Zero Net Energy Building Controls. Characteristics, Energy Impacts & Lessons

This study, conducted by the New Buildings Institute (NBI) and commissioned by the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), focuses on three areas from the designer and user experience:
The design, selection and the system,
The energy impact and,
The use and user experience, with the objective to characterise monitoring and control systems in Zero Net Energy (ZNE) buildings.
The document details how existing and emerging building monitoring and control technologies are helping designers, owners, operators and occupants achieve and maintain zero net energy (ZNE) performance.
The study was conducted through interviews with design teams for 23 ZNE office and institutional-type buildings located in North America, operators at six of those buildings, and 130 occupant surveys from seven of those buildings.
Some of the key findings include:
there is an increased need for the controls contractor and the building operator to be more actively engaged with the design early, during commissioning and after occupancy;
the buildings studied use 50% less energy than most new buildings and over 75% less than the average existing buildings; renewables make up for the small balance of energy needs;
energy savings attributed to HVAC, lighting and plugs was greater than 15% for each, so the success of the control of these systems means the success of the energy goals;
74% of the buildings rely on the occupant for some part of the controls success.