Events

    Free Webinar: Full and Partial Electrification Strategies for Commercial Building Retrofits, Construction and Central Plants, May 29, 9:30-11:30am

  • 29 May 2024
  • Start time : 09:30 AM
  • End time : 11:30 AM
  • Event Host : Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
Free Webinar: Full and Partial Electrification Strategies for Commercial Building Retrofits, Construction and Central Plants
Event Description

Building electrification through the use of heat pumps is gaining traction as an effective means to reducing emissions from building operations. However, barriers remain to 100% adoption of this technology, especially in existing buildings where cost, space or other constraints exist, requiring creative approaches to maximize emission reductions per dollar spent. This webinar will demonstrate ways to create deep emission reductions through right-sizing heat pumps, better HVAC design, integration of thermal storage and hybrid solutions. The session will also cover how such approaches may extend the life of equipment.

In retrofits for example, replacing a boiler with a similarly sized heat pump may often be impractical and/or costly. This course will present new research that analyzed HVAC data from 200 commercial buildings revealing that standard design practices are greatly over estimating peak loads, and how this knowledge informed case studies that reduced emissions by as much as 70% through boiler retrofits, improved control strategies, and/or hybrid systems. Speakers will also present a method for quickly screening to identify candidate buildings for retrofit.

For new construction, this webinar will present a case study that integrated thermal storage to fully electrify a higher education building, downsizing the heat pump while meeting a stringent design-build budget. This approach also offers improved flexibility and building whole-life responsiveness to meet the changing demands and emission profiles of the future grid. Finally, the course will present case studies of central plant electrification projects in California that led to impressive emission reductions.

The objective of this course is that at the conclusion, participants will be able to:

- Describe the benefits from right-sizing heat pumps in commercial buildings
- Give examples of challenges or alternatives to full adoption of heat pumps in commercial buildings
- Show familiarity with a screening tool to identify candidate buildings for electrification
- Cite one or two case studies that made deep emission reductions using thermal storage or boiler retrofits

  • Host Company/Organization Name
    • Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
  • Agenda
    • - Introduction and safety message
      - Overview of today's agenda and speaker introductions
      - Presentations each followed by brief Q&A, time permitted (sequence may vary)
      - Paul Raftery, UC Berkeley
      - Stet Sanborn, SmithGroup
      - Megan (Gunther) Hardman, AEI
      - Panel discussion and general G&A
  • Speakers / Presenters
    • - Megan (Gunther) Hardman, PE, Principal at Affiliated Engineers, Inc.

      A vital and dynamic firm leader, Megan Hardman was instrumental in establishing the AEI San Francisco Building Performance Practice and extending this core service to the West Coast. As a principal and department facilitator, Megan collaborates and inspires passion within her team to guide and assist clients in achieving holistic, tangible goals around carbon reduction, energy, water, and cost savings.

      - Paul Raftery, PhD, Professional Researcher, Center for the Built Environment, UC Berkeley

      Paul Raftery is focused on improving building energy efficiency by investigating advanced integrated HVAC systems. He holds a PhD in Engineering for developing a new method for calibrating building energy models to detailed measured data. He has over a decade of hands-on experience in HVAC engineering, building automation systems and controls, fault detection and diagnosis, full-scale laboratory experiments, new technology development, measurement and verification of technology demonstrations, machine learning and software development.

      - Stet Sanborn, AIA, CPHC, LEED AP, Vice President, Mechanical Engineering Discipline Leader, SmithGroup

      Stet is the Engineering Discipline Leader for SmithGroup’s San Francisco office, as well as the co-leader of SmithGroup’s national Performance, Analytics, and Climate-impact Team (PACT). He is a national leader in decarbonization efforts and has served for the last three years on ASHRAE’s Taskforce for Building Decarbonization Executive Committee, which oversees ASHRAE’s development of decarbonization design guides, changes to codes and standards, and educational outreach.
  • Cost
    • FREE Event
  • Event type
    • Online/Webinar

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