Spotlight on Innovation

Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards: Seeding the Evolution

A study aims to demonstrate how collecting integrated hourly data is both feasible and a crucial input to measure and assess building performance.

Problem

New York State has several laws in place to drive building performance improvements. Unfortunately, they don't require the collection of key data such as occupancy information or energy use patterns.

Additionally, current assessment methods overlook the variable greenhouse gas emissions intensity of electricity consumption at different times of day. As a result, opportunities for occupancy-based efficiency, load shifting, and other essential strategies for managing carbon emissions are often missed.

Proposed Solution

JB&B is developing an innovative proof-of-concept benchmarking platform, a cloud-based data warehouse called “Benchmark 8760.” The team will use it to study the feasibility and scalability of collecting hourly occupancy data (while respecting privacy concerns) from a test set of ten New York City commercial buildings.

In addition to occupancy data, “Benchmark 8760” will securely capture hourly energy use, grid carbon intensity, and weather data. Benchmark 8760 takes a crucial step in advancing New York’s ability to fully understand and drive the adoption of grid-interactive efficient buildings.

Project Timeline

Initiated: December 2020

Completed: July 2023