Shading and Make-Up for Building Designers

I just returned from a meeting in Florida and I was reminded of a couple of basic concepts that apply to virtually all building designs.

Our meeting room faced an outside wall with a couple of French doors to a nice patio area.  The weather was unusually cool for Florida and everyone sitting on that side of the table was able to experience that coolness first hand...even though the doors were closed.  During breaks the smokers in the group would gather on the patio and, again, in spite of closed doors the meeting room started to smell of cigarette smoke.

The problem, of course, was a lower pressure in the meeting room compared to the outdoors.  Somewhere in the conference center there was an exhaust system churning away without a counterbalancing make-up air system.  The only way that the exhaust system could satisfy its demand for air was to pull that air from outside the building, through the conference room, to its final point of exit.  Cold, smoke-laden air was drawn into the meeting room and occupant comfort was compromised.  Simply adding a make-up air system similar to the Applied Air DFL-series would have improved the indoor environment and cost very little extra to operate.  Remember that all of that cold air that was being sucked into the building caused the occupants to raise the thermostat set-point in order to compensate for being cold and forced the large main air handlers to operate for more hours than necessary.  Maintaining a positive pressure in buildings controls infiltration of smoke, dust, and un-tempered air and it is relatively simple to achieve.

The other basic concept that popped into my head is how important the building envelope is to controlling operating costs.  This particular resort was built many years ago but employed some pretty effective passive shading for the guest rooms.  My room had a wall of windows for natural light and a view but had a deep setback that prevented direct solar radiation.  This deep setback meant that the air conditioning system would see far fewer operating hours than an unprotected glass exposure would allow.  Since solar radiation is also a significant portion of the building cooling load the setbacks allowed a reduction in HVAC equipment size as well.

Building design has changed since the days when this hotel was built and deep setbacks are much less common.  But effective solar shading is still feasible through the use of external shades and louvers.  External shade technology has advanced to the point where it is possible for the shades to track the location of the sun and automatically provide continuous reduction in solar radiation.  Some external shading systems such as those developed by Colt Group actually contain photovoltaic cells that can reduce the building electrical demand by more than providing shading alone.

So two basic concepts for sustainable building design:  maintaining a positive indoor pressure to eliminate unwanted and untreated outside air from entering the occupied areas; and using modern external shading technology to reduce the solar load in the occupied areas which, in turn, reduces operating and capital costs.

The Changing Face of Real Estate

One of my more enjoyable activities that I have is to act as chairman for a developers forum as part of the NAIOP organization.  This activity provides insights into the thinking, planning, and expectations of commercial and industrial property developers and owners across North America.  At our annual meeting a couple of months ago there were many presentations and discussions that focused on 2013 and beyond.  I thought I would share just a few of the points from that meeting.

The NAIOP Research directors provided some interesting factors to consider going forward that tended to revolve around the way technology is changing the office and industrial markets.  E-commerce is projected to have a negative impact on mom-and-pop retail and small start-up retailers until the housing market makes a big recovery, according to Cassidy Turley-Terranomics.  They went on to say that while middle market retailers will continue to struggle, the luxury and discount retailers will continue to expand and open new retail and distribution facilities. 

Speaking of distribution facilities, Jones Lang LasSalle indicated that they believe that distribution center users will continue to push for higher bays...up to at least 36 clear feet...in order to increase efficiencies in handling e-commerce transactions.  Another interesting impact of e-commerce that was highlighted by IMS Worldwide and by Liberty Property Trust is that changing real estate requirement for an e-commerce focused distribution center.  The number of transactions per day in an e-commerce site can be 10 times greater than for a traditional distribution center.  Each of those transactions must be touched by someone so the number of employees in an e-commerce center is much higher.  Parking for up to 1,000 cars in addition to trucks means the land required for these centers can be 40 or 50 acres greater than a comparable "traditional" distribution center.  Implied in this scenario is also the need for a temperature controlled work environment for those 1,000 workers instead of the old "just keep the pipes from freezing" distribution or cross-dock environment.

Another impact of technology and e-commerce is that a DC ("distribution center") for e-commerce has an element of "mission critical" to it in order to process all of the transactions.  Developers and users of these new types of distribution centers look for locations that have reliable fiber optic and cable network access, as well as dual primary power substations in order to minimize downtime in the event of a power disruption.  Other location related decision criteria include being in a right-to-work state and in a state that does not charge sales tax on e-commerce transactions.

Shifting back to the office market, CBRE-Canada, noted that employees are changing how they work and the traditional office with walls is going away.  They also noted that employees, especially the younger ones, communicate with each other by text message versus phone reducing the "noise level" in the office down to the clicking of small touchscreens...reducing the need for walls to control cross conversations.

PPR/CoStar commented that the average lease that they see in the office market has decreased from 5,000 square feet to 3,600 square feet.  This statistic is reinforced by the results of a CoreNet survey of 500 corporate real estate executives who have changed their office plan metric from 225 square feet per employee down to 175 square feet in 2012 with a projection of only 150 square feet by 2017.  This change means that development of new buildings will continue to be pressured as it will take longer to absorb space in overbuilt markets. 

The final point from the annual meeting is that while there is abundant capital available for the right deal all of these other factors are driving developers to spend that capital on remodeling and repurposing of existing space. 

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."

I have addressed this topic before but it bears discussing again.  I was reading an article in a high tech blog the other day and they repeated the oft quoted "rule" of good design from Albert Einstein..."make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."...  A few months ago I also quoted an engineer who reminded me that a system is not "sustainable" if it is not "maintainable".

It seems that in spite of these two pieces of advice, and numerous studies that highlight efficiency degradation when equipment is not properly maintained, we continue to see elaborate custom cooling solutions when a simple "off the shelf" product will accomplish the same thing...and has a better chance of staying that way.

As an industry we bemoan the lack of qualified service technicians and then we turn around and send them to jobsites populated with unique, one of a kind, complicated HVAC solutions.  What are we thinking?

I will admit that there are some cases that are so difficult to solve that something special is truly needed.  Critical human medical care might apply.  Some very high tech product production might apply.  Production of pharmaceuticals might apply.  But most server rooms and data centers no longer seem to apply.  ASHRAE and the server manufacturers themselves have said that the old ways no longer apply.  IT equipment can stand much higher temperatures and humidities than previously thought and much broader swings of those measures than ever before.  So why design around complex custom equipment?

As a manufacturer we know, and can pretty accurately predict, how a standard piece of equipment will perform in any given situation.  As soon as we are asked to "change it just a little"...which normally actually means throwing out the original design and starting over...then all bets are off.  We can use the same standard of components that we would normally use with an expectation of similar performance but, in reality, we no longer know exactly what to expect.

And then there is the issue of compliance with the myriad of agency and code safety tests that all manufacturers must apply to their equipment.  Standard equipment is designed, tested, and certified to meet those standards...custom equipment is designed to the standards but is probably not tested and certified to the standards.

And finally we have the issue of maintainability.  Service technicians are trained to work on specific types of equipment.  Many types of standard equipment require licensed technicians for service.  Given the broad range of equipment types in the market today it would be extremely rare to find a service technician who could be proficient on all standard equipment....much less something he or she has never seen before.

The topic of "total cost of ownership" is starting to pop again in some publications.  It is reassuring to see that some people are starting to go back to considering something beyond the initial capital expense...but operating expenses consist of more than just energy costs...remember the cost of maintaining the mechanical system in the long run so that the money spent up front for an efficient solution does not go out the window a couple of years down the road.

News Item - US DOE Planning Building Rating System

For those who might not have seen this through their own trade associations here is an announcement of a program being planned by the US DOE. It sounds similar to programs in some European countries. There is a link to a webinar for more information about the proposed program.

The U.S. Department of Energy (the Department) is planning to develop a voluntary national Asset Rating Program for Commercial Buildings (AR Program). Through the AR Program, DOE intends to establish a building Asset Rating system that can be broadly applied to both new and existing commercial buildings, and provide affordable and reliable information to building stakeholders. The AR Program will inform building owners about the energy efficiency of their building systems, enabling comparison of the energy performance between buildings while accounting for differences in building operations and occupant behavior. The intent of the AR Program is also to help building owners identify opportunities for energy efficiency improvements.

DOE seeks the input of stakeholders and interested parties, and has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit input on key issues associated with the development of an AR Program. DOE will be hosting a webinar for interested parties on August 23, 2011, at 12 p.m. (ET) to facilitate discussion on this issue. To attend the webinar, please register here to receive further information.

What Leading Developers Are Thinking

The NAIOP is an association of commercial building developers, designers, financers, and constructors. One of the areas where NAIOP provides valuable input is in the area of future trends in building development and design. The recent NAIOP Forums meeting in Dallas offered some trends that are worth watching and considering going forward.

Although it has become almost cliche to mention, the subject of "sustainability" still rings true for top designers in the industry. In fact, the comment was made that "sustainability" is the expected norm for projects now. There was also a distinction made between "sustainability" and LEED. LEED was described as a "scorecard" and a convenient way for municipalities and states to codify better design. Sustainability was described more as a mindset or standard of performance that was broad in its application. There was also discussion of the results of joint industry/academic studies that indicate that while a "sustainable" building might not benefit from higher rent cashflows, "sustainable" buildings will lease up faster and stay leased. Finally, it was also noted that among young developers and young tenants lack of "sustainability" can be a deal breaker.

A second topic of considerable importance for the future is water. In fact, the discussion centered around water as the next oil in terms of value and importance to the growth of an economy. It was highlighted that the generation of electrical power requires and consumes vast amounts of water to cool the generators. The explosive growth of data centers that require multiple megawatts of electrical power is indirectly adding to the demand for water. Coupled with population growth and climatic shifts the availability of usable water for consumption and for generation of power the value of a reliable source of water is increasing significantly. It was suggested that this might lead to the development of higher density housing and projects as a means to reduce the energy demand caused by "urban sprawl".

So while there are still many people who are interested only in the lowest cost option for their building the leading architects, engineers, and developers are keenly aware of the need to provide energy efficient buildings with high levels of sustainable design.