Re-Commissioning the Molecular Foundry, a LEED Gold Laboratory

Steve Greenberg, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The Molecular Foundry Lab at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was occupied in 2006 and is a LEED Gold facility. It is also described in a Labs21 case study. It was commissioned during the original construction, with the result that most systems and control sequences performed according to design. In the 7 subsequent years of occupying, operating, and modifying the building, the original operation deteriorated, offering opportunities for significant energy savings and enhanced safety. Weather-corrected electrical and gas usage were respectively 8% and 3% higher than expected.

The original third-party commissioning agent was brought back to the building to reassess its operation. He found numerous areas where the original systems and controls had deteriorated from their previous operation. He also worked to establish performance benchmarks to allow on-site staff to better track the building's operation and identify sub-standard performance in a timely way.

In addition to restoring the original operation where applicable, changes made to the building space, HVAC systems, and its heating and cooling plants needed to be checked for proper operation and performance benchmarking. This presentation will summarize the findings from this process. Some of the highlights:

1. excessive reheat is occurring

2. supply air temperature reset is not working properly

3. humidity control in the clean room is causing excessive chiller energy use 4. duct static pressure reset is not working well

5. cooling tower water reset operates at the endpoints only, rather than modulating

6. chilled water pressure reset is bistable, rather than modulating

7. staging of the three, unequal-sized chillers is not optimized

8. lab exhaust fans operate at unnecessary power levels

9. heating water system temperatures and pressures are not optimized

10. sub-metering system is incomplete and not all meters are functioning properly

Biography:

Steve Greenberg holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master's degree in Energy and Resources, both from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a registered Mechanical Engineer in California. He is also a LEED Accredited Professional by the U.S. Green Building Council and a Certified Energy Manager. Now a Senior Energy Management Engineer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he has researched and applied energy-efficient building and industrial systems, for a variety of clients on three continents over the past 33 years. He is currently working with the Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division, performing research on energy efficiency in laboratories, data centers, and other high-tech buildings, as well as working with the Lab's Facilities Division on several new building projects. He has been involved in design, design review, commissioning, and retrofit.

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