Performance Rating on Buildings Analysis Essay (Essay Sample)

Performance rating method
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Abstract
The Performance Rating Method is used to determine the amount of Energy that might be consumed in a proposed building upon its completion. However, the modeling is not an actual representation of the energy consumed by the loads in the building after its completion. The methodology applied is the use of the PRM parameters that will lead to determining the amount of Energy that is going to be consumed by the whole building, provided that it meets the Department of Energy's directives on the minimum energy requirements of proposed buildings. The proposed building is in Victoria and is on zone five on the climatic zones. The building has four floors; the ground floor and three other floors. On the ground floor is the grocery store and the other three stories house the dwelling suites.Based on eQuest simulation program, the study discovered that the electricity consumption was the highest in the ground floor and this is because of the presence of the grocery store which requires a lot of air circulation. Also the study discovered that the heating apparatus were not being used as much as the cooling one: the conclusion drawn from this was that the weather was most likely hot, spring or summer. The results obtained by the simulation are based on the assumption that I used the correct system, the simulation program did not have any defects on the code and I used the correct algorithms.
Introduction
The performance rating method is applied to projects, building designs, and existing buildings to add and alter some aspects for quantifying their energy consumption. However, the performance rating method is not an alternative to the Energy Cost Building Method. It complements the methodology of the Energy Cost Building Method by calculating the performance that significantly exceeds the requirements, Standard 90.1, of the minimal requirements for efficiency in Energy on designs of the most building apart from low-rise residential buildings. The performance rating method needs strict adherence to the unavoidable requirements of the Standard and is imperative for this rating method. Also required are the documents pertaining the simulation which include; a detailed report of the project, an overview of the project; the number of floors, floor size and the use of the building, a list of energy-related features and compliance of all requirements in the Standard, list of all features that do not meet the requirements and other documentation.
The calculation of energy consumption using the performance rating method was done using eQUEST simulation software. The program is an energy building simulation tool that is user-friendly; a team member can use it at any period of the design, yet it provides comprehensive results. The program has features: wizards, an Energy efficient measure and graphics, derived from the latest version of the Department of Energy-02, which provides detailed and reliable simulation at ease.
The proposed building is located in Victoria, B.C, in Canada. The project is comprised of four stories, with the ground story comprising of a retail sales area, corridor, restroom, mechanical room, an elevator shaft. The second-floor design is the same as those on one of the floors above its composition being dwelling units which are 23, corridor and the elevator shaft.
The HVAC system is in each suite, supplied by an air-to-air source split heat pump unit whose size varies between 1.0 ton to 3 tones. All suites have sensible heat recovery ventilators that harvest the waste heat from washrooms' exhaust air to temper the ventilation air for the suite. The building’s ventilation system follows the ASHRAE 62.1-2010 on ventilation for indoor air quality. The ground floor is served by four-4 tone air-cooled heat pump units. The ground floor has two storage rooms, which are served by electric baseboard heaters of 0.5kilowatts. All the storage rooms have exhaust air fans whose capacities are 100cfm with the power of the fan being 75watts. The elevator lobby is the only heating area, and it is served by an electric baseboard heater with a capacity of 1.25 kilowatts. The entry corridor area is also supplied with heat by an electric baseboard heater of 1.0kilowatts. The corridor is supplied with heating only make-up units located on the roof, and it has an airflow rate of 1000cfm and a heating capacity if 54,000Btu/hr. The corridor on level 4 is provided with a baseboard heater of 1.5 kilowatts whose purpose is to provide supplemental heat during the winter season.
In the plumbing system, domestic hot water heating is provided by a gas-fired domestic water boiler whose thermal efficiency is 88%, with the peak usage period being assumed to be 10 minutes. The suite's lighting power density is 0.7 w/sf; that of the corridor is 0.5w/sf. To add on that, the elevator lobby power density is 1.0w/sf. The commercial rental unit is only provided with the minimum lighting, which is 0.4w/sf for the contraction crew. In all the other floors, two to four, the lighting power density is the same.
Table 1
LINK Excel.Sheet.12 "C:\\Users\\pc\\Downloads\\the minimum outside air flowrate calculations.xlsx" "Sheet2!R1C1:R14C4" \a \f 5 \h \* MERGEFORMAT
Floor name

Area(ft2)

Area % each floor

No. of occupants

Ground-level retail sale area

6241

84.38%

15

Ground corridor

919

12.43%

0

Ground elevator shaft

81

1.10%

0

Groundrest & mech.room

155

2.10%

0

Level2 dwelling unit

6676

89.23%

23

corridor

727

9.72%

0

elevator shaft

79

1.06%

0

Level3 dwelling unit

6676

89.23%

23

corridor

727

9.72%

0

elevator shaft

79

1.06%

0

Level4dwelling unit

6676

89.23%

23

corridor

727

9.72%

0

elevator shaft

79

1.06%

0

Methodology
The building is located in the climatic zone number five, according to ASHREA standard. The baseline Heating ventilation air conditioner system is based on the type of the building, usage, number of floors, conditioned heating areas, and the heating source. The proposed building, on the ground floor, is going to be used for rentals, and from the second floor to the fourth floor, it is going to be used as a dwelling place. According to the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, the building will be served by conditioned heaters, and the source of heat will be the electricity. Therefore, in accordance with the ASHRAE guidelines, the building lies in system 2- packaged terminal heat pump and also in system 2- package rooftop heat pump.
System 2 is a packaged terminal heat pump. It is a single zone, self-contained heating pump similar to the packaged terminal air condition with a distinction in the heating method which is provided by the heating pump, instead of hot water coils with its strength varying from 7,000 to 19,000Btu/hr. The heating pump consists of a compressor, air-cooled condenser and condenser fan, an expansion device, an evaporator, and a four-way control valve. The system is used for residential use only, and the indoor fan control is constant, with the cooling type being via direct expansion.
The performance rating method parameters are indoor airflow or indoor circulation airflow, sizing runs, PTHP efficiency, equipment capacities, systems fan power, fan system operation, and exhaust air energy recovery, and economizer requirements.
Indoor airflow
The systems design airflow rates are quantified by the difference in temperature between the supply air and the room temperature, which is set automatically at 20 degrees Fahrenheit or the airflow rate required to comply with applicable codes.
Thermal zones
As the PHTP is heating an area, there are some parts that receive the heat first and other do not because of barriers.
Ground-level thermal zones
Level 2 to level 4 thermal zones
The stories from level two to level four are similar and as such they share the same thermal zones; they are also served with the same type of heating appliance.
Sizing runs
It is necessary to assign the least minimum required baseline correctly for PTHP efficiency
specified in the ASHRAE standard. It is obtained by the SV-A report for sizing. Its application is in checking the detailed system-level heating, cooling, and supply airflow rate since each system 2 PTHP, is supposed to serve each c...