Building Energy Engineer · San Diego, CA

James Bell-Torres

Energy and sustainability subject matter expert focused on finding practical energy and water waste in commercial, campus, and lab buildings.

About James Explore Knowledge
James Bell-Torres

About

James Bell-Torres likes reducing energy and water waste while making building systems easier to understand. His work centers on finding misbehaving building systems, quantifying the waste, and turning those findings into practical projects.

His experience includes utility incentive program research and design, demand response and customer-side load management program development, and commercial energy saving products and services.

For client campuses, his work has included corporate zero emissions roadmap creation, integrated facility management stakeholder engagement, existing building commissioning strategy, and energy hurdles across cafes, R&D labs, chemistry labs, GMP facilities, and offices.

HVAC/BAS ASHRAE Audits Lab Buildings CxPlots JLL
James Bell-Torres troubleshooting a rooftop solar photovoltaic array
Troubleshooting a photovoltaic ground fault
Existing Building Commissioning cohort on a commercial rooftop
Existing Building Commissioning cohort
James Bell-Torres taking a field measurement with a sling hygrometer
Field measurement with a sling hygrometer
Over a decade working on commercial and lab buildings, I've developed a structured approach to finding energy waste. Here's what I've learned.

Knowledge

Why buildings matter

Buildings give us comfortable places to gather when it is hot or cold outside. They also provide space to conduct science, build technology, and provide entertainment. To do that, they consume electricity, natural gas, and water to keep people safe, comfortable, and productive.

The building industry is good at providing fresh air, comfort, and keeping processes going. When diligence slips, though, a lot of energy waste can hide in plain sight.

40%

U.S. energy consumed by buildings

39.4 qBTU

Annual U.S. building energy consumption

90%

Average lifetime spent inside buildings

Diagram showing resources entering a building and useful output, emissions, and waste leaving it
Energy-efficient light bulb
Lighting efficiency
Building electrical equipment and controls
Equipment and controls
Water flowing from a faucet
Water efficiency
Currency representing building operating costs
Operating cost

Exact numeric end-use percentages for HVAC, lighting, and plug loads were not available in the selected source files.

Sustainability Strategy

Guide to reducing energy and saving the world

  1. Obtain leadership (and stakeholder) buy-in and commitment
  2. Benchmark buildings
  3. Establish KPIs and set goals
  4. Create action plan
  5. Implement
  6. Evaluate progress at specified intervals
  7. Re-assess performance and adjust action plan accordingly
Strategic energy management process from energy policy through planning, action, monitoring, and improved performance

Energy Conservation Measures

A simple approach to finding opportunities: turn equipment off when it is not needed, reduce excess demand, optimize controls, and repair failed systems.

1 · Turn it off

The cheapest kWh is the one never used. Pieces of equipment have a funny way to staying on when they don't have to be. Particular items to stay on the lookout for include equipment schedules, optimal start/stop sequencing, and lockouts.

The cheapest kWh is the one never used. Pieces of equipment have a funny way to staying on when they don't have to be. Particular items to stay on the lookout for:

  • AHU, EF, and Boiler schedules
  • Optimal Start/Stop sequencing
  • Boiler and Chiller lockouts
  • Lighting schedules
2 · Turn it down

Often times we find that we are using too much of a resource than needed. Opportunities include pressure and temperature resets, lab setbacks, and exhaust fan stack velocity reductions.

Often times we find that we are using too much of a resource than needed. In particular:

  • AHU duct static pressure and temperature resets
  • Pump differential pressure resets
  • Heating hot water temperature resets
  • Chilled water temperature resets
  • Condenser water resets
  • Night airflow and temperature setbacks: Fumehoods, Bio saftey cabnets, and unoccupied labs
  • Exhaust fan stack velocity reduction based on wind speed and direction
3 · Optimize it

Controls are smart in today's industry. We can leverage that with automation through trim-and-respond resets, wider deadbands, airflow reductions, economizer tuning, and demand control ventilation.

Controls are smart in today's industry. We can leverage that with automation. Many ways we can do this are:

  • Changing OAT based resets to Trim & Respond based resets where applicable
  • Tune AHU, EF, hot water, and other resets
  • Widen temperature deadbands
  • Minimum VAV airflow setpoint reductions
  • Tune economizer and minimum OA damper schedule control
  • Implement demand control ventilation
  • Building envelope sealing
4 · Repair it

Things are forgotten about or run to failure. A large opportunity, but often timely and costly, is to repair large equipment, VAV boxes, and zone-level controls.

Thing are forgotten about or ran to failure. A large opportunity, but often timely and costly is to repair it.

  • Repair large equipment e.g., AHUs, EFs, Boilers, Chillers
  • Zone level e.g., VAV boxes and controls
Turn it off energy conservation opportunities
Turn it down energy conservation opportunities
Optimize building controls opportunities
Optimize building systems opportunities

Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Quantification

Quantification turns a good building observation into an actionable decision. Browse the original equation sequences by building system and calculation type.

Basics · Building Blocks
Energy equation, step 1
Energy · Step 1
Energy equation, step 2
Energy · Step 2
Energy equation, step 3
Energy · Step 3
Energy cost equation, step 1
Cost · Step 1
Energy cost equation, step 2
Cost · Step 2
Energy cost equation, step 3
Cost · Step 3
Energy savings equation, step 1
Savings · Step 1
Energy savings equation, step 2
Savings · Step 2
Energy savings equation, step 3
Savings · Step 3
Efficiency equation definition
Efficiency · Definition
Efficiency equation, step 1
Efficiency · Step 1
Efficiency equation, step 2
Efficiency · Step 2
Efficiency equation, step 3
Efficiency · Step 3
1 of 13
Basics · Heat
Sensible heat equation, step 1
Sensible Heat (Air) · Step 1
Sensible heat equation, step 2
Sensible Heat (Air) · Step 2
Total air heat equation, step 1
Total Heat (Air) · Step 1
Total air heat equation, step 2
Total Heat (Air) · Step 2
Total water heat equation, step 1
Total Heat (Water) · Step 1
Total water heat equation, step 2
Total Heat (Water) · Step 2
1 of 6
Basics · Power
Simple power equation, step 1
Simple Power · Step 1
Simple power equation, step 2
Simple Power · Step 2
Simple power equation, step 3
Simple Power · Step 3
Single-phase power equation, step 1
Single Phase · Step 1
Single-phase power equation, step 2
Single Phase · Step 2
Single-phase power equation, step 3
Single Phase · Step 3
Single-phase power equation, step 4
Single Phase · Step 4
Three-phase power equation, step 1
Three Phase · Step 1
Three-phase power equation, step 2
Three Phase · Step 2
Three-phase power equation, step 3
Three Phase · Step 3
Three-phase power equation, step 4
Three Phase · Step 4
1 of 11
Motors
Motor energy equation, step 1
Motor Equation · Step 1
Motor energy equation, step 2
Motor Equation · Step 2
1 of 2
Boilers
Boiler energy equation, step 1
Boiler Equation · Step 1
Boiler energy equation, step 2
Boiler Equation · Step 2
1 of 2
Chillers · Coefficient of Performance
Chiller coefficient of performance equation, step 1
COP Equation · Step 1
Chiller coefficient of performance equation, step 2
COP Equation · Step 2
Chiller coefficient of performance equation, step 3
COP Equation · Step 3
1 of 3
Water · Leak Waste
Water leak waste equation, step 1
Leak Waste · Step 1
Water leak waste equation, step 2
Leak Waste · Step 2
1 of 2
AHU · Coil Leak-by and Mixed Air
AHU coil leak-by equation, step 1
Coil Leak-by · Step 1
AHU coil leak-by equation, step 2
Coil Leak-by · Step 2
AHU coil leak-by equation, step 3
Coil Leak-by · Step 3
AHU heating and cooling coil leak-by diagram
Coil Leak-by · Diagram
AHU mixed-air equation, step 1
Mixed Air · Step 1
AHU mixed-air equation, step 2
Mixed Air · Step 2
1 of 6
Whole Building · Comprehensive HVAC
Comprehensive HVAC equation, step 1
Energy Consumption & Savings · Step 1
Comprehensive HVAC equation, step 2
Energy Consumption & Savings · Step 2
HVAC energy flow through heating, cooling, and fan systems
Comprehensive HVAC · Diagram
1 of 3

Tools

Energy savings calculator

Assumes 250 operating days/year

24,000

annual kWh saved

$5,280

estimated dollars saved per year

9

metric tons CO2 avoided

Equation reference

Review the energy, heat, power, equipment, water, AHU, and HVAC equations preserved from the original site.

Open Quantification

CxPlots

Explore CxPlots for commissioning and building data visualization workflows.

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Contact

For building energy, commissioning, and controls work, use the links below.

jamesbuildingenergytools@gmail.com TODO: Add James Bell-Torres LinkedIn URL CxPlots