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.

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Many buildings today are designed to be more than attractive and functional; they’re also designed to improve occupants’ health. When it comes to health, new research indicates that where people spend their time can be as big a factor as sleep, diet or exercise. This is influencing project designs. Buildings with sustainable elements have been shown to improve occupants’ cognitive function and sleep quality.

Architects are using a variety of features to help make buildings healthier places for people. Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington, uses calming gardens and window positions to bring in natural light. Cascades Academy in Bend blurs the difference between outdoor and indoor spaces in an effort to lure students outdoors. The Daimler Trucks North America headquarters in Portland has walking trails to entice employees to move during the day.

“We’re doing things that were impossible 10 years ago,” said Aly Pierce, interior designer at Hennebery Eddy Architects. “Ten years ago, nobody wanted to do low volatile organic compounds (VOC) paint. Now, people are seeing the benefits.”

Attempts to address health issues in design has led to the development of the Well Building Standard. Similar to Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design ratings, Well Building Standards focus on how design incorporates the health of a building’s users.

“Architects are taking a more global view,” said Herb Giffin, a principal at GBJ Architecture. “We’re not only thinking about healthier buildings on the inside, but also on the outside.”

A 2016 Harvard University study looked at 10 high-performing buildings in five cities across the United States. The goal was to look at the relationship between a building’s conditions and occupants’ well-being and productivity.

The study found that workers that were in “green certified” environments scored 26 percent higher in cognitive tests, had 30 percent fewer symptoms of “sick building” syndrome and got 6 percent better quality of sleep.

One of the factors that had the biggest impact on workers’ well-being and productivity, the study found, was lighting. Brighter, blue-enriched lighting, such as daylighting, improved workers’ circadian rhythms that led to better sleep qualities and higher cognitive functions the next day.

“We have seen a huge incorporation of natural daylight in building designs,” Giffin said.

One of the biggest challenges when designing a new work space can be allowing natural light into artificial structures.

“In an administrative space, you are still trying to get them natural light,” said Jason Mullavey, a project manager at JRJ Architects. “We are always asking how can you get natural lighting in? How do you get lighting levels right?”

Another critical factor, according to the Harvard study, is ventilation. Workers in environmental conditions within the thermal comfort zone defined by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers showed a 5.4 percent higher cognitive function than those in environments outside of that zone.

“Air filtration has become a big issue,” Mullavey said. “There has been a move lately to use natural ventilation. How can we open this up?”

Buildings’ internal environments also are affected by how much off-gassing occurs. Off-gassing creates that “new car” smell that automobile buyers find so intoxicating. Unfortunately, that smell isn’t so innocuous. Whether in cars or buildings, it occurs when newly manufactured items like furnishings, paints or plastics release VOCs and other chemicals into the air. Prolonged exposure can cause headaches, blurry vision, nausea and prompt asthma attacks.

People for decades have searched for ways to mitigate off-gassing. Many of the chemicals used in today’s manufacturing processes have never been tested for their effects on people or animals.

That has led architects to take a closer look at the products they use. Fortunately, the popularity of LEED has prompted manufacturers to be more proactive about what they use in their products.

“The industry has been moving away from off-gassing,” Giffin said. “We use more stringent air filtration. When a product is LEED certified, we can be more confident about what is in it.”

Regulations have also helped. Paint, one of the biggest sources of off-gassing, now has to meet federal rules in regard to how much vapor it can release. Regulations, combined with manufacturers’ desire to appeal to builders of LEED-rated structures, have produced better products.

“It’s gotten easier,” Giffin said. “With the information manufacturers provide today, you can compare materials like you are at a grocery store.”

Interior design has also begun factoring in a building users’ health and well-being. Desks, once the epitome of the sedentary lifestyle, are changing. New styles promote standing or allowing a combination of both sitting and standing.

A 2016 study by the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Texas A&M University found that workers using a standing desk showed a 45 percent increase in productivity compared to their seated co-workers.

“Getting people off their fannies is big,” said Andrea Bainbridge, owner of Bainbridge. “There has been an evolution. About 20 years ago they had a huge push for ergonomics. Now it’s about giving users much more control over their environment.”

It isn’t a new phenomenon. An 1883 article in Popular Science encouraged workers to get on their feet as a way to relieve indigestion.

“Sitting all day is bad for your health,” Bainbridge said. “Getting people moving is a big aspect to having a healthier building.”

Another change is how interiors are now arranged. When Bainbridge began designing interior work spaces 40 years ago, most were small, 8-foot-by-8-foot cubicles designed for people to sit at a desk all day. Today’s office designs are more open with better views.

“Sitting is the new smoking,” Pierce said.

Another factor that affects which elements find their way into a design is the type of building that is being constructed. An office building has far different occupants than a health care facility or a school.

“What we use really varies dependent upon the population type,” said Thane Eddington, an architect with PKA Architects.

Dealing with those different populations can limit an architect’s options.

“In health care, everyone wants hard surfaces,” Mullavey said. “The question is how to warm those spaces up.”

Usually that means using soothing colors or building a calm space. The key is making sure the design meets the needs of occupants.

In the end, architects know that design has limits as to the effect it can have on building users’ health.

“Architecture can only do so much,” Eddington said. “At some point it boils down to people in the building.”

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The more things change, the more they change – at least when it comes to commissioning for buildings.

“It used to be that commissioning was all about (heating, ventilation and air conditioning),” said Liz Fischer, executive director of the Beaverton-based Building Commissioning Association. “But it’s gotten more sophisticated. It’s evolved so it’s about the whole building process these days.”

That increased sophistication also means that it’s not enough these days for firms to just say they have expertise in commissioning. In order to gain a competitive edge and stake a claim in the commissioning niche, a growing number of companies are looking for a third party to validate their skill and understanding of the process.

That’s where Fischer’s group can help. The Building Commissioning Association was formed a little more than 15 years ago with the help of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, she said.

In its earliest days, the trade group focused on getting more people interested in the field of commissioning while also providing education for those already working in it. As commissioning became more popular as a part of the building industry, the BCA’s role also grew.

Ten years ago, the group developed a professional certification program for individuals. Three years ago, it added a certification program for associates, a focus that Fischer said the group hopes will help educate more young people about the potential of careers in commissioning.

Eighteen months ago, the BCA started its newest certification program – for firms.

“We started the firm certification to ensure all projects are meeting the highest standard – not just best practices but (also) the most recent standards, such as ASHRAE,” Fischer said.

Obtaining certification as a firm is a rigorous process. Firms first must already have at least one person on staff who holds an individual certification from BCA. Fischer estimates her organization has already certified about 270 individuals.

For Heery International, earning a commissioning certification was about digging into a niche it’s been working in for a while, according to Richard Young, the company’s director of commission services for the West.

Right now, about 80 percent of the company’s work in commissioning is repeat businesses, Young said. Open solicitations garner a project about 10 percent of the time, an amount that Young said the company would like to see increase.

Commissioning is still primarily used for projects when recognition in a sustainable program like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or Green Globes is being pursued. But Young said it’s becoming more common to find building owners interested in using commissioning to lower operating costs through efficiency in order to create buildings that can competitively attract tenants.

“In terms of our work, I would say maybe 25 percent of our projects are driven by a sustainable program like LEED,” Young said. “But not everyone is using commissioning just for that reason. It’s a tough market out there and a lot of companies are stepping forward looking for a way to stand out.”

Young and Fischer both believe the demand for commissioning services will continue to increase. Fischer’s organization, for example, has handed out certifications to 16 firms – including Heery International – since starting the firm certification program. But the organization already has 12 more companies’ applications in progress.

“(Interest in commissioning) is starting to come along pretty quickly,” Fischer said. “We’re starting to see it show up in RFQs, where owners are asking for it.”

One of the biggest public agencies to regularly require that firms hold third-party commission certifications in order to qualify to work on projects is Veterans Affairs, Fischer said.

But as more project owners begin looking to use certified firms for commissioning services, Fischer’s group needs to expand its efforts to educate people about commissioning – not just those already working in the building industry, but those who might consider such careers in the future.

“Commissioning is a really fast-growing field,” Fischer said, “and we’re really trying to get young people to just understand what it is.”

Young agrees that education will play a big role in helping the field of commissioning continue to grow.

“Commissioning … has been growing for 20 years, but it’s still kind of not understood what we do,” Young said. “Many people think we just walk in with a list – that we’re the clipboard police. But the way (Heery) approaches it, we’re here to assist the team in achieving the common goal of providing a building that is functional, safe and serviceable – and that serves the client with as little trouble as possible.”

For more information about certification programs offered by the Building Commissioning Association, visit .

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Northwest firms will have a big showing at this year’s American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Technology Awards.

Each year, ASHRAE recognizes outstanding achievements by its members who have successfully applied innovative building design.

Of the six awards that will be given, four are going to firms in the Northwest, including Portland’s for its work on the Portland State University Academic and Student Recreation Center.

Interface used innovative energy conservation techniques on the building, including hydronic floor heating and a water source heat pump system, according to Mark Koller, who headed the project for Interface.

“It’s a great achievement to be nationally recognized,” he said. “Portland State was very good to work with for having aggressive energy goals.”

The other Northwest firms that will be awarded include Ecotope Inc. in Seattle, which will be winning two awards, and CDi Engineers in Lynwood, Wash.

The awards will be given to the recipients at the ASHRAE 2013 Winter Conference in Dallas, Texas, on Jan. 26.

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The recently commissioned a research team to examine how multiple common building methods affect a building envelope’s ability to keep warm or cool air either in or out.

The team spent two years looking at different construction “assemblies” – steel-stud construction, for example – and the way heat can travel through them. The research was accepted by the ASHRAE research board, and researcher and building science specialist Stéphane P. Hoffman recently presented the results to a group of engineers, architects and officials at the Center for Architecture in Portland.

Hoffman’s team believes that its data, gathered from laboratory experiments and three-dimensional models, will help create more accurate energy consumption predictions. It also expects that the information will eventually be incorporated into building codes.

Hoffman recently discussed the research with the 91��Ƶ.

91��Ƶ: The overall effect of your research will be creation of energy models with greater accuracy. Why is that important?

Stéphane P. Hoffman: Our research provides an understanding of the actual energy consumption of the building, and the knowledge of how to selectively make interventions to reduce energy consumption.

This is of particular interest if you are designing to the Living Building Challenge standards or a net-zero energy building. You need to understand how much energy will be lost or consumed through the building envelope, because that drives the sizing of your mechanical systems, which drives the sizing of your photovoltaic (solar panels), or your geothermal or other site-generated energy.

If you’re looking to minimize how many solar panels you have to put on the building, you need to really understand the real loads they need to support.

91��Ƶ: For projects trying to meet the Living Building Challenge, there are concerns about three things that are difficult to model: how much energy a building will need, how much energy these new solar or other technologies will generate, and how people will behave in the building. How does your research fit into that challenge?

Hoffman: The information in this study helps you address one of those components, which is the actual energy consumption of the building enclosure. What people do in the building is probably a much more sophisticated model. Our research provides a tool on which to make better-informed decisions about the design of an enclosure system.

91��Ƶ: To start with, introduce us to the idea of building envelope performance. A lot of this is measured with an “R” value. What is an R value and how does it work?

Hoffman: The R value is a measurement of the thermal resistance of an assembly to heat flow – how good a material is at minimizing heat loss. It’s a property of the material, but also of how it’s used in the construction of the building and interfacing with various assemblies.

Some materials – for example, board insulation – are very good and have a high R value. Some materials like steel studs are great conductors – so they’re the opposite, and have a very low R value; this is called a “thermal bridge.”

When you mix these materials you have to come up with an effective R value for that assembly, and that is the problem.

If you have, for example, a batt (fiberglass) insulation in a steel stud assembly, the batt insulation has an R of 19 – but the bridging that occurs through the steel stud reduces the overall R value by more than half.

91��Ƶ: I understand that the “thermal bridge” problem allows heat to travel through the conductive materials, like steel, to circumvent the insulating values of insulation. How do people deal with this problem currently?

Hoffman: Over recent years, the expected R values of building have been decreasing, but they don’t reflect actual performance.

There’s a concept out there that if a little insulation is good, more must be better, and a lot is best.  At a certain point, though, you can add more and more insulation but you won’t overcome the thermal bridge. With our research, you can find out the optimal level of insulation.

The code had just been saying “add more insulation,” but I think what we’ll go to at some point is more effective insulation. This is the current drive in a lot of the industry in terms of modeling: a change to more performance-based modeling instead of prescriptive modeling.

91��Ƶ: What is the problem for people designing buildings facing this “thermal bridging” issue?

Hoffman: Right now, there’s very little accounting for additional heat loss. It’s traditionally been made up for with additional safety factors that the mechanical consultant applies when sizing his mechanical equipment.

However, the lack of an ability to accurately model this means that you can’t give the mechanical consultant a good sense of what the actual energy use of the building will be – and they might use more money to make a bigger system than is needed as a result. How can you size a mechanical system if you don’t know the actual energy use of the building?

As technology has improved, we can more and more accurately model the actual performance and help the mechanical consultant understand what the actual loads will be on the mechanical system.

91��Ƶ: Why hasn’t there been another study like yours to find the actual impact of thermal bridges?

Hoffman: Up until now, all thermal modeling of assemblies has been done only in two dimensions, which works well when you’ve got something that’s infinitely long. If you’re doing a warehouse building, and it’s infinitely long, you have the ability to take a cross-section and model it very consistently, because heat loss at the periphery is minimal.

Unfortunately, we don’t build in two dimensions. That’s where the impact of our use of 3-D modeling comes in, is being able to determine how these interfaces impact the value of the walls … especially in areas where the plane of construction changes, like in window transitions, corners and slab edges.

91��Ƶ: How can someone use your findings, and how might this change how a building is designed?

Hoffman: The report provides a series of graphs and tables, which allow practitioners to determine heat loss without having to do these 3-D models themselves. From this they could find out that is the actual heat loss, and what is the impact of additional insulation. You can also determine the risk of condensation, by determining surface temperature at critical points.

One of the ways this information can be used is to figure out where a majority of the heat loss is – Is it in support for cladding, or in the slab edge? It helps you focus your design efforts. It also helps you understand the elements in that assembly that really influence the thermal bridge, and how those could be modified to reduce the impact.

91��Ƶ: Who will and won’t be affected by this research, now and in the future?

Hoffman: For the average practitioner building to code, there isn’t an incentive to use this right now, because it shows you a lot of energy use that is not taken into account in current code. If you really want to know how much energy is being used, it’s a good tool. If you’re just looking to meet the baseline code, you don’t need that additional information.

In the interim, it provides better information for those individuals who are pursuing low-energy buildings – things that are already going beyond the code and need more sophisticated tools to assess the energy consumption of the building.

Eventually, that will come into adoption. I think that at some point, there will be a realignment of what’s expected from a thermal performance perspective.

It takes time for things to be adopted through the code process, but down the road we expect this to form the basis of how energy consumption is modeled and required under the code.

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A ventilation systems trade group warns that its industry may be a bigger contributor to the spread of infectious diseases, a revelation that takes on greater importance as the threat looms of another outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers issued a report this summer that suggested ventilation systems could spread droplets infected with the flu when someone sneezes or coughs. While those systems already use filters and other methods to scrub the air clean, the study suggested building owners, managers and construction groups could improve air quality through ventilation protections, room pressurization and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation.

Schools, hospitals and clinics are preparing for the upcoming flu season and the unknown impact of the new H1N1 swine flu virus. But those plans stop short of equipping ventilation systems with specialized equipment because at this point the potential benefits don’t outweigh the costs.

“There are studies showing that building airflow can be an important mechanism, but in terms of quantifying a change in ventilation systems reducing the transmission rate is tougher,” said Andrew Persily, an indoor air quality expert and a former vice president of ASHRAE.

Instead, building operators are turning to simpler preventive measures.

Susan Steward represents owners of 29 million square feet of office space from Vancouver, Wash., to Salem as executive director for the Portland office of the Building Owners and Managers Association. She said the flu season is on the minds of BOMA‘s members, but instead of a revamped air system, hand sanitizer is being liberally distributed throughout buildings.

“Most of us feel (the H1N1 threat) is overblown,” Steward said.

Matt Shelby, spokesman for Portland Public Schools, said the district is mindful of air quality and ensuring enough fresh air is pumped into schools. The district’s preparedness efforts for flu are more focused on keeping students home that show flu-like symptoms.

Beaverton School District has adopted a similar stance, according to district spokeswoman Maureen Wheeler. She said officials are concerned with keeping buildings clean, but flu prevention is more focused on the personal level. Hand sanitizer is being liberally dispensed in classrooms.

The pending flu season is an especially hot topic in the medical field.

Hospitals and clinics in the Legacy Health system already are designed to guard the spread of disease.

Brian Terrett, director of public relations for Legacy, said the organization’s biggest challenge is managing its waiting rooms. He said patients shouldn’t be surprised to see staff wearing face masks and eye protection, especially in emergency room and clinic waiting areas.

Even though the upcoming flu season might not trigger major building upgrades, Persily said building owners and managers are reexamining ventilation systems. Those maintenance checks often result in air filters being changed, which may reduce the spread of viruses.

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Forty-five commercial and public buildings in the Portland-metro area bear Energy Star labels, among the most in the country. But a new energy ratings system from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers could make those ratings seem less appealing.

Instead of giving gold stars, like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s Energy Star program, the new system gives letter grades. And ASHRAE is a tough grader.

Some of those Energy Stars might earn only a “B” grade under ASHRAE’s Building Energy Quotient, or Building EQ rating system, said Ryan Colker, manager of government affairs for ASHRAE.

Building EQ is designed to be both technical and easy to understand, Colker said. It relies on two assessments: modeling of a building’s design and a year’s worth of operating data. “There’s a concern with the gap between how buildings are modeled and what the actual results are,” he said. “We want to bring that gap closer together.”

The goal, Colker said, is to push developers and building owners toward the net-zero energy standard, an “A+” under Building EQ. That’s easier under a graded scale than with a pass-fail marker, he said.

Energy Star buildings must be in the 75th percentile of energy efficiency. “But you can’t really differentiate between buildings at 75 percent and 90 percent,” Colker said. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve gone to the scale we’ve gone to, is to recognize the top performers.”

But Wade Lange, vice president of property management with Ashforth Pacific Inc., said he doesn’t see why a new system is needed. Several Ashforth buildings, including the ODS Tower, Liberty Centre and the Pacwest Center have earned the Energy Star label.

“I don’t see why they’re doing this,” Lange said. “Why do we need another system?”

An Energy Star label on one of Lange’s buildings means it is more energy efficient than three-quarters of other buildings, he said. He updates his buildings’ energy use data in the Energy Star system and can tell when they’re outperforming competitors’, even without a letter grade for comparison.

Lange wouldn’t relish getting a “B” for one of those buildings. “It would be a disappointment,” he said.

The grading scale could shake up the industry with its simplicity, said Alisa Kane, green building manager with the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, especially in Portland, which bustles with environmental pride. The competitive nature of the grading scale could easily leave Energy Star in the dust.

“We all know what it feels like to get a ‘C,’ ” Kane said. “And we all know we want to do better.”

The new grading system would probably push a kind of competition between developers for more efficient buildings, Kane said. “It will probably have the same bearing on the market as LEED ��DZ��.”

But Building EQ focuses solely on energy, unlike Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which considers other factors. As such, Building EQ will appeal to building owners who wouldn’t consider LEED, said Louis Starr, a commissioning agent for Heery.

“I’ve seen schools say, ‘We want to do something about energy efficiency, but we don’t want to go through the LEED process because it costs a lot and a lot of it doesn’t relate specifically to energy efficiency,’ ” Starr said.

It doesn’t always make sense to earn points for proximity to public transportation, Starr said. “Sometimes you just get the site you get.”

Building EQ, which will be officially introduced later this fall, would be voluntary, at least at first, Colker said. He’d like to see it incorporated as the energy use standard of other, broader standards such as LEED.

Eventually, he said, the system could be mandated by local governments.

Portland officials are already discussing the standards as part of the city’s planned guidelines for highly efficient buildings. Whether it’s Energy Star or Building EQ, and whether it’s voluntary or mandatory, hasn’t been determined, Kane said.

“We’re still looking at what’s the best fit for Portland.”

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