ENRG 50: Intro to Commercial Building Audits

Program Description:

The Building Efficiency for a Sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Center has developed a 4-semester program to prepare students to work as commercial building energy auditors. The Commercial Building Energy Analysis & Audits Program is divided into 15 modular courses designed for a community college level student. Courses are intended to prepare students for energy auditing, analyzing a building envelope and building systems for efficiency, employing appropriate tools for energy modeling and working with data, describing utility rate structures and demand response strategies, estimating energy savings and financial impacts, and integrating business development skills and concepts with energy audit reporting.

Content modules can be selected, recombined, or offered in a more compressed format for existing workers, or those that have some background in construction, architecture, HVAC, building operations or mechanical engineering.

Course Description:

This model course from BEST Center focuses on commercial building audits. The course asks students to consider various levels of audits, defining the scope of work, preliminary assessments of building performance data, collection and assessment of building system operations, analysis of data, developing recommendations, report preparation and presentation. In completing the course, students will be able to: 1) Describe the various levels and phases of work for commercial building audits, 2) Describe and classify the types of data collected for use in a commercial building audit, 3) Describe field safety considerations and techniques necessary for on-site building assessments 4) Analyze data in order to identify opportunities to reduce energy consumption and improve building operational efficiency, and formulate action recommendations, 5) Estimate financial implications of recommended upgrades, and 6) Integrate findings and recommendations into a written report.

The completion of the lesson in full takes 36 lecture hours (including 9 lab hours). Resources available as part of this course include a course outline, a course summary table, and 10 PowerPoint presentations.

For orientation purposes, viewers should begin with ENRG 50_Course Outline.pdf, which offers a description of the course as well as an overview of topics covered through a course outline.

Course Contents:

The 3-page course outline document includes a course description, learning outcomes, and a detailed course topics outline. Topics include: 1) Introduction to concepts of commercial building energy auditing, 2) Ordinances, policies and standards governing commercial building audits, 3) Three ASHRAE audit levels, 4) Scope of work in a commercial building audit, 5) Elements in preliminary analysis of building performance data, 6) Factors in on-site building assessment, 7) Analysis of data collected, and 8) Audit completion activities. Sections detailing the types of in-class and out-of-class assignments required and other textbooks and resources are also included.

The 10 PowerPoint presentations cover the eight topics introduced in the course outline.

The course summary document contains a table breakdown of the course sections, including hours, laboratory or presentation activities, quizzes and exams, and homework. It also contains a scoring rubric for grading.

Below is a list of the files contained within the .zip attachment. The size of each file is included in parenthesis.

ENRG 50 - Introduction to Commercial Building Audits (12 files, 32.4 MB)

• Introduction to Commercial Building Audits Course Outline (ENRG 50_Course Outline.docx 25KB)
• Course Summary (ENRG50_summary.docx 14KB)
• Introduction to concept of commercial building energy auditing (Intro to Audits A v1.pptx 5MB)
• Ordinances, policies and standards governing commercial building audits (Intro to Audits B v1.pptx 3.5MB)
• Three ASHRAE audit levels (Intro to Audits C v2.pptx 1.5MB)
• Developing the scope of work in a commercial building audit (Intro to Audits D v2.pptx 1.9MB)
• Elements in preliminary analysis of building performance data (Intro to Audits E v2.pptx 2.5MB)
• Factors in on-site building assessment parts 1-3 (Intro to Audits F_1_2_3.pptx 3.5MB)
• Factors in on-site building assessment parts 4 and 5 (Intro to Audits F_4_5.pptx 6.5MB)
• Factors in on-site building assessment part 6 (Intro to Audits F_6.pptx 3.9MB)
• Factors in on-site building assessment parts 7-9 (Intro to Audits F_7_8_9.pptx 4.5MB)
• Analysis of data collected and audit completion activities (Intro to Audits G_H v1.pptx 1.2MB)