TY - JOUR T1 - Comparison of Building Energy Use Data Between the United States and China JF - Energy and Buildings Y1 - 2014 A1 - Jianjun Xia A1 - Tianzhen Hong A1 - Qi Shen A1 - Wei Feng A1 - Le Yang A1 - Piljae Im A1 - Alison Lu A1 - Mahabir Bhandari KW - buildings KW - comparison KW - data analysis KW - data model KW - Energy benchmarking KW - energy monitoring system KW - energy use KW - retrofit AB -

Buildings in the United States and China consumed 41% and 28% of the total primary energy in 2011, respectively. Good energy data are the cornerstone to understanding building energy performance and supporting research, design, operation, and policy making for low energy buildings. This paper presents initial outcomes from a joint research project under the U.S.–China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency. The goal is to decode the driving forces behind the discrepancy of building energy use between the two countries; identify gaps and deficiencies of current building energy monitoring, data collection, and analysis; and create knowledge and tools to collect and analyze good building energy data to provide valuable and actionable information for key stakeholders. This paper first reviews and compares several popular existing building energy monitoring systems in both countries. Next a standard energy data model is presented. A detailed, measured building energy data comparison was conducted for a few office buildings in both countries. Finally issues of data collection, quality, sharing, and analysis methods are discussed. It was found that buildings in both countries performed very differently, had potential for deep energy retrofit, but that different efficiency measures should apply.

VL - 78 U2 - LBNL-6669E ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Building Energy Monitoring and Analysis Y1 - 2013 A1 - Tianzhen Hong A1 - Wei Feng A1 - Alison Lu A1 - Jianjun Xia A1 - Le Yang A1 - Qi Shen A1 - Piljae Im A1 - Mahabir Bhandari AB -

U.S. and China are the world's top two economics. Together they consumed one-third of the world's primary energy. It is an unprecedented opportunity and challenge for governments, researchers and industries in both countries to join together to address energy issues and global climate change. Such joint collaboration has huge potential in creating new jobs in energy technologies and services.

Buildings in the US and China consumed about 40% and 25% of the primary energy in both countries in 2010 respectively. Worldwide, the building sector is the largest contributor to the greenhouse gas emission. Better understanding and improving the energy performance of buildings is a critical step towards sustainable development and mitigation of global climate change.

This project aimed to develop a standard methodology for building energy data definition, collection, presentation, and analysis; apply the developed methods to a standardized energy monitoring platform, including hardware and software, to collect and analyze building energy use data; and compile offline statistical data and online real-time data in both countries for fully understanding the current status of building energy use. This helps decode the driving forces behind the discrepancy of building energy use between the two countries; identify gaps and deficiencies of current building energy monitoring, data collection, and analysis; and create knowledge and tools to collect and analyze good building energy data to provide valuable and actionable information for key stakeholders.

Key research findings were summarized as follows:

The research outputs from the project can help better understand energy performance of buildings, improve building operations to reduce energy waste and increase efficiency, identify retrofit opportunities for existing buildings, and provide guideline to improve the design of new buildings. The standardized energy monitoring and analysis platform as well as the collected real building data can also be used for other CERC projects that need building energy measurements, and be further linked to building energy benchmarking and rating/labeling systems.

U2 - LBNL-6640E ER -