April/May 2009
High Performance Building
C O N T E N T S
Homes: Greening the MLS, By Glen Girard, USGBC CO Communications Chair
Project Highlight: Housing Resources Office Building Achieves LEED Certification- First Existing Building to Achieve Certification in Grand Junction, By Elaine Matthews, Ryan, Sawyer & Associates
REGREEN: Workshop October 28-29, taught by Annette Stelmack and Pete Yost
Membership: Recap of Our 2010 Annual Membership Event, By Barb Josey, USGBC CO Membership Chair
Colorado Building Green is the official newsletter of the U.S. Green Building Council – Colorado Chapter, and is published bi-monthly. If you are interested in submiting a story, ideas or other information for publication, please contact the editor at sarah@usgbccolorado.org
Achieving Green Building Goals By Establishing "High Performance Buildings for Life"
By Scott Korth, LEED AP, Trane Denver
Thanks to the availability of new technologies, we now have a distinct opportunity to change the paradigms we use to operate and maintain buildings to enhance the comfort and the productivity of its occupants – as well as ensure the continued achievement of our original green building goals.
“High Performance Buildings™” are green buildings and facilities built for sustainability and energy efficiency. But a high performance building can only retain that designation if its long-term operational and maintenance program sustain the high levels of performance originally designed into the facility.
Unfortunately, traditional approaches to building systems maintenance aren’t enough.
Pros & Cons of Traditional Approaches to Maintenance
Traditional maintenance programs feature the use of defined service tasks and a calendar or hour meters to determine frequency of service. A disconnect exists, however, between system performance as compared to original design and the frequency and diligence of maintenance. It’s because maintenance program “compliance” has been tied to whether or not tasks have been performed at certain times rather than how a system is actually operating in terms of efficiency, capacity and performance.
New technology allows us to set standards that require systems and components to deliver and sustain “Original Design Performance” (ODP). Performance-based maintenance is service undertaken to sustain ODP at all times. Compliance is tied to how closely the design conditions for efficiency, capacity and other requirements are met.
Categorically, there are three approaches to maintenance:
- “Deferred Maintenance” also known as “Reactive Maintenance” which in simpler terms refers to the absence of a maintenance program.
- Pro: Proponents say that by spending nothing on preventive maintenance and having adequate system redundancy, then repairs can be made on the fly with less staff and little noticeable degradation of performance.
- Con: This short-sighted approach can be maintained only for a fraction of the expected life of the system. Generally, efficiency and performance degrade quickly, equipment life is shorter, and the cost of making repairs at or near failure is far higher than when repairs are made prior to an “event.”