Profiling Your Laboratory for Efficiency Opportunities: The LEEP Tool
Paul Mathew, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Geoffrey Bell, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Laboratories have many unique efficiency opportunities and constraints that preclude the use of typical commercial building profiling and audit tools. In this presentation we describe the technical approach and application results for the Laboratory Energy Efficiency Profiler (LEEP), which allows users to identify efficiency opportunities in laboratories based on characteristics of ventilation, heating and cooling, lighting, and plug and process loads.
The key technical challenge with a profiling tool is to balance accuracy with ease of data collection. The intent of LEEP is to provide enough actionable information with as little data input as possible. This is especially the case when applying the tool to quickly prioritize efficiency actions in a portfolio of buildings. The tool is primarily intended to be used by energy and facility managers. It produces a report showing the applicability and impact of 62 different efficiency actions.
The presentation will be in two parts. We first provide a live demonstration of the tool. Following that, we present results from pilot application of the tool on several laboratory facilities.
Biographies:
Paul Mathew is a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), where he conducts applied research and market transformation activities on energy use in buildings. His current work is focused on energy efficiency and green design for laboratories and data centers, as well as energy benchmarking tools and techniques for commercial buildings. In addition to technical research and consulting, he teaches courses on energy efficient design. Prior to joining LBNL, he worked at Enron Energy Services and the Center for Building Performance at Carnegie Mellon University. He has a bachelor's degree in architecture, and a Ph.D. in building performance and diagnostics.
Geoffrey Bell is an energy engineer in the Environmental Energy Technology Division at LBNL. He is credited with a number of publications, including serving as a principal author of the Design Guide for Energy Efficient Laboratories. This publication is intended to assist facility owners, architects, engineers, designers, facility managers, and utility energy-management specialists in identifying and applying advanced energy-efficiency features in laboratory-type environments. Mr. Bell is a certified state energy auditor in New Mexico and a registered professional engineer in both New Mexico and California. He has served as an investigator for DOE, a teacher at the University of New Mexico, and an energy engineer contractor to Sandia Corporation in addition to various other mechanical engineering consulting positions. Mr. Bell received his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Newark College of Engineering and a Master of Architecture in environmental design from the University of New Mexico.