ASHRAE Journal - January 2022 - 36

TECHNICAL FEATURE
The selected schools are all in
Melbourne, Fla., and share one campus
near Florida Tech. In the heart
of Florida's Space Coast, Melbourne
is in Climate Zone 2A, characterized
by a humid subtropical climate and
yearly average high and cold temperatures
of 82°F (27.8°C) and 63°F
(17.2°C).11 School buildings have dedicated
spaces for classrooms, offices,
computer labs, library, cafeteria and
kitchen. A central chiller plant with
two 650 ton (2286 kW) water-cooled
chillers serves all three schools. Since
the chiller plant has its own dedicated
meter, the share of each school from
the chillers' energy consumption is
roughly estimated based on occupancy,
gross floor areas and limited
measured data available.12,13
Since the schools and the chiller plant use a common
meter, one multiuse property In Operation project was
created on the Building EQ Portal for the campus. No
Energy Star score was provided by BPS personnel as a
basis of comparison, since energy consumption of the
schools and chiller on the campus were measured off
one meter, as opposed to each school and the chiller
plant having a meter.
TABLE 1 Basic building information and bill data.
SCHOOL I (ELEMENTARY)
1987
Year Built
Floor Area (ft2)
Occupants
Operating Hoursa
Energy Usage (kWh/yr)
Usage Rate ($/kWh)
Demand Rate ($/kW)
EUI Site (kBtu/ft2·yr)
EUI Source (kBtu/ft2·yr)
Building EQ Performance Scoreb
96,778
900 - 1,000
M- F:
7:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
996,704
0.0485
9.203
35.14
110.34
SCHOOL II (ELEMENTARY)
2007
121,348
1,000 - 1,100
M- F:
7:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
1,073,024
0.0482
9.298
30.15
94.7
71
aThe operating hours during the academic year indicated are from mid-August through May, with intermittent breaks
in December and from June to mid-August.
bSince the performance score was based on the campus as a multiuse property, the score reflects all facilities on the
campus, not the individual schools.
equipment and control, setpoints, insulation condition,
etc.), hot water (type of system, insulation condition,
etc.) and other energy end users (computers, projectors,
refrigerators, other plug loads, etc.)
The information regarding the share of each building
from the chiller plant energy consumption was provided
by the BPS staff, and it is only used to estimate the individual
energy consumption for each school. However,
the Building EQ generated score was obtained for the
overall campus of the three buildings to avoid any error
associated with this estimation.
Prior to the audit, the student branch advisor discussed
the audit procedure with the students and
worked with them to prepare a comprehensive questionnaire
for the site visits. Building EQ was used as an
effective tool in preparing the questionnaire and training
the students before the audits. The questionnaire
served as a reference for the team during the audit to
collect detailed information, including general building
information (year built, gross floor area, number
of floors, conditioned area, etc.), schedule of operation,
energy sources and meters, lighting (light count,
types of lights, any sensor, etc.), HVAC system (types of
36
ASHRAE JOURNAL ashrae.o rg
J A N U A RY 2022
The bill data were acquired from the utility company,
and a detailed bill analysis was performed to provide a
clear picture regarding the current energy consumption
of the schools and the associated rate schedules.
The bill data as well as basic building information were
entered in the Building EQ Portal, and the energy use
intensity (EUI) scores were calculated by the Portal. This
provided a picture regarding the energy performance of
the building relative to its own building type in the same
climate zone, Zone 2A in this case. The summary of the
basic building's information, bill analysis and Building
EQ Building Energy Performance Score are shown in
Table 1.
During the audit (Figure 3), the audit team collected
data related to energy consumption including light
count and equipment name plate information as well
as indoor environmental quality (IEQ) measures such
as temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide
concentration. The team also collected or confirmed
facility and occupant data, including schedules of operation,
facility interior area and number of occupants.
The students used Building EQ to record data associated
with each audit and were able to work together on data
SCHOOL III (MIDDLE)
1987
199,214
1,100 - 1,200
M- F:
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
1,944,752
0.0391
11.451
33.3
104.6

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