City of Atlanta: Technology Square Research Building

Background

Built in 2002, the Technology Square Research Building (TSRB) is a 5-floor, 400-occupant mixed use facility containing office, retail, research, data center, and conference space. The building sits on the campus of Georgia Tech Research Institute and is owned by The University Financing Foundation, Inc. (“TUFF”) and operated by Gateway Facility Services, LLC. It is occupied by Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and College of Computing.

TSRB was originally built by TUFF as part of the revitalization of the Technology Square neighborhood. At the time, Georgia Tech was looking to expand their footprint and the mostly vacant underdeveloped area across the highway held potential to connect the campus with the City of Atlanta. Georgia Tech partnered with TUFF to develop TSRB as part of 1.3 million sq. ft. of academic, office, research space, restaurants and retail with the plans to attract private sector development. The project has been extremely successful in creating a community of large companies, start-ups, students and researchers.

In 2011, TSRB became one of the initial participants in the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge (ABBC) when the program launched. The building, already undergoing a series of retrofits, benefited from a free building assessment complimentary of the ABBC.

Solutions

The ABBC building assessment identified additional energy and water efficiency solutions on top of the previously scheduled retrofits – the majority of which were operational, controls and sensor changes. The building team implemented a continuous commissioning program in June 2011, to maintain optimum performance of the HVAC system. TSRB reduced it's annual energy cost by 23.5% and water costs by 8.5% compared to baseline years, saving more than $123,000.

The complete list of upgrades is detailed below.

Instituted global temperature set points and increased the “dead band” - the range of temperatures in which no heating or cooling is required
Enhanced electrical metering of HVAC loads. Real time monitoring of water and electrical use via dashboard - $25,000
Installed VFD’s on outside air makeup fans. Calibrated ventilation to ASHRAE 62.1 ventilation rate procedure including all building exhaust. Installed demand control ventilation on first floor (CO2 monitoring) - $15,000
Installed line reactor capacitors on all induction motors (above 5 horsepower) for power factor correction - $125,000
Added controls in MDF Rooms - $40,000
Upgraded HVAC controls from scheduled start to optimal start
Implemented supply air temperature reset
Replaced halogen lights with LED lighting
Installed LED exterior lighting - $9,000
Installed Tridium building automation system - $44,000
Installed numerous sub-metering points – more in progress
Installed condensate recovery systems for water reuse
Increased cycles of concentration in cooling tower loop
Enhanced water metering - $10,000
Programmed reset on cooling tower supply temp, air handler supply temp and duct static - $5,000

TSRB also hosted and participated in Pacific Northwest National Lab’s Commercial Building Re-tuning Training, sponsored by the Department of Energy. This program utilizes a train-the-trainer approach to teach energy managers and facility operators low-cost strategies to identify and correct building operational problems that lead to energy waste. TSRB staff utilizes the strategies from the training to continuously improve the building’s performance.

*Energy project costs: $251,000; Water project costs: $29,000

ANNUAL ENERGY USE

(Source EUI)

ANNUAL ENERGY COST

ANNUAL WATER USE

ANNUAL WATER COST

ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY USE

ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY COST

IN BUILDING ENERGY USE

IN BUILDING ENERGY COST

ACROSS NETWORK USE

ACROSS NETWORK COST

ANNUAL EMISSIONS

USE

COST

TSRB Exterior

Condensate recovery returned to cooling tower

TSRB Courtyard

City of Atlanta: Technology Square Research Building

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TSRB Exterior

Condensate recovery returned to cooling tower

TSRB Courtyard