by Brianna Crandall — March 1, 2013—Designing a building holistically, and making sure that its components and systems work together according to design intent, can pay big dividends in energy savings and occupant satisfaction, according to a study of The New York Times Building by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Located near Times Square in New York City, the 52-story building has 1.5 million square feet of commercial office space, and the Times Company has occupied floors 2 through 21 since the building’s opening in 2007. A Berkeley Lab research team began working with the Times Company in 2003 to design, evaluate and specify an integrated solution with energy-efficient lighting and automated shading systems for the windows in a full-scale mockup at a nearby Times Company site in Queens.
Measured results from the post-occupancy monitored evaluation in the final building five years after initial occupancy showed a 24% reduction in annual electricity use and 51% reduction in heating energy use, compared to expectations from a design that just met the prescriptive energy-efficiency code in effect at the time of construction (ASHRAE 90.1-2001), and a 25% reduction in peak electric demand. In addition, a significant fraction of occupants indicated a high level of satisfaction with the overall building and its design features. The Times Company’s investment in advanced energy-efficiency technologies is estimated to yield a 12% rate of return on their initial investment.
Energy efficiency measures used in the building include overhead lighting that dims in response to available daylight, automated shades that adjust to control for glare and direct sun, and an underfloor air distribution system that maintains comfortable conditions in the lower occupied zone of the space, saving on air-conditioning energy. These three measures resulted in a 24% reduction in annual energy use and 51% reduction in heating energy use compared to the prescriptive energy-efficiency code in effect at the time (ASHRAE 90.1-2001) and were estimated to yield a 12% rate of return on initial investment.
This study confirms that office buildings in an urban environment can deliver measured energy performance that substantially beats the energy codes with a holistic combination of smart design, efficient technology and properly integrated building systems, carried from design to construction and commissioning and into operations. Improved design tools and evolving building systems allow designers today to capture the performance benefits of these integrated systems without the use of custom mockup studies, adds the report.
The lesson for replicating and scaling the success of this building is that many of the required technologies and systems solutions are available, but that the design team and owner must pay attention to details in the procurement of high performance building equipment, and verify the proper performance of the equipment and systems after they are installed, and continue to monitor the building’s operation and make adjustments as necessary to improve performance.
The study, A Post-occupancy Monitored Evaluation of the Dimmable Lighting, Automated Shading, and Underfloor Air Distribution System in The New York Times Building, was funded by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and the California Energy Commission, with in-kind support provided by The New York Times Company, which expressed the hope that the energy-efficient measures and designs documented in the independent study might inspire other companies’ workplace designs.
