Great Question- The UA value put out by the REScheck Software is U factor of the entire building x area which is then compared to International Energy Code stipulated requirements for whatever year you set the software to use. So this would lead me to believe that we are basically focusing on the Heating & Cooling Loads for the home exclusively.
The 2030 Challange is in terms of TOTAL energy use (intensity of use) by the home in terms of Total BTUS of Energy Used/ Square Foot of Building Area on a yearly basis. So this would include Heating/Cooling/Appliances/Lighting/all owners gadgets, etc. All of these items should be able to be estimated (except perhaps the owners gadgets-tv, computers, etc.). To know the REAL figure the Electric and Natural Gas used on a yearly basis would need to be tracked (get utility bills from the owner/occupant for a year), convert the KWH and CF of Gas into their BTU Content and divide by Heated/Cooled SF of the home.
Assuming you don't want to have your M/E/P engineer come up with a methodology of converting UA into a BTU/SF/Year for the heating-cooling component, maybe contact the DOE technical service department (www.energycodes.gov/help/helpdesk.php) and see what they might have. Also the Notes in 2030 Challenge Targets page (www.architecture2030.org/2030_challenge/targets.html) indicate some conversion factors but not how to convert KWH of Electric Use into KBTUs..... then again, maybe it's easier to call your M/E/P Engineer if this is billable to a specific job!....
PS: I couldn't try the "VE Ware" Program because it is Window only and I am on Mac...
Dan Sloan
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Hi Dan,
Thanks for clarifying what is included in the 2030 EUI. Is there a standard way to estimate residential energy usage? I know that the 2030 TargetFinder defines the baseline energy usuage, but after designing a house to take advantage of daylighting, and replacing all incandescent lighting with more energy efficient sources, how would you demonstrate the potential of the design to actually reduce energy usage from that baseline?
I should clarify that we do 'mid-range' custom single-family design. Our budgets are limited, and while our fees compensate our work fairly , we rarely have luxury of having a mechanical engineers on board. So, if I am going to get onboard with 2030, I need to do it in-house.
Are you analyzing your projects against 2030 benchmarks?
Scott Rappe
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Scott,
Here's a link to a white paper that makes a rough correlation between various codes and standards and the 2030 challenge. It dates from 2008, when the target was a 50% reduction in energy usage. For us, that was a HERS rating of less than 65. Now in 2010, I think the rating should be <50. But HERS ratings don't account for the size of the home - so this can be misleading unless you are doing fairly modest, "average" sized homes. I don't know if there's been any update to the paper since then:
http://www.architecture2030.org/pdfs/2030Challenge_Codes_WP.pdf
Christopher Vlcek
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This is an interesting alternative approach for small projects. I will review the document, thanks
Scott Rappe
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I just saw the AIA National Cote Committee has an Excel based tool to make all this cross referencing easier..... I havn't studied it yet, but here is a link to the file "www.aia.org/about/initiatives/AIAB079654"
Also, re software try a free program called HEED from ucla "www.energy-design-tools.aud.ucla.edu/heed/ " and another free one from DOE called REScheck "www.energycodes.gov/rescheck/" both will let you try various options and see results. HEED is very simple to use, but with somewhat limited geometry.
Dan Sloan
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I am familiar with the COTE reporting tool, it was developed by a fellow AIA Chicago board member. In fact, it is what got me looking into how I can apply 2030 to my projects. The 2030/energy code cross reference is interesting, but limited. First it only correlates codes to the first benchmark of 50% reduction.
But what I can't understand is how you determine the percentage by which you have exceeded the code. Energy codes cover a variety of specific requirements-how do you quantify the benefit of increasing, say wall insulation, but not roof, or using compact fluourescent lighting throughout, instead of code minimum? How do you weight the various requirements?
From the comments I have seen it seems that no one has actually started applying 2030 to their residential projects....
Scott Rappe