FirstView for Multifamily Buildings
Online Tool / May 27, 2014 / Building Innovation
Multifamily buildings offer a largely untapped opportunity for improving energy efficiency. Despite tremendous potential for savings, the multifamily market is hard to penetrate due to complexities in market structure and split incentives. More and more attention is being paid to overcoming these barriers. With support from the MacArthur Foundation, NBI is working with industry partners to accelerate best practices into utility program design and implementation and to make connections between owners, tenants, funders, utilities and energy efficiency experts.
Figure: Affordable Multifamily Housing Building (single line) Comparison to Peers (solid band)
A new version of FirstView for multifamily buildings is now complete and in the hands of key utility partners and other organizations. FirstView for Multifamily, which has specific applicability to affordable housing is a result of support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and is unique in its field for several reasons. Unlike expensive energy audits or traditional computer modeling, NBI’s FirstView enables utility program managers, building owners, energy efficiency professionals and designers to extract high-level diagnostics and energy performance information from basic data inputs. The data needed for FirstView is simply monthly electric and gas use information and a few building characteristics. It is deliberately the same information used to get a score through Energy Star Portfolio Manager and includes an automated upload of Portfolio Manager data so parties can easily move from “how is my building doing” (the Energy Star score) to “how could it be better” (the FirstView diagnostics).
Actual building performance data from affordable multifamily buildings around the nation is used to establish comparison indices, spectrums, and benchmarks. FirstView for Multifamily can be used to benchmark a building’s energy use, see the energy by end use, compare performance to peer buildings, and help prioritize retrofit opportunities.The diagram to the right reveals that during higher outside temperatures the building energy use is comparatively low but during the colder periods it is in the upper quartile of energy use compared to other like buildings. FirstView for Multifamily then creates diagnostic ‘flags’ that detail areas to pursue for improvement.
Additional Resources
Two new reports from Energy Efficiency for All illustrate energy savings opportunities and program designs for affordable housing. Learn more