5 leed building

Bala Station Green Building Development

GREEN BUILDING DEVELOPMENT MEMORANDUM To: President at CM Properties, LLC From: Meng Cao Date: April 7th, 2014 Subject: Green Building Development Proposal at Bala Station Dear President,

I am writing to present my proposal for a green office building in the TOD development at Bala Station. Several steps will be taken to reduce energy consumption and save management cost. These steps include modifying the building envelope, using smarter management approaches for light and temperature control etc. Promisingly, you can save more than 30% energy in terms of both electricity and fuel.

Brief Introduction of the Building

This office building is a 8-storey building with 6 stories above ground and 2 stories underground as the parking garage. The building is in a rectangular shape, with 100 feet width and the 200 feet length. The footprint is 20,000 S.F.. The total floor area is 160,000 S.F. including the underground parking space. Its orientation is slightly northwest—southeast, with the longer façade facing the street.

Figure 1.1 Location of target building

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Bala Station Green Building Development

Design and Energy Consumption •

Initial Design Model The initial design of the building has eight glass doors in total. Three of them are on both the east wall and the west wall, which are the main entrance of the building.

One on the north wall and one on the south wall, acting as the exit door for consideration of fire control requirement. Windows are double clr/tint windows, which occupiy about 60% of the wall on four orientations. No overhangs or fins are provided for windows. And no roof skylights are considered.

Net office space takes up 76% of the total floor area, including 40% open plan office space, 30% executive/private office space, 4% conference room space and 2% copy room space. Corridor, lobby, mechanical/electrical room, restrooms occupy 10%, 5%, 4% and 5% of the floor area respectively. The lighting loads for these different types of space are empirical values based on Philadelphia market.

The building will use chilled water coils as the cooling equipment and hot water coils as the heating equipment. It will operate normally from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 5pm. The cooling and heating setpoints are 76F and 70F for occupied space.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, the average price for electricity in Philadelphia in Jan, 2014 is $0.162 per kilowatt-hour, the average price for piped gas is $1.163. Put them into the model to estimate the energy bills.

Figure 2.1 Total annual bill of the initial design

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Bala Station Green Building Development

•

Based on these assumptions, the building has an annual energy bill of $279,924, including $270,133 on electricity and $9,791 on gas.

Changing Building Envelop

Several parameters are changed to reduce the heat emission in winters and decrease cooling pressure in summers . For instance, R-11 batt insulation is provided for ceilings and R-7 batt insulation for vertical walls. And instead of having all eight glass doors, the 6 doors on west and east side will be changed to air lock entry glass doors. And the two doors on north and south side will be changed to opaque doors. Windows are also improved from double clr/tint glass to triple low-E glass to keep heat from emission. In addition, overhangs and fins are added to windows. This will reduce the heat the building would absorb in summer.

Based on these assumptions, the building will save 1% of electricity consumption, which is not very helpful. But it will reduce 26% of natural gas consumption, which is very considerable.

Comparison (0-1)

Consumption Bill •

Energy Reduction

Initial Change_1 Initial Change_1

Electricity (kWh) Natural Gas (MBtu) 1,671,651 1,145 1,667,490 842 $270,807 $13,321 $270,133 $9,791 1.0% 26.0%

Changing Internal Loads and Building Orientation Lighting usually consumed the largest amount of energy in an office buildings, so reducing the lighting loads would help decreasing the overall energy consumption.

Besides, a good orientation of building can also provide better natural light which reduce dependency on lighting. In this scenario, The building is reoriented to northsouth. More office space will act as open plan office space and 20% of the office space will be reserved for private uses. This will encourage sharing of lighting, instead of providing individual lighting. Besides, the lighting loads are generally reduced to reduce electricity consumption. Based on these assumptions, the result is shown below.

Comparison (0-2) Consumption Bill

Initial Change_2 Initial Change_2

Electricity (kWh) Natural Gas (MBtu) 1,671,651 1,145 1,581,780 836 $270,807 $13,321 $256,248 $9,724

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Bala Station Green Building Development

•

Energy Reduction

5.0%

27.0%

HVAC System

Cooling and heating is also a big consumption of energy in office building. Thus, adjusting HVAC settings would hopefully reduce the energy needed to keep comfortable temperature. In this scenario, the thermostat setpoints for occupied and unoccupied space are changed to 80F and 85F, compared to 76F and 82F respectively. This change brings dramatical energy saving as shown below.

Comparison (0-3)

Consumption Bill •

Energy Reduction

Initial Change_3 Initial Change_3

Electricity (kWh) Natural Gas (MBtu) 1,671,651 1,145 1,495,805 565 $270,807 $13,321 $242,321 $6,570 11.0% 51.0%

Cooling Equipment Improve the cooling equipment will also help to reduce energy loss. Thus, the electric centrifugal hermetic chiller is replaced by electric reciprocating hermetic chiller, with packaged air-cooled condenser. At the same time, a same chiller is added. These changes improve the reduction of electricity consumption by 18%.

Comparison (0-4) Consumption Bill •

Energy Reduction

Initial Change_4 Initial Change_4

Electricity (kWh) Natural Gas (MBtu) 1,671,651 1,145 1,374,906 565 $270,807 $13,321 $222,735 $6,570 18.0% 51.0%

More and Better Insulation Walls, Ceilings and Floors

Insulation walls will help keep the building warm in winter or cool in summer. In this scenario, more insulation is added to the construction (R-19 batt + rad barrier).

Besides, 3 in. polyurethane (R-18) insulation is added to the interior wall on ground floor and ext bd, R-10, 8ft deep insulation is added to the below grade walls. In addition, batt insulation materials are added to the ceilings and floors. The results benefit gas consumption a lot, with 70% reduction compared with the initial design.

But it doesn’t affect the electricity consumption because cooling, heating and lighting are still needed as the initial design.

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Bala Station Green Building Development

Comparison (0-5) Consumption Bill •

Energy Reduction

Initial Change_5 Initial Change_5

Electricity (kWh)

1,671,651 1,363,201 $270,807 $220,839 18.0%

Natural Gas (MBtu)

1,145 339 $13,321 $3,938 70.0%

Smarter Time Management to Reduce Electricity Consumption Realizing that the electricity reduction hasn’t reached 30%, further modification is needed. Considering that lighting is the major source of electricity consumption, this scenario further adjusts the lighting system that daylighting controls is applied based on hourly endues profile. For the side lighting area which is on the periphery of the building, lighting is dimmed by 30%. This is based on the fact that side areas have better access to natural light that less artificial lighting is needed. This results in about 40% of all floor areas have dimmed lighting. This electricity consumption is remarkably reduced by 42%. However, this adjustment increases the gas consumption compared with the fifth scenario. But it still saves 58% of gas consumption compared with the initial design.

Comparison (0-6)

Consumption Bill

Energy Reduction •

Initial Change_6 Initial Change_6

Electricity (kWh)

1,671,651 962,767 $270,807 $155,968 42.0%

Natural Gas (MBtu)

1,145 483 $13,321 $5,612 58.0%

Summary Through the six steps of adjustments, this office building is remarkably improved in terms of energy consumption, which at the same time results in a considerable amount of bill reduction by $114,839 for electricity and $5,612 for natural gas annually. For the detailed energy and bill reduction statistics, please refer to the appendix tables.

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Bala Station Green Building Development

LEED Checklist The estimated LEED points this office building can earn is based on LEED 2009 for Core and Shell Development. The building earns 77 points out of the 110 total points, which crosses the threshold for a LEED Gold certification.

An experienced local architecture firm will be selected to facilitate innovative design process and results. Integrated team would be consistent through the design, construction and management of the project.

The building sits in the great location, adjacent to residential community, services and transit stations. It’s in the urban built-up area with no violation to farmland or environmental constraints. Both of them earn it a lot of points. For the design part, pervious pavement, storm water management are taken into consideration that a more resilient environment will be created around the building. Besides, rain water will be collected and reused for irrigation which reduces portable water consumption. For the construction and materials, higher-quality materials will be chosen which include better insulation materials for roof and wall. Certain amount of the materials are certified materials and come from local factories. Better thermal control and more views to the outside will be provided. In addition, necessary education will be offered for tenants to encourage smarter use of the building.

For the detailed score checklist and requirements, please refer to the appendix table.

Conclusions and Recommendations To conclude, this is a very promising LEED office building project which deserves your attention.

Through the adjustments of building envelop, careful selection of construction materials, more efficient HVAC and cooling system, smarter management, there will result in a remarkable amount of saving for energy and bill. The electricity consumption will be reduced by 42% and the natural gas consumption will be reduced by 58%. These adjustments may cause extra money to build the building, but it will decrease the management cost and annual energy bills from the long-term perspective. The annually bills reduction for the two source of energy are $114,839 and $5,612 respectively. A 15-year cash flow of the annual savings will lead to a total of $204,070 reduction of the energy consumption bills.

The building is qualified for LEED gold certification. This certification will be more attractive to tenants based on research. We can ask for higher rents because it can

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Bala Station Green Building Development

save large amount of energy bills for the tenants, which is a win-win situation for both the tenants and us.

In addition, this green building is one of our TOD development buildings near Bala Station. It will act as a symbol of smarter and greener development that gains us better reputation. This will help to attract tenants and home buyers to other properties developed around the station. We can also use this building as a touchstone for the local market and receive feedbacks of what kinds of green strategies are most welcomed by the tenants and apply them to our future property development.

Accordingly, I strongly recommend this green office building in our Bala Station TOD development projects.

Meng Cao

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Appendix: LEED Checklist

Sustainable Sites Prerequisite 1

Construction Activity Pollution Prevention Site Selection

Development Density and Community Connectivity

Brownfield Redevelopment Alternative Transportation— Public Transportation Access Alternative Transportation— Bicycle Storage and Changing Rooms Alternative Transportation— Low-Emitting and Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Alternative Transportation— Parking Capacity Site Development—Protect or Restore Habitat Site Development—Maximize Open Space

Stormwater Design—Quantity Control Stormwater Design—Quality Control Heat Island Effect—Nonroof

Water Efficiency Prerequisite 1

Heat Island Effect—Roof Light Pollution Reduction Tenant Design and Construction Guidelines Water Use Reduction Water Efficient Landscaping Innovative Wastewater Technologies Water Use Reduction

Total Available Points 28 Possible Points

Required

Points Earned

Notes

1

1

1

0

5 6 2

5 6 2

3

3

1

1

2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

10 Possible Points Required 2-4 2

2-4

2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Satisfied

This building is located on urban built-up areas, with no violation to farmland or has any environmental restraints.

The building has great community connectivity. It's within 1/2 mile of a residential area and has pedestrian access to at least 10 basic services along the City Avenue.

Na

It's adjacent to Bala Station.

The building has 160,000 S.F. in total including underground parking. 50 bike racks are provided behind the building.

It encourages low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles. 10 spots are reserved at the underground parking, which takes up more than 5% of the total parking space required.

It provides less parking space because it is in the TOD development area that public transit is encouraged.

It restores more than 50% of the site with native vegetation.

It provides more than 20% vegetated open space of the site.

Rainwater garden is designed at the front and back of the building to manage stormwater.

Besides ground pervious surface, there's also green roof designed to manage stormwater.

All parking will be underground.

The green roof covers more than 50% of the roofarea.

Lighting load is reduced in the design. Lighting for perimeter office space is dimmed by 30%.

Essential education will be provided to tenants about the energy reduction.

3

Satisfied Captured rainwater will be used for irrigation to reduce more than 50% of total water needed.

2

Water use will be decrease by 30% of the use baseline.

1

There's 30% reduction of potable water use for building rewage conveyance.

Energy and Atmosphere Prerequisite 1 Prerequisite 2 Prerequisite 3

Fundamental Commissioning of Building Energy Systems Minimum Energy Performance Fundamental Refrigerant Management Optimize Energy Performance On-site Renewable Energy Enhanced Commissioning

Materials and Resources Prerequisite 1

Enhanced Refrigerant Management Measurement and Verification—Base Building Measurement and Verification—Tenant Submetering Green Power Storage and Collection of Recyclables Building Reuse—Maintain Existing Walls, Floors and Roof Construction Waste Management Materials Reuse Recycled Content Regional Materials

Indoor Environmental Quality Prerequisite 1 Prerequisite 2

Certified Wood

Minimum Indoor Air Quality Performance Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) Control R Outdoor Air Delivery Monitoring Increased Ventilation Construction Indoor Air Quality Management Plan—During Construction

37 Possible Points

Required

Satisfied

Required

Satisfied

Required

Satisfied

3-21 4

21 0

2

2

2 3 3 2

13 Possible Points

Required

2 3 3 0

1-5

2

1

1

1-2 1-2 1-2 1

0 0 1 1

12 Possible Points

Required Required

No refrigerants are used.

A measurement and verification plan will be developed and implemented to provide ongoing accountability of building energy consumption over time.

A centrally monitored electronic metering network is designed and is capable of being expanded to accommodate future tenant needs.

Na

Satisfied

30% of the building structure will be maintained and reused.

Na

Refurbished materials will be used in the construction of the building.

Na 10% of the construction materials will come from places within 800 kilometers of the site.

At least 50% of wood-based materials and products are certified in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council's principles and criteria.

Satisfied

1

0

1

0

1

This is a new building with 42% less electricity consumption and 58% less natural gas consumption.

Na The contract in place is agreed early in the design process to implement green commissioning process activities.

0

Satisfied Na Na Na

Low-Emitting Materials— Adhesives and Sealants Low-Emitting Materials— Paints and Coatings Low-Emitting Materials— Flooring Systems Low-Emitting Materials— Composite Wood and Agrifiber Products Indoor Chemical and Pollutant Source Control Controllability of Systems— Thermal Comfort Thermal Comfort—Design Daylight and Views—Daylight Innovation in Design

Daylight and Views—Views Innovation in Design

Regional Priority

Total

LEED Accredited Professional Regional Priority

1

0

Na

1

1

High-quality insulation materials will be used to the flooring system to reduce energy emission.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

6 Possible Points

1 0 0 1 1 0 1

Paints and coatings will help reduce the quantity of indoor air contaminants.

Na Na

Operable windows are provided to secure more comfortable individual experience.

Na

Sufficient views are available for both shared office space and private space.

1-5

2

4 Possible Points 1-4

1

An experienced architecture design firm is chosen to design the building, with innovation in design approaches and results.

One principal participant of the project team is LEED Accredited Professional.

0

Na

1

110

77

Project: Office

Run Date/Time: 04/07/14 @ 21:53

Annual Electric Energy by Enduse (pg 1 of 4) Ambient Lights

Task Lights

Misc Equip

Space Heating

Space Cooling

Heat Reject

Pumps & Aux

Vent Fans

Dom Ht Wtr

Exterior Usage

165,585 157,059

80,002 88,769

0 0

0 0

1,671,651 1,663,089

Total

Annual Energy USE (kWh) 0 1

Base Design 0+Whole Build EEM 1

451,635 451,635

Incremental SAVINGS (MWh) 1

0+Whole Build EEM 1

1

0+Whole Build EEM 1

eQUEST 3.64.7130

594,590 594,590

0 0

297,584 289,292

30,209 29,698

(values are relative to previous measure (% savings are relative to base case use), negative entries indicate increased use)

0.00 (0%)

Cumulative SAVINGS (MWh)

52,047 52,047

0.00 (0%)

0.00 (0%)

--

8.29 (3%)

0.51 (2%)

8.53 (5%)

-8.77 (-11%)

--

--

8.56 (1%)

-8.77 (-11%)

--

--

8.56 (1%)

(values (and % savings) are relative to the Base Case, negative entries indicate increased use)

0.00 (0%)

0.00 (0%)

0.00 (0%)

--

8.29 (3%)

0.51 (2%)

Annual Enduse Summary (4 pgs)

8.53 (5%)

Page 1

Project: Office

Run Date/Time: 04/07/14 @ 21:53

Annual Fuel Energy by Enduse (pg 4 of 4) Misc Equip

Space Heating

0.0 0.0

858.9 548.3

Space Cooling

Heat Reject

Pumps & Aux

Vent Fans

Ht Pump Supp

Dom Ht Wtr

Exterior Usage

0.0 0.0

286.5 286.3

0.0 0.0

Total

Annual Energy USE (MBtu) 0 1

Base Design 0+Whole Build EEM 1

Incremental SAVINGS (MBtu) 1

0+Whole Build EEM 1

Cumulative SAVINGS (MBtu) 1

0+Whole Build EEM 1

eQUEST 3.64.7130

0.0 0.0

0.0 0.0

0.0 0.0

0.0 0.0

1,145.4 834.6

(values are relative to previous measure (% savings are relative to base case use), negative entries indicate increased use) --

310.62 (36%)

--

--

--

--

--

0.16 (0%)

--

310.78 (27%)

--

0.16 (0%)

--

310.78 (27%)

(values (and % savings) are relative to the Base Case, negative entries indicate increased use) --

310.62 (36%)

--

--

--

Annual Enduse Summary (4 pgs)

--

Page 4

Project: Office

Run Date/Time: 04/07/14 @ 23:03

Annual Costs (pg 2 of 2)

Annual COST 0 1

Base Design 0+Whole Build EEM 1

Incremental SAVINGS 1

0+Whole Build EEM 1

Cumulative SAVINGS 1

0+Whole Build EEM 1

eQUEST 3.64.7130

Incentives

Annual Utility Cost Electric kWh($)

Electric kW($)

$ 270,807 $ 270,133

---

Electric Total($) $ 270,807 $ 270,133

Nat Gas Total($) $ 13,321 $ 9,791

Total ($)

Owner ($)

Design Team ($)

$ 284,128 $ 279,924

LCC Total (PV$) $ 1,901,741 $ 1,870,675

(values are relative to previous measure (% savings are relative to base case cost), negative entries indicate increased cost) $ 674

--

$ 674

$ 3,530

$ 4,204

$ 31,067

(values (and % savings) are relative to the Base Case, negative entries indicate increased cost) $ 674

--

$ 674

$ 3,530

Annual Building Summary (2 pgs)

$ 4,204

$ 31,067

Page 2