Investigation of metered data analysis methods for commercial and related buildings

This study presents a review and evaluation of techniques for analyzing metered energy use data to determine baseline energy use and potential energy efficiency improvements in commercial and related buildings. A description of new methods that should be considered in such work is also presented. Development of relationships between energy characteristics and building physical characteristics is seen as an important area for improvement of analysis methods. Knowledge of the causes of variations in energy use and the expected relative impacts of different schedules, functional uses, and energy systems should be upgrades to allow adequate understanding of efficiency changes and better exchanges of efficiency improvement results. Significant advancements in analysis approaches for metered data from commercial buildings are being tested, and further improvements are needed. The improvements should include continued development of multiple parameter methods, development of methods for analyzing more detailed data, use of macrodynamic methods to generate models with physical significance, and simplification of the methods. The recommendations of this study are to begin research on advanced analysis methods, to develop a coordinated research program on analysis methods, to develop a classification method to define analysis approaches and promote the use of the method for reporting energy analyses, tomore » extend analyses of energy efficiency improvements to characterize building types, and to classify packages of common efficiency improvements technologies or approaches appropriate to the different building types. 48 refs., 7 figs.« less