FirstView and USGBC Building Performance

Case Study / May 18, 2012 / Building Innovation

NBI's FirstView™ software and services have been used on over 200 LEED buildings involved in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Building Performance Partnership (BPP). BPP is a voluntary program designed to improve the performance of green buildings by providing a platform for tracking, benchmarking and analyzing building performance data.

NBI’s FirstView™ software and services have been used on over 200 LEED buildings involved in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Building Performance Partnership (BPP). BPP is a voluntary program designed to improve the performance of green buildings by providing a platform for tracking, benchmarking and analyzing building performance data. USGBC’s Building Performance Partnership used the FirstView tool’s calculation engine to analyze energy use patterns and predict end-use breakdown. Owners and design teams were able to use the energy signatures and FirstView tool analysis to better understand how energy is being used in the buildings. This perspective permits an effective first view that can direct attention to areas that may warrant further investigation.USGBC Energy Signature by End Use

In addition to revealing an approximate distribution of energy end-use breakdown, the FirstView software and services allow for a variety of comparisons. Annual data can be compared to that from the prior year to reveal energy-use patterns.  In one project, performance improvements due to HVAC equipment optimization and rezoning were easily observable.

The FirstView tool also allows for the comparisons to performance characteristics of other comparable LEED buildings.  As a service NBI aggregates anonymous data into a group of buildings that NBI refers to as the ‘LEED BPP spectrum.’   When co-plotted with the individual building’s unique energy signature, one gains an intuitive understanding of how it compares to other LEED buildings.

NBI, USGBC and the BPP participants continue to grow the BPP infrastructure and data sets to allow for ease of comparison between buildings. As data sets grow, they can be aggregated to highlight for even more specific comparisons.   For example, spectrums could be organized by location, building size, occupancy, LEED rating system and certification level.   The data sets will also contribute to the development of high performance building benchmarks.

Learn more at www.usgbc.org/bpp

See a sample report at www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=8978