2021 NEWS
For Energy Efficiency Day 2021, the ID+CL Tenant Engagement Team handed out 48 9w LED lightbulbs to employees working in French Administration and Lighty Student Services buildings on the Pullman campus to help reduce energy use in targeted departments as a part of the Energy and Comfort at WSU campaign. Each individual lightbulb was paired with information about why LEDs are more energy efficient than traditional lightbulbs (CFL, incandescent, halogen) and explained how much energy can be saved by simply switching a desk lamp that is used daily to LED.
It is expected that over the course of a calendar year, this simple switch will save WSU nearly $300 in electricity costs, compared to typical 60w incandescent light bulbs. Many of these LED bulbs went to offices where staff need specifically placed task lighting or choose to use mostly natural light and supplement ambient lighting for comfort though a desk lamp.
We were impressed and pleased by the response of this effort, and look forward to making simple energy-efficient solutions available to more tenant engagement participants as we continue to engage in the targeted buildings this semester. If you received one of these lightbulbs, please be sure to recycle the packaging, and make the switch as soon as you can.
September 10, 2021 | Lighting Design Lab hosts Hot Water Series
(posted on behalf of ID+CL partner, Lighting Design Lab of Seattle)
Seattle City Light has contracted with D&R International and Ecotope to deliver an instructor-led virtual Commercial Heat Pump Water Heating educational series starting in September, hosted by LDL, and having deliveries go through Q1 2022. We are taking registrants on the education page of the LDL website (below). https://www.lightingdesignlab.com/education
Wondered How You’re Going to Meet New Codes Re: Heat Pump Water Heaters? City Light Is Bringing In the Experts
Central heat pump water heating systems are a game-changing technology that makes it possible to meet new electrification codes for commercial and multifamily buildings while improving energy efficiency and supporting demand response. Lighting Design Lab and Seattle City Light are announcing a new education series for engineers, building owners and operators, developers, architects, and policymakers that will cover the economic, energy, and environmental benefits of these systems, how they work, and key considerations for design, installation, and operation. This virtual, instructor-led course is developed and delivered by D+R International and Ecotope with the support of the Advanced Water Heating Initiative (AWHI), a national all-of-industry collaboration working to make heat pump technology universal in water heating applications.
Note- LDL is now an AIA Continuing Education Services Provider. All our Courses are available for 1 or 2 AIA LUs (See course description for actual credits).
Armando Berdiel Chavez, M.Eng., LC
Technical Development Supervisor | LIGHTING DESIGN LAB
M: 206-475-2722 | armando.berdiel@seattle.gov
August 30, 2021 | WSU Tenant Engagement project kickoff!
After a year of preparation and program design, the WSU Tenant Engagement program has begun!
If you are an employee working in the WSU Pullman Campus French Administration, Lighty Student Services, or Smith Center for Undergraduate Education buildings, you will be seeing guidance designed specifically for you in the coming weeks. These buildings were selected as primary targets for the pilot phase of engagement due to occupancy types (mostly offices with full-time employees), occupant comfort challenges (as reported in the 2020 survey, but also from service call records), and existing building performance issues (being some of the more inefficient buildings on campus with essential services).
Starting with targeted and university-wide communications, the ID+CL is in the process of rolling out an engagement campaign to help the WSU community learn about energy efficiency, build a community of Cougs that value energy efficiency, and manage their comfort and wellbeing where they work and live. Newsletters, in-person and digital events, as well as ongoing research activities and departmental engagement activities are planned throughout the semester.
If you would like more information or become an Energy Champion for your department, please reach out to the program coordinator, Shelby Ruiz at shelby.ruiz@wsu.edu.
Selected campaign materials can be found on our website, along the left side of this screen, under WSU Tenant Engagement.
August 13, 2021 | Dr. Day serves as Co-PI on two funded DOE BENEFIT proposals:
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced nearly $83 million in funding to 44 projects that will lower Americans’ energy bills by investing in new energy-efficient building technologies, construction practices, and the U.S. buildings-sector workforce. DOE’s Building Technologies Office competitively selected these projects from its Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) funding opportunity announcement.
These projects will help fund student research assistants while aligning with the ID+CL’s mission. The two projects that are being awarded are described below:
Washington State University (Pullman, Washington) will develop a curriculum on the design and construction of high-performing, energy-efficient residential buildings. The curriculum will provide students with an interdisciplinary grounding in building science, and address skill gaps in efficient building construction identified by DOE. Julia Day, Director of the ID+CL, is a listed Co_PI on this BENEFIT funded project, specifically developing a course focusing on occupant comfort aspects of building performance.
Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts) will develop a 14-hour curriculum that teaches entry-level building operators about the operation of grid-interactive efficient buildings. The curriculum will include a hands-on building operation demonstrator that integrates building energy simulation with real-world building automation system hardware and interfaces to simulate the effects of automated systems on building energy dynamics.
WSU has received a subcontract with Northeastern University, for a large DOE grant titled “Building Operators: Grid and Occupant (BOGO) Training. Through this funding, ID+CL will develop the Building Operator: Grid-Occupant (BOGO) training modules to expand the training of entry-level building operators beyond a focus on energy efficiency and peak demand reductions, to include energy flexibility. Our overall goal is to assist building operators with effectively communicating & coordinating with appropriate industry experts.
Tasks for this project include: leading the design of the occupant centric-relevant curriculum, developing case studies to support the project and program, creating virtual walkthroughs and innovative teaching tools, providing graphic design support for the simulation environment, and lastly assisting with developing pre- and post-test evaluation materials to assess the developed curriculum to evaluate overall program success.
July 17, 2021 | WSU’s Granger Cobb Institute of Senior Living sponsors research to interview older adults in the PNW
Life and buildings have changed significantly over the last several decades. Many buildings are becoming highly sophisticated with building controls and automation. On one hand, these controls can be helpful in terms of energy savings and safety, for instance. However, on the other hand, some controls may not be intuitive or certain populations may not understand how to (or be able to) use them to maintain their comfort and preferences. In addition, older generations formerly relied on passive or adaptive comfort strategies to manage interior environments: e.g., opening windows, changing clothing, and using their physical building interfaces to improve their spaces – and some of these once intuitive and simple behaviors used to support comfort, increase well-being, and to save energy, are becoming a lost art.
This pilot study implements qualitative methods to better understand seniors’ past and present interactions with the built environment. Our approach aims to gather stories, lessons learned, habits, lifestyle changes, and more, to inform future designs of senior living developments. Our team has travelled to various senior living facilities in WA to interview seniors about their experiences with the built environment, building controls, and more: e.g., occupant well-being, health, socialization, building interfaces, lifestyles across lifetimes, adaptive comfort strategies. So far, we have gathered over 60 interview responses from both one-on-one interviews and focus groups. Our team is also working with researchers across the globe as part of the International Energy Agency’s, Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme: Annex 79 to collect stories from around the world. Exciting results are coming soon!
The Granger Cobb Institute of Senior Living is a transdisciplinary global institute for operations excellence in senior living.
June 30, 2021 | WSU TE Energy and Comfort Training is now Live on Skillsoft!
In the fall of 2020, the Integrated Design + Construction Laboratory issued a survey to the entire WSU community about comfort, energy use, and learning styles. We discovered that many participants did not understand how or when to make energy-conscious decisions to improve their comfort. Over 65% of participants indicated that an online training would help them maintain comfort and reduce energy use! Based on your feedback, our lab has developed an Energy and Comfort Training module for all WSU faculty and staff, which is now hosted on the HRS learning platform, Skillsoft. We encourage you all to take this training, which should take you about 45 minutes. Some of the examples in the training are Pullman campus-specific, however, the information provided is universally important. Please take the training at your earliest convenience.
Note: Please sign in to your WSU Skillport online learning account before clicking this link, or alternatively if you are uncomfortable clicking the link, please search for “WSU HRS training” via Google, sign in under “Log On and Learn,” and then once signed in to your WSU online learning account, please search for “Energy and Comfort training.”
During these unusual COVID times, please follow University and CDC guidelines for any additional building operation guidance. For buildings without central/forced air HVAC, recommendations for opening windows for instance, may vary depending upon local COVID prevalence, outdoor temperatures, and wildfire smoke. Please reach out to your building’s Facilities contact with any specific questions.
February 23, 2021 | The ID+CL 2020 Annual report is published!
Wow, 2020 was a bumpy ride to say the least. First and foremost, our hearts go out to all of you who have been impacted by recent global events, including COVID-19. The way in which we live has changed (and will likely still further change). Many of us currently live fairly isolated existences in our own bubbles, staying away from humans and the invisible germs that accompany them. However, at some point, we will need to enter back into the world, and back into public buildings and the homes of family and friends to seek some kind of normalcy.
Throughout 2020, we were able to work-from-home as a team and apply for several more grants, write and send out publications, virtually present at conferences, and we also received several more research grants. We were able to hire another 8 student employees, who gained research and professional experience. Overall, 2020 has been a year full of challenges, lessons learned, creativity, and resilience. We, at the ID+CL, have fortunately been able to stay on our path to pursue projects that support healthy people + healthy buildings + and a healthy planet.
Please check out our annual reports under Research, to learn more about our work and updates from this crazy year.