ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF AN ENERGY-SAVING DESIGN.

The new office-dormitory facility for the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research (JIHIR) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been designed with innovative features that will greatly reduce its energy consumption for heating, cooling, and lighting. The figure commonly used to assess energy use of commercial buildings is the total annual energy consumption per unit area of floor space. Typically, a highly efficient office building in the Oak Ridge area uses 120-160 kWhr/m**2. Analysis for JIHIR - which considers design utilizing natural lighting, earth-sheltering, and annual energy heat pump coefficient of performance (COP) equal to 1. 8, reflective insulating blinds, and an extendable overhang - indicates that it will use 71 kWhr/m**2. The mass storage wall and ambient air cooling will reduce energy consumption still further. The building will be instrumented to monitor its actual performance. In addition, the earth-sheltered passive solar design will be evaluated over the next few years to determine if it provides a desirable environment for the occupants.