SBC staff, Author at Smart Buildings Center

Job Opportunities: City of Bellevue Community Development Department

February 14, 2023 By SBC staff

The City of Bellevue is hiring for five new sustainability positions! This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing sustainability team and help shape the future of Bellevue’s climate and sustainability work. The team is part of the city’s Community Development Department, which has a great group of passionate staff working on long-range planning, neighborhood engagement, arts, economic development, and sustainability. The Bellevue City Council has recently increased the budget for the Environmental Stewardship Initiative, Bellevue’s sustainability program, to help accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Bellevue Plan through an expanded team and new initiatives.

The City is hiring for the following positions and applications are due February 27th:

SBC Welcomes New Partner: BrainBox AI!

January 31, 2023 By SBC staff

The Smart Buildings Center is excited to welcome BrainBox AI as a new Smart Buildings Center Education Program Partner!

Founded in 2017, BrainBox AI was created to address the dilemma currently facing the built environment, its energy consumption and significant contribution to climate change. As innovators of the global energy transition, BrainBox AI’s game-changing HVAC technology leverages AI to make buildings smarter, greener, and more efficient. Working together with trusted global partners, BrainBox AI supports real estate clients in various sectors, including office buildings, hotels, commercial retail, grocery stores, airports, and more.

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, a global AI hub, BrainBox AI’s workforce brings with them talent from all sectors with the common thread of being in business to heal our planet. BrainBox AI works in collaboration with research partners including the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO) as well as educational institutions including Montreal’s Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) and McGill University. For more information visit: www.brainboxai.com.

A Closer Look at the Non-Energy Benefits of Very High Efficiency Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems

January 31, 2023 By SBC staff

This resource is brought to you by BetterBricks

Very high efficiency dedicated outdoor air systems (very high efficiency DOAS) are a proven solution for reducing energy consumption as they optimize the control and functionality of ventilation and thermal comfort independently. This very high efficiency approach is comprised of four key elements: high efficiency heat/energy recovery ventilator (HRV/ERV), a high-performance electric heat pump system that meets or exceeds current ENERGY STAR® minimum efficiency requirements, fully decoupled ventilation from the heating and cooling equipment, and a right-sized heating and cooling system.

Addressing the heating and cooling needs of a building, and applying best practices in design on a project-by-project basis, enables maximum performance and substantial energy savings. But did you know there are non-energy benefits of applying this approach to HVAC in commercial buildings that are also important?

Continue reading here

AESP Seeking Input on Flexible Demand Management Workforce Training

January 18, 2023 By SBC staff

The Smart Buildings Center has partnered with the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) on an exciting project that will change the future of energy workforce development, and we are looking for your input.

AESP is developing free, online, flexible demand management workforce training and needs your feedback on the proposed course outline.

To give feedback, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BENEFIT-NEEC

The initial course content plan addresses critical gaps in flexible demand management workforce education. Whether you are new to the field or have years of experience, you stand to benefit; this is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to rapidly upskill our entire community in demand management. To get it right, we need to know if the proposed course curriculum meets YOUR specific needs.

Please take a few minutes to provide your input by Monday, January 30^th, 2023.

A Proven Approach to High-Performance HVAC Improves Efficiency, Health & Comfort

January 18, 2023 By SBC staff

This resource is brought to you by BetterBricks

Very high efficiency dedicated outside air systems (very high efficiency DOAS) pair the highest performance HVAC equipment with key design principles to provide cleaner and safer indoor air, enhance indoor comfort, and reduce commercial building HVAC energy use. This approach has been demonstrated to reduce HVAC energy use by an average of 69% when compared to a code-minimum version of the existing equipment (often a packaged rooftop unit).

Very high efficiency DOAS consists of the following key elements:

A high efficiency HRV/ERV that features 82% or greater sensible effectiveness.
High-performance heating and cooling system that meets ENERGY STAR® performance standards.
Ventilation fully separated from heating and cooling.
Right-sized heating and cooling equipment.

To learn more about very high efficiency DOAS, including through case studies, research, and technical guides, visit: https://betterbricks.com/solutions/very-high-efficiency-doas

Webinar: Submetering in Municipal & Higher Education Buildings

January 10, 2023 By SBC staff

February 2, 2023
1:00-2:30pm PST
Register

Many building operations professionals across Washington state are busy developing strategies for meeting compliance with the Clean Buildings Performance Standard (CBPS). Municipal and higher education buildings are two sectors that often share a unique challenge: calculating energy use intensity (EUI) in separate buildings that are metered together as part of a campus.

In partnership with Puget Sound Energy, the Smart Buildings Center brings you an engaging information session and panel discussion exploring the challenges and potential solutions in submetering as required when taking the EUI target (EUIt) path to compliance with CBPS. In this webinar, we’ll briefly discuss the EUIt path requirements and a technical overview of the submetering options available to meet compliance. O&M professionals in the field will share their on-the-ground experience with overcoming challenges and their strategies for moving forward to achieve compliance. Attendees will come away with practical resources for implementing submetering in their own facilities and will learn how utility incentive programs such as Strategic Energy Management (SEM) can help with implementing energy efficiency programs to help streamline the compliance process.

Register in advance for this webinar

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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