State of Technology & Cost Benefit Assessments

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Data Analytics for Commercial Buildings

Energy Management and Information Systems to Improve Operational Efficiency

State of Technology & Cost Benefit Assessments

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Other work in the Energy Analytics team examine new technologies and their cost effectiveness. Recent and ongoing work in these areas includes:

Cost Benefit Analysis of Existing Building and New Construction Commissioning (Cx) Projects

Updated results for Berkeley Lab's seminal study on the costs and benefits of commissioning (previously published 2004 and 2009). Prior studies have been routinely cited by building owners and commissioning providers to make the case for implementing Cx in new and existing buildings, and by policymakers as key background for deployment programs. Berkeley Lab, in partnership with Building Commissioning Association (BCxA), has updated the study and published the work in a 2020 journal article and presentation deck.

HVAC Fault Prevalence Study

A 2019-2022 study documented commercial HVAC fault prevalence at an unprecedented scale and level of granularity. The study reported on the quantity of faults reported across over 60,000 pieces of equipment (air handlers, air terminal units, packaged rooftop units), and documented the most common and persistently-reported faults. Publications to date include:

  • A 2023 journal paper summarizing the final results of the HVAC Fault Prevalence Study
  • A 2022 ACEEE Summer Study Conference paper and presentation reporting preliminary findings and research conclusions
  • A 2022 ACM Conference paper connecting the HVAC fault taxonomy and fault prevalence analysis to ongoing data management needs for building maintenance teams
  • A 2022 CxEnergy Conference presentation
  • A 2020 ACEEE Summer Study Conference paper and 2021 journal paper outlines the taxonomy framework that was employed to standardize fault reporting datasets from multiple sources
  • A 2021 journal paper documenting the results of a literature review and stakeholder interviews on HVAC faults data needs. This paper supported the scoping of the HVAC fault prevalence study, to address those identified needs

The State of Advanced Measurement and Verification Technology and Industry Application

An article that characterizes the features of sixteen automated M&V software tools, and reports on status of utility programs implementing whole building savings approaches. More information and resources on Berkeley Lab's advanced M&V research can be found here.

Characterization and Survey of Automated Fault Detection and Diagnostics (AFDD)Two individuals discussing financial charts during a meeting.

This framework captures key elements to distinguish the functionality and potential application of AFDD offerings.