Integrative Design Approach:
Integrative design optimizes a building as a whole system, considering multiple benefits from each expenditure, rather than focusing on isolated parts for single benefits. This approach can lead to significant energy savings and often reduced construction costs by offsetting extra efficiency costs with capital cost savings.

Case Studies:
A small office building in Cold Grand Forks, North Dakota, achieved lower construction costs despite incorporating energy-efficient measures by optimizing the entire building system. Amory Lovins’ house in Colorado, built in the 1980s, achieved 99% passive solar heating, eliminating the need for a heating system and saving significant energy. The Empire State Building retrofit with JCI saved 38% of its energy with a three-year payback, demonstrating the potential of integrative design in existing buildings.

Benefits of Integrative Design:
Energy savings: Integrative design can significantly reduce energy consumption by optimizing building systems and integrating energy-efficient technologies. Construction cost savings: By offsetting extra efficiency costs with capital cost savings, integrative design can often lead to lower construction costs. Multiple benefits: Integrative design strives to achieve multiple benefits from each expenditure, such as improved daylighting, better indoor air quality, and enhanced occupant comfort.

Case Study: Davis Energy Group House:
A California house designed by Davis Energy Group in 1994 achieved 82% energy savings compared to the Title 24 standards of the time, using various energy-efficient measures. The house demonstrated the potential for significant energy savings without compromising comfort or increasing construction costs.

State-of-the-Art Retrofits:
The Passivhaus Institute in Germany has developed advanced retrofit approaches that can achieve significant energy savings in existing buildings. The Energie Sprung approach, originated in Holland, involves installing a pre-built insulation system around a house, reducing energy consumption and improving building performance.

Affordable Housing Retrofits:
Integrative design can be applied to affordable housing, offering opportunities for energy savings, improved comfort, and extended building life. The Retrofit approach, demonstrated in St. Louis, involved a gut rehab and super insulation retrofit that significantly reduced heating and cooling needs.

Empire State Building Retrofit:
The Empire State Building retrofit achieved significant energy savings by renovating windows, improving lighting and equipment, and optimizing the cooling system. The retrofit’s payback period was reduced to three years or less by considering non-energy benefits to the owner and tenants.

Why a Holistic Approach is Necessary:
Energy efficiency retrofits in buildings can save significant energy and costs. A holistic approach is essential to maximize savings and improve economics. The right timing and coordination with major building events are crucial for success.

A Case Study:
A 20-year-old office tower near Chicago needed a new curtain wall due to glazing seal failures. A comprehensive retrofit was proposed, including super windows, deep daylighting, efficient lights, and power-managed plug loads. The proposed HVAC system was 3.8 times more efficient and four times smaller, leading to capital savings. The overall retrofit could save three-quarters of the energy with a tiny net investment and a short payback period.

Challenges in Implementation:
Implementation requires relentless patience and meticulous attention to detail. Each party in the commercial real estate value chain can be a showstopper. The right things must be done in the right order to achieve the desired results.

The Importance of Sequence:
Most lighting retrofitters start with higher efficacy light sources and better controls, which is not the optimal approach. The Illuminating Engineering Society’s Handbook of Fundamentals recommends a specific sequence of steps for lighting retrofits. This sequence can save more energy and improve visual performance and aesthetics.

Example:
A homeowner in Japan was asked why she didn’t heat her house, highlighting the importance of considering cultural and contextual factors.

Design Approach:
Prioritize individual comfort over building temperature control, eliminating the need for HVAC systems. Implement task comfort measures that address individual requirements, such as hyperchairs with personalized temperature control. Expand the range of indoor dry bulb air temperatures for comfort through the use of various comfort variables, including ceiling fans and super windows.

Energy-Saving Measures:
Reduce unwanted internal and external heat gains by employing airtight construction, super insulation, and passive cooling techniques. Recover ventilation heat and utilize efficient cooling methods that yield high cooling per unit of electricity, such as evaporative, desiccant, and absorption cooling. Minimize the need for refrigerative cooling by implementing comprehensive energy-saving approaches.

Case Study: Carnegie Wet Lab Workshop and Office:
Achieved 53% electricity savings and 28% CO2 emission reduction compared to conventional buildings. Utilizes non-refrigerative cooling methods, resulting in 50 units of cooling per unit of electricity. Employs innovative techniques like Persian draft towers and night spray on the roof for efficient cooling. Optimizes pipe and duct design to reduce friction and energy consumption.

Global Impact:
Widespread adoption of these design strategies could save approximately half of the world’s coal-fired electricity, leading to significant financial benefits. The key to achieving these savings lies in recognizing design as a scaling vector, emphasizing its importance in energy efficiency.

Key Points:
Start with the End-Use Effect: Begin by optimizing the building as a complete system, rather than focusing on individual components. Prioritize expensive windows to reduce HVAC requirements.

Design Optimization:
Cut Capital Costs: Reduce costs by optimizing the design sequence and timing. Pay design professionals based on savings achieved, not expenses incurred.

HVAC Efficiency Improvements:
Reduce Duct and Piping Friction: Optimize duct and piping design to minimize friction and parasitic loads. Use underfloor displacement ventilation for even lower pressure drops. Optimize Chiller Performance: Select the appropriate impeller speed and close approach temperatures to enhance efficiency. Efficient Cooling Towers: Specify cooling towers that are wide and short, with large, slow-speed fans. Utilize parallel dispatch with variable speed control for all towers. Dual Coil Design: Implement a dual coil design with 4.5°C condensing and 12°C sensible cooling temperatures.

Rethinking Cooling Coils:
Laminar Flow and Dropwise Condensation: Contrary to earlier assumptions, airflow through cooling coils is laminar, and condensation is dropwise. Sparse Coil Design: Use a sparse coil design with one or two rows of copper tubing to promote dropwise condensation. This approach reduces airside pressure drop and enhances dehumidification.

Combining Improvements:
Synergistic Effects: Integrating these design strategies can drastically reduce energy consumption in office buildings, achieving up to 90% savings compared to conventional practices. Energy-Efficient Lighting: Modern lighting systems in super-efficient office buildings consume significantly less energy.

Building Efficiency:
Buildings can be designed to achieve very low energy consumption, typically using 1/10th of the energy used in conventional buildings. Careful attention to design, materials, and systems can create buildings that are highly energy-efficient and comfortable for occupants.

Super Windows and Insulation:
Super windows tuned to the orientation of the building can let in light without heat, eliminating the need for perimeter zone heating even in cold climates. The roof and exposed surfaces can be optically optimized to reject solar heat while radiating away far infrared, further reducing energy consumption.

Efficient Cooling Systems:
Buildings designed with passive strategies like super windows and insulation may need very little cooling, if any. If cooling is required, efficient systems can be used to minimize energy consumption.

Cost-Effectiveness:
Energy-efficient buildings can actually be cheaper to build than conventional buildings, due to reduced material and construction costs. Energy-efficient buildings also have more rentable space per gross square foot, making them more profitable for developers.

Design as Optimization:
Design should not be seen as a process of compromise and trade-off, but rather as an optimization process. Nature provides examples of highly optimized designs, such as the pelican, which is perfectly adapted to its environment. Integrative design, which seeks to optimize all aspects of a building’s performance, is more lucrative, professionally fulfilling, and enjoyable than traditional design approaches.