Impact assessment and performance targets for lighting and envelope systems

Electric lighting loads and cooling from solar heat gains and from lights are the two largest components of peak demand in commercial buildings. The most cost effective demand side management solutions are generally those that directly reduce or eliminate these loads. Existing technologies can provide modest reductions, however they are typically applied an a piecemeal manner that yields less than optimal results. The full potential of existing technologies will be realized when they are commercially available in an integrated package easily specifiable by architects and engineers. Emerging technologies can also be developed to provide even greater savings and extend the savings over a greater portion of the building floor area. This report assesses achievable energy and peak demand performance in California commercial buildings with technologies available today and in the future. We characterize energy performance over a large range of building envelope and lighting conditions, both through computer simulation models and through case study measured data, and subsequently determine reasonable energy targets if building design were further optimized with integrated systems of current or new technologies. Energy targets are derived from the study after consideration of industry priorities, design constraints, market forces, energy code influence, and the state of current building stock.