ABSTRACT
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that up to 30 percent of energy savings in office buildings depends on occupancy behavior. Real-time monitoring of performance parameters at a small physical scale and at small time intervals generates big data that NREL can use to analyze and, if necessary, improve solutions and technologies at the forefront of high performance building design. Located in a semi-arid continental climate zone, the NREL campus enjoys 300 days of sunshine in a typical year. At the NREL Research Support Facility, 70 miles of piping and tubing were used to install hydronic heating and cooling embedded in the floor slabs and the steel and concrete roof. In many ways, the final design scheme for the Research Support Facility (RSF) looks to the past before looking into the future. At the RSF, users are reminded by notes popping up on their screens when it is time to shut off task lighting or open the windows.
