However, the design community as a whole appears to be awakening to the reality that simple, occupant- and resource-friendly building elements can be entirely compatible and even synergistic with the application of more advanced technologies in comfort system elements. It is also becoming apparent that the application of advanced technologies has the capacity to significantly improve the sustainability of building projects. As a result of this progress, it is now becoming essential that designers consider advanced technologies in their green building comfort system designs.
Figure 1 shows a comparison between cooling system electric energy usage for an office building in the Southwestern U.S. when an optimized conventional system (green bars) is reconfigured to a network-based system of the same first cost (blue bars). It is important to note that the comparative (percentage) reductions shown in Figure 1 remain essentially the same as the building envelope and other aspects of the building are designed for improved efficiency. This means that the electric energy budget for cooling in many buildings can be expected to be cut about in half when the conventionally optimized cooling system is reconfigured for network controls. And these savings can be achieved without increasing the cost of the system.