Noveda Technologies Inc: Where energy consumption meets production

Source: Exec Digital USA

Date :9/5/2008 5:02:41 AM

Ferreira 31 Tannery achieves status as a Net Zero Electric Commercial building for two years in a row

Written by Edward H. Brzezowski, P.E. LEED AP, Noveda Technologies

Among the first questions people ask when they are introduced to Ferreira’s Net Zero Electric Commercial Building: “What is net zero electric?”, “How did you achieve this goal?”, and “What was the secret of your success?”

The “31 Tannery Project” is the first commercial building in the US to produce all the electricity it needs to run this approximately 42,000-square foot commercial facility for a full year from renewable energy. The building actually produced a surplus of energy equivalent to a full month of extra electricity that was pushed out to the grid so others could use this “green” energy. 31 Tannery is also one of the first documented commercial buildings in US that have a negative operating cost per square foot of $1.11, after covering all electrical and natural gas costs.

Since we moved in to 31 Tannery in May 2006, more than two years has gone by quickly, and the building which serves as the corporate headquarters for Ferreira Construction and Noveda Technologies in Branchburg, NJ for more than 200 people continues to evolve and serve as a “living lab” and “hands on” showcase of energy efficiency (EE), renewable energy (RE), and monitoring and visualization systems.

The technology

The major interactive features of the 31 Tannery building include nine miles radiant heat (80 zones), high performance rooftop units, condensing boiler plant, 223 Kwdc solar photovoltaic system, solar domestic hot water, integrated web-based DDC, and pervasive voice/data/video system with kiosk displays.

During construction standard building controls were installed as well as additional monitoring for the renewable energy systems, conventional energy systems, and the high efficiency systems employed throughout the two-story building. This gave the team the ability to “make the invisible, visible” and to look inside and see and learn from system operation and interactions of the energy efficiency and renewable energy systems.

Having real time visibility of the building’s systems operations and energy use is a critical component of real time commissioning. As we learn more, the number of monitoring and control points continues to expand as well as the number of visitors and guests. We have reduced our natural gas consumption and our electric consumption by more than 78 percent when compared to DOE models for high efficiency systems and renewable energy.

This sustained level of performance and the ability to know “How’s the building doing?” at any time was made possible by system integration and interactivity, employee awareness, dedication and feedback as well as our numerous visualization and continuous commissioning displays.

Keys to success

The secret to 31 Tannery’s success has been real time monitoring and visualization. Ferreira’s team designed and built its own patent pending system now know as Noveda Technologies™, which was the key component that enabled the project to get the information critical to becoming a Net Zero Electric Commercial building and then surpassing even that goal. The dynamic graphics and real time energy and building systems monitoring, diagnostics, and tracking system was the critical component. It has been so successful that it has been deployed by the Ferreira team in its commissioning work and is now being marketed commercially.

Visitors become engaged by the lobby kiosk’s dynamic visualization of the energy being produced by the solar electric system or the efficiency of the building. Some people will return to check the kiosk to see how it is doing on a particularly sunny day or on a snowy day.

Dozens of independent studies from various universities to NREL and DOE have stated that a monitoring and visualization system can have an immediate impact of 5 to 15 percent on reducing energy usage and improving efficiency. 31 Tannery has proven these studies to be correct. Original energy savings projections were exceeded by almost 20 percent and estimate that up to 5 percent of that additional savings can be directly attributed to the “human factor.”

What are the results? The “31 Tannery Project” has won the NJ Clean Energy Award, the NJ Business and Industry Award for Environmental Project of the Year, scored a perfect 100 point Energy Star, was cited by NJ Governor Jon Corzine as being the first business in NJ to meet his Executive Order 54 for the reduction of green house gases for reducing our carbon footprint by more than 80 percent, and the building has been recognized by Dru Crawley of the DOE saying “This is spectacular that they have gone as far as they have. It’s one of the leading-edge buildings.”, and led to a new patent pending technology for building and energy monitoring and visualization