International. Johnson Controls and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) announced the launch of the Building Efficiency Guidance Tool for Energy Retrofit (BETTER).
The open-source tool allows building owners and managers to quickly convert readily available monthly building energy consumption data into specific recommendations for improvement. This analysis can be performed without the need for on-site audits or inspections, allowing many currently unemployed energy efficiency workers to continue planning and developing building modernization and commissioning projects.
Johnson Controls explains that it developed the central energy analysis technology over the past eight years and has used the tool to analyze modernization opportunities in more than 700 buildings. Beginning in 2016, under a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA), Berkeley Lab partnered with Johnson Controls to automate and enhance the tool's energy analysis capabilities and create an open-source version of the tool for public use.
"More than 400,000 energy efficiency workers in the United States are currently unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic because they are unable to enter buildings to conduct energy audits," said Clay Nesler, vice president of global sustainability and regulatory affairs at Johnson Controls. "This tool can help the efficiency industry begin to identify and develop projects that show the greatest opportunities for profitable savings."
"We are pleased to partner with Johnson Controls to introduce BETTER and advance the science of data-driven, remote, low-cost building energy analysis to improve the energy efficiency of buildings at speed and scale around the world," said Nan Zhou, scientist and chief of staff of the Department of International Energy Analysis in the Division of Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts at Berkeley Lab.
An earlier version of the tool has already been used to analyze a number of buildings around the world, including:
- Energy Resources Integration LLC (ERI) is analyzing and comparing nearly 450 customer sites to prioritize and streamline energy efficiency efforts and select buildings ideal for conducting detailed energy audits.
- Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia's second-largest school division, is using the tool to quantify the potential for energy and cost savings and improve efficiency goals.
- The World Resources Institute and other Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) partner organizations are providing technical assistance and training on the BETTER tool to the BEA network of 55 cities in 25 countries around the world.
- Florida Gulf Coast University is incorporating BETTER's energy analysis into its sustainability-focused Environmental and Civil Engineering curriculum, providing basic training for the next generation of cloud-based and field-based end-to-end energy workers.
- Energy General LLC of Connecticut is using MEJOR to focus on modernizing buildings in underserved communities at scale.
- There are also pilot initiatives using the City of Cambridge, MA tool and the C40 Cities Climate Leaders Group.
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