PNNL

Abstract

The Facility Energy Decision System (FEDS) is a building energy modeling tool developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. It is adept at modeling multiple buildings at once while measuring the interactive effects of all building systems, including total energy consumption, peak demand, and life-cycle costs. These data are used by the model to suggest appropriate retrofits for a site. Additionally, the results can be utilized to simulate metered data or estimate site-specific project savings that otherwise are not addressed by FEDS. The results helped one site to realistically allocate fuel consumption charges to tenants, since there were no meters to rely on. To help verify energy savings of a retrofit project at another site with a completed FEDS analysis, the FEDS results provided a baseline energy use for the current building configuration, and then a modified version of the original model provided the post-retrofit energy consumption. Ideally, meters would be in place to help solve these issues, but using FEDS is a valid option when metering equipment is not available or practical.