building are frequently possible with this approach. Construction 9. Rerun simulations before design changes are made during construction. Verify that changes will not adversely affect the building's energy performance. Postoccupancy Evaluation 10. Commission all equipment and controls. Educate building operators. Only a properly operated building will meet the original energy efficiency design goals. Building operators must understand how to properly operate the building to maximize its performance. Measure and evaluate actual energy performance to verify design goals were met. ZION DESIGN PROCESS Predesign Part of the success of the Zion project was a commitment to climate-sensitive design that started in the predesign stage. The initial predesign activities included a set of on-site charrettes that allowed the design team to become familiar with the unique terrain and climate features.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program has adopted the goal of makin... more The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program has adopted the goal of making zero-energy commercial buildings (ZEBs) marketable by 2025. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted an assessment of the entire commercial sector to evaluate the technical potential for meeting this goal with technology available in 2005 and projected forward to possible technology improvements for 2025. The analysis looked at the technical feasibility of ZEBs, limitations in market penetration and utility grid structures notwithstanding. The core of the evaluation was based on creating 15-minute, annual simulations based on 5,375 buildings in the 1999 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey Public Use Data and the current ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004. These baseline-building models were then used to develop alternate ZEB scenarios by applying sets of available technologies and practices and projected improvements after 20 years. The results show that the ZEB goal is technically achievable for significant portions of the commercial sector. Using today's technologies and practices, the technical potential is that 22% of the buildings could be ZEBs. With projected 2025 technologies, the technical potential is that 64% of the buildings could be ZEBs. If excess electricity production could be freely exported to the grid, then with the projected 2025 technology in every building, the commercial sector could generate as much as 37% more energy than it consumes. The results suggest that the ZEB goal is feasible for the sector as a whole and that research should be implemented to overcome hurdles to achieving the goal.

Last, but not least, the authors would like to specially recognize Andrew Nicholls, the program m... more Last, but not least, the authors would like to specially recognize Andrew Nicholls, the program manager overseeing the Commercial Building Integration Program at PNNL, for providing the thorough review of this document and for his support of this particular project. Finally, the authors greatly appreciate the assistance of Todd Taylor at PNNL. Todd constructed the cluster simulation structure in EnergyPlus, which allowed us to evaluate the many variations of energy efficiency technologies in a timely fashion to meet the project compressed schedule.

Commercial buildings have a significant impact on energy use and the environment. They account fo... more Commercial buildings have a significant impact on energy use and the environment. They account for approximately 18% (17.9 quads) of the total primary energy consumption in the United States (DOE 2005). The energy used by the building sector continues to increase, primarily because new buildings are added to the national building stock faster than old buildings are retired. Energy consumption by commercial buildings will continue to increase until buildings can be designed to produce more energy than they consume. As a result, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program has established a goal to create the technology and knowledgebase for marketable zero-energy commercial buildings (ZEBs) by 2025. To help DOE reach its ZEB goal, the Buildings and Thermal Systems Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) studied six buildings in detail over the past four years to understand the issues related to the design, construction, operation, and evaluation of the current generation of lowenergy commercial buildings. These buildings and the lessons learned from them help inform a set of best practices-beneficial design elements, technologies, and techniques that should be encouraged in future buildings, as well as pitfalls to be avoided. The lessons learned from these six buildings are also used to guide future research on commercial buildings to meet DOE's goal for facilitating marketable ZEBs by 2025. The six buildings are:

Building energy simulations are often used for trial-anderror evaluation of "what-if" options in ... more Building energy simulations are often used for trial-anderror evaluation of "what-if" options in building design-a limited search for an optimal solution, or "optimization." Computerized searching has the potential to automate the input and output, evaluate many options, and perform enough simulations to account for the complex interactions among combinations of options. This paper describes ongoing efforts to develop such a tool. The optimization tool employs multiple modules, including a graphical user interface, a database, a preprocessor, the EnergyPlus simulation engine, an optimization engine, and a simulation run manager. Each module is described and the overall application architecture is summarized.

The purpose of NREL's coding standard is to manage the complexity of the programming languag... more The purpose of NREL's coding standard is to manage the complexity of the programming languages used in OpenStudio development while maintaining access to powerful features. The coding standard will help existing developers, new team members, and subcontractors work ...

Building energy modeling is a field that can be computationally intensive, especially for large p... more Building energy modeling is a field that can be computationally intensive, especially for large parametric studies that require simulating many alternate models. In the past, these types of studies have been limited to research institutions and advanced users who had the required computational resources available. In recent years, cloud computing services have come to offer a reliable platform in which relatively inexpensive computing power can be purchased and used as needed without a substantial capital investment. These services are gaining ground quickly because they are, for many companies, more cost effective than building and maintaining computing power in-house. OpenStudio has developed a workflow that allows energy modelers to create and run a customized parametric analysis using commercially available cloud computing services. This workflow will enable anyone to perform powerful parametric studies in a reasonable time for a relatively low cost. This paper demonstrates the ...

... 133 A.4.5 ZEB definitions applied to a sample of current generation low-energy buildings134 A... more ... 133 A.4.5 ZEB definitions applied to a sample of current generation low-energy buildings134 A.4.6 The ZEB definition selected can have an impact on future ZEB designs.....134 ... VSD Variable Speed Drive ZEB Zero Energy Building xii Page 14. 1 INTRODUCTION ...

ABSTRACT This paper presents several case studies of rapidly implemented, audience-specific appli... more ABSTRACT This paper presents several case studies of rapidly implemented, audience-specific applications for whole building energy modeling and standards analysis. By tailoring each application to the audience and the task at hand, the required learning curve for new users was greatly reduced. Each case study used OpenStudio, the U.S. Department of Energy's middleware software development kit (SDK). OpenStudio provides an easy interface to the EnergyPlus whole building simulation engine, while extending its capability and providing higher-level functionality such as software interoperability, standards, analysis, and optimization. Each case study is unique in the technology employed to interface with OpenStudio as well as the methods used for user interaction and data presentation. Four case studies are presented.

Paper discusses NREL's role in the participation of the design process of the Zion Nation... more Paper discusses NREL's role in the participation of the design process of the Zion National Park Visitor Center Complex and the results documented from monitoring the energy performance of the building for several years. Paper includes PV system and Trombe wall description and lessons learned in the design, construction, and commissioning of the building.

A number of colleagues made this work possible. The authors greatly appreciate the assistance of ... more A number of colleagues made this work possible. The authors greatly appreciate the assistance of Brent Griffith and the NREL EnergyPlus analysis and modeling team. Their simulation development and support allowed us to evaluate a number of energy efficiency technologies. We would also like to thank NREL's High Performance Computing Center's Wesley Jones and Jim Albin for their support in providing dedicated Linux cluster nodes for the large number of simulations needed for the analysis. Finally, we extend our thanks to those who helped edit and review the document: Stefanie Woodward, Michael Deru, and Ian Doebber (all of NREL). iv

Developments in the Built Environment, 2021

Numerous data formats exist to exchange building related information throughout a building's life... more Numerous data formats exist to exchange building related information throughout a building's lifecycle; many are all-encompassing formats while some newer formats are focused on specific software data exchange between actors such as system to system, system to user, or user to user. Despite this, data format challenges occur during each iteration of a commercial building energy audit. To overcome these challenges, BuildingSync has been designed to harmonize building data exchange during building energy audits. The schema was developed to be interoperable to support various use cases such as reporting audits in an electronic format, tracking proposed, implemented, and discarded energy conservation measures, and storing building characteristics (at multiple levels) for audits, benchmarking, and building energy analysis. This article will review the commercial building data exchange landscape, detail the development of BuildingSync, and provide examples of its use in the built environment.

Proceedings of 14th Modelica Conference 2021, Linköping, Sweden, September 20-24, 2021, 2021

In line with the mission of the National Park Service, its staff and the authors designed the Zio... more In line with the mission of the National Park Service, its staff and the authors designed the Zion National Park Visitor Center to use 70% less energy than a comparable visitor center built to Federal Energy Code 10 CFR 435 (DOE 1995). The authors used an integrated design process, including extensive simulations, to minimize the building's energy consumption. The result was a passive solar commercial building that makes good use of the thermal envelope, daylighting, and natural ventilation. Passive downdraft cooltowers provide all the cooling. Two Trombe walls provide a significant amount of heat for the building. After two years of metering, the results show a net energy use intensity of 24.7 kBtu/ft 2 and a 67% energy cost saving. Low energy use and aggressive demand management result in an energy cost intensity of $0.43/ft 2. The paper discusses lessons learned related to the design process, the daylighting, the PV system, and the HVAC system. Design Development 7. Identify the HVAC system that will meet the predicted loads. The HVAC system should complement the building architecture and exploit the specific climactic characteristics of the site for maximum efficiency. Often, the HVAC system capacity is much less than in a typical building. Verify that simulations are updated with design changes. Construction Documents and Bid 8. Finalize plans and specifications. Ensure that the building plans are properly detailed and that the specifications are accurate. The final design simulation should incorporate all cost-effective features. Savings that exceed 50% from a base-case building are frequently possible with this approach. Construction 9. Rerun simulations before design changes are made during construction. Verify that changes will not adversely affect the building's energy performance. Postoccupancy Evaluation 10. Commission all equipment and controls. Educate building operators. Only a properly operated building will meet the original energy efficiency design goals. Building operators must understand how to properly operate the building to maximize its performance. Measure and evaluate actual energy performance to verify design goals were met. ZION DESIGN PROCESS Predesign Part of the success of the Zion project was a commitment to climate-sensitive design that started in the predesign stage. The initial predesign activities included a set of on-site charrettes that allowed the design team to become familiar with the unique terrain and climate features.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program has adopted the goal of makin... more The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program has adopted the goal of making zero-energy commercial buildings (ZEBs) marketable by 2025. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted an assessment of the entire commercial sector to evaluate the technical potential for meeting this goal with technology available in 2005 and projected forward to possible technology improvements for 2025. The analysis looked at the technical feasibility of ZEBs, limitations in market penetration and utility grid structures notwithstanding. The core of the evaluation was based on creating 15-minute, annual simulations based on 5,375 buildings in the 1999 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey Public Use Data and the current ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004. These baseline-building models were then used to develop alternate ZEB scenarios by applying sets of available technologies and practices and projected improvements after 20 years. The results show that the ZEB goal is technically achievable for significant portions of the commercial sector. Using today's technologies and practices, the technical potential is that 22% of the buildings could be ZEBs. With projected 2025 technologies, the technical potential is that 64% of the buildings could be ZEBs. If excess electricity production could be freely exported to the grid, then with the projected 2025 technology in every building, the commercial sector could generate as much as 37% more energy than it consumes. The results suggest that the ZEB goal is feasible for the sector as a whole and that research should be implemented to overcome hurdles to achieving the goal.

Last, but not least, the authors would like to specially recognize Andrew Nicholls, the program m... more Last, but not least, the authors would like to specially recognize Andrew Nicholls, the program manager overseeing the Commercial Building Integration Program at PNNL, for providing the thorough review of this document and for his support of this particular project. Finally, the authors greatly appreciate the assistance of Todd Taylor at PNNL. Todd constructed the cluster simulation structure in EnergyPlus, which allowed us to evaluate the many variations of energy efficiency technologies in a timely fashion to meet the project compressed schedule.

Commercial buildings have a significant impact on energy use and the environment. They account fo... more Commercial buildings have a significant impact on energy use and the environment. They account for approximately 18% (17.9 quads) of the total primary energy consumption in the United States (DOE 2005). The energy used by the building sector continues to increase, primarily because new buildings are added to the national building stock faster than old buildings are retired. Energy consumption by commercial buildings will continue to increase until buildings can be designed to produce more energy than they consume. As a result, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program has established a goal to create the technology and knowledgebase for marketable zero-energy commercial buildings (ZEBs) by 2025. To help DOE reach its ZEB goal, the Buildings and Thermal Systems Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) studied six buildings in detail over the past four years to understand the issues related to the design, construction, operation, and evaluation of the current generation of lowenergy commercial buildings. These buildings and the lessons learned from them help inform a set of best practices-beneficial design elements, technologies, and techniques that should be encouraged in future buildings, as well as pitfalls to be avoided. The lessons learned from these six buildings are also used to guide future research on commercial buildings to meet DOE's goal for facilitating marketable ZEBs by 2025. The six buildings are:

Building energy simulations are often used for trial-anderror evaluation of "what-if" options in ... more Building energy simulations are often used for trial-anderror evaluation of "what-if" options in building design-a limited search for an optimal solution, or "optimization." Computerized searching has the potential to automate the input and output, evaluate many options, and perform enough simulations to account for the complex interactions among combinations of options. This paper describes ongoing efforts to develop such a tool. The optimization tool employs multiple modules, including a graphical user interface, a database, a preprocessor, the EnergyPlus simulation engine, an optimization engine, and a simulation run manager. Each module is described and the overall application architecture is summarized.

The purpose of NREL's coding standard is to manage the complexity of the programming languag... more The purpose of NREL's coding standard is to manage the complexity of the programming languages used in OpenStudio development while maintaining access to powerful features. The coding standard will help existing developers, new team members, and subcontractors work ...

Building energy modeling is a field that can be computationally intensive, especially for large p... more Building energy modeling is a field that can be computationally intensive, especially for large parametric studies that require simulating many alternate models. In the past, these types of studies have been limited to research institutions and advanced users who had the required computational resources available. In recent years, cloud computing services have come to offer a reliable platform in which relatively inexpensive computing power can be purchased and used as needed without a substantial capital investment. These services are gaining ground quickly because they are, for many companies, more cost effective than building and maintaining computing power in-house. OpenStudio has developed a workflow that allows energy modelers to create and run a customized parametric analysis using commercially available cloud computing services. This workflow will enable anyone to perform powerful parametric studies in a reasonable time for a relatively low cost. This paper demonstrates the ...

... 133 A.4.5 ZEB definitions applied to a sample of current generation low-energy buildings134 A... more ... 133 A.4.5 ZEB definitions applied to a sample of current generation low-energy buildings134 A.4.6 The ZEB definition selected can have an impact on future ZEB designs.....134 ... VSD Variable Speed Drive ZEB Zero Energy Building xii Page 14. 1 INTRODUCTION ...

ABSTRACT This paper presents several case studies of rapidly implemented, audience-specific appli... more ABSTRACT This paper presents several case studies of rapidly implemented, audience-specific applications for whole building energy modeling and standards analysis. By tailoring each application to the audience and the task at hand, the required learning curve for new users was greatly reduced. Each case study used OpenStudio, the U.S. Department of Energy's middleware software development kit (SDK). OpenStudio provides an easy interface to the EnergyPlus whole building simulation engine, while extending its capability and providing higher-level functionality such as software interoperability, standards, analysis, and optimization. Each case study is unique in the technology employed to interface with OpenStudio as well as the methods used for user interaction and data presentation. Four case studies are presented.

Paper discusses NREL's role in the participation of the design process of the Zion Nation... more Paper discusses NREL's role in the participation of the design process of the Zion National Park Visitor Center Complex and the results documented from monitoring the energy performance of the building for several years. Paper includes PV system and Trombe wall description and lessons learned in the design, construction, and commissioning of the building.

A number of colleagues made this work possible. The authors greatly appreciate the assistance of ... more A number of colleagues made this work possible. The authors greatly appreciate the assistance of Brent Griffith and the NREL EnergyPlus analysis and modeling team. Their simulation development and support allowed us to evaluate a number of energy efficiency technologies. We would also like to thank NREL's High Performance Computing Center's Wesley Jones and Jim Albin for their support in providing dedicated Linux cluster nodes for the large number of simulations needed for the analysis. Finally, we extend our thanks to those who helped edit and review the document: Stefanie Woodward, Michael Deru, and Ian Doebber (all of NREL). iv