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A team of engineers from PAE Engineers took the top spot in the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 2017 Lowdown Showdown, a net zero competition.

Four teams from around the country were directed to retrofit a building in the Washington, D.C. area into a net zero energy building. To boost the challenge, teams had to deal with unreliable design and measurement information.

None of the teams reached the net zero goal, but all four reduced the building’s energy use by at least 69 percent. A team of PAE engineers, calling themselves Sustainability Savants, reduced the building’s energy use by 83 percent, according to team member James Cullin.

The team achieved its energy savings by adding insulation on vertical walls, installing fly roof shades to provide a solar PV platform and reducing infiltration by verifying building tightness and increasing operational awareness.

The engineers installed occupancy controls wherein lights are turned on by sensors that determine when someone is within a certain range. The team reduced the facilities’ lighting energy by about 75 percent.