This chapter is about the return on investment of efficiency technology. Conventional wisdom asserts that you will get diminishing returns so you'd have to put in more and more money for smaller and smaller gains.
Some notable experts that are cited and who I'd like to look up later: building efficiency expert Joseph Romm, Senior mechanical engineer Eng Lock Lee.
With whole-system engineering, it is possible to make big gains at a lower cost.
The two main ways to make this happen are:
Integrating Design to Capture Multiple Benefits
Optimizing components in isolation tends to pessimize the whole system.
example: Interface - American carpet making company, engineer Jan Schilham, cut pumping power to 7 horsepower from 92 horsepower and also reducing capital costs by using bigger pipes with better layouts and smaller pumps.
Piggyback Onto Renovations Already Planned
example: 200,000 square foot all-glass-and-no-windows curtainwall office tower needed windows replaced, and air conditioning systems also needed renovation. Installed superwindows, deep daylighting (?), and efficient lights reduced cooling load by 85%. Cheaper to install and also cheaper to maintain because energy bill was 75% smaller.
The authors then talk about looking downstream and upstream of a process to find ways to optimize. "downstream savings merit the greatest emphasis," since savings compound upstream. It's also important to do things in the right order. "For example, if you're going to retrofit your lights and your air conditioner, do the lights first so you can make the air conditioner smaller" (p122)
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