Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This report summarizes the technical tasks and key findings of the integrated design for high performance buildings, a project funded under the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency. Main outcomes include: (1) Integrated design, operations and occupant behavior during the building life cycle is the key to high performance and low energy buildings. Technologies alone do not guarantee low energy buildings. Best practice of operations and energy friendly occupant behavior play a significant role in energy performance of buildings. The integrated design workshop and case studies directly support the design and operations of five demonstration buildings in China. (2) The simulation framework improves the way we evaluate technologies andbuilding performance by considering various uncertainties and investment risks. Itcan be adopted in the building code and standards development, code compliancecalculations, and performance ratings. It provides a clear pathway to understandand assess the gap between expected performance during design and actualperformance during operations. (3) Data and information exchange across various disciplines of building design and operations are crucial to improve knowledge sharing and timely decision making. The preliminary research of the information exchange feeds into the development of results schema of EnergyPlus.