The Infosys campus in Bangalore is constantly monitored for performance metrics

Building Performance Metrics

and Definitions – an Overview
By Swapnil Joshi Principal Consultant, Smart Spaces Centre of Excellence, Infosys Ltd., Pune

Introduction This article aims to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) representing
The drive towards sustainable, low-energy buildings has increased the major and consistent variables affecting building energy use. The top-down
necessity for easy, yet accurate methods to gauge whether the building approach to performance analysis begins with the whole-building annual
meets minimum standards for energy performance and human comfort. A key benchmarks. This is drilled down to the system level and then to granular
barrier to widespread adoption of sustainable design is the lack of availability details around component performance that make up for the system. In a
of actual, measured performance information for sustainably designed and building, the ‘system’ refers to an aggregate total of all usage, electric or
operated buildings. fuel, by a category of kit. Frequently used categories are HVAC, lighting and
Building energy performance assessment is crucial to ascertain the efficiency of plug loads, with additional categories depending on the level of details of
energy use in buildings and is the basis for making decisions for enhancing energy measurements. This article reviews building energy performance evaluation
efficiency. To assess the energy performance of existing buildings quantitatively, metrics at the whole-building, system, and individual equipment or component
the energy use of the assessed buildings should be quantified first. The quantified levels. The KPIs are not comprehensive and identify the necessity for more
energy use will be then used to compare with available assessment criteria, comprehensive system-level energy performance indicators, but nevertheless,
standards or benchmarks to determine the energy performance quantitatively. function as good starting points.

About the Author PerformanceBenchmarkingand

ComponentLevelKPIs
Swapnil Joshi holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and a post graduate Diagnostics
diploma in business management, with over 17 years of experience in leadership roles.
He is also a Fellow and an alumnus of the Chevening Gurukul program in Leadership SystemLevelKPIs
and Excellence at the University of Oxford. He is a Principal Consultant at the Smart Measurementand
Spaces Centre of Excellence, ENCAS-IOT at Infosys and leads the Smart Buildings Verification
BuildingLevelKPIs
Practice. He specialises in automation, IOT for buildings and application engineering
for HVAC and building controls. He leads various aspects of building sustainability,
and has been the Program Manager for the LEED certification program at Infosys, to Compliance
deliver the world’s largest existing building LEED Platinum portfolio in the world. Prior
to joining Infosys he was the DGM for Strategic Operations Sales and Technology at
the Centre of Excellence, Johnson Controls India. He also played a role in the design
of Bharati, the New Indian Research Station at Antarctica, where he designed smart
building controls for the station. Figure 1: Building performance metrics

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 Building Performance Metrics and Definitions – an Overview

Table 1: Whole building performance metrics

Performance Metric Acronym Definition Units Indicator

Total Energy Use – Total energy use of a building/s kWh Quantitative

Total energy use of a building/s for its lifecycle. (The value of this metric is incremental
Building Lifecycle Energy Use – kWh Quantitative
in nature).

Energy use intensity is the total energy use in a building divided by the total area. This is
Energy Use Intensity EUI kWh/m2 Quantitative
a normalised value.

This is a building energy indicator and is defined as the number of electrical units consumed
Energy Performance Index /
EPI/BEI by 1 m2 of space per year. The EPI considers energy used by building services for occupant kWh/(m2*yr) Quantitative
Building Efficiency Index
comfort, and based on a prevalent climate condition.

Electrical Load Factor LF, ELF The average electrical load divided by the peak load for a specified period. Dimensionless Quantitative

Score on a 1-100 scale that compares the building with similar buildings across a nation/
Energy Star Score – Dimensionless Rating Score
geography and grouped by similar nature of business.

A rating score indicating the likelihood of the building to be net zero. The smaller the score,
the closer the building is to being net zero. The zero energy performance index (zEPI) is
Zero Energy Performance Index zEPI Index the ratio of energy performance of the rated building to the average energy consumption Dimensionless Rating Score
of a similar building at the turn of the millennium that is operated in a similar climate, for
similar hours with and similar operating conditions.

A score that indicates the readiness of a building to adapt to operations to suit the needs of
occupants as well as optimize energy for energy efficiency and energy use flexibility. More
Smart Readiness Indicator SRI Dimensionless Rating Score
specifically, it provides information on the technological readiness of buildings to interact
with their occupants and the grid.

Provides details and an assessment of how the occupant’s usage impacts the building.
Occupant Usage and Stability – Used as a check for other indicators and a way to assess the magnitude of occupant usage Dimensionless Qualitative
compared to benchmarks. Also indicates occupancy patterns over a period.

Whole Building Performance An aggregated performance indicator considering lighting, thermal comfort, maintenance,
– Dimensionless Rating Score
Indicator and indoor air quality.

LEED/GRIHA/WELL/IGBC/GEM
– Rating systems for design, construction, operation and maintenance, wellness of buildings. Dimensionless Certification
Certification

Table 2: System level performance indicators

Performance Metric Acronym Definition Units Indicator Scope

Lighting power density (LPD) is defined as watts of lighting per square meter of floor area.
Lighting Power Density LPD It is a simple screening measure that indicates whether a space offers opportunities for W/m2 Quantitative Lighting
energy savings.

Daylight Effectiveness A metric that reflects monthly lighting energy use density considering daylit hours.
DEI – Quantitative Lighting
Indicator Determines if the daylight design or daylight controls are effective.

Total System A ratio of the sum of a building’s annual heating and cooling load in thousands of kWh divided
TSPR kWh/$ Quantitative HVAC
Performance Ratio by the sum of the annual cost of energy consumed by the building HVAC systems.

HVAC Operational
– A metric reflecting the HVAC operation effectiveness under varying weather conditions. – Qualitative HVAC
Consistency Indicator

The ratio of real total systems loads to the total system energy consumption to meet the
Load Energy Ratio LER loads. It is the ratio of total energy (kWh) used divided by the possible total energy used kW/ton Quantitative HVAC
within a specified period, if used at the peak demand (kW) during the entire period.

HVAC Energy Efficiency η(HVAC) The ratio of total HVAC demand (ideal case) to the total HVAC actual energy use. – Quantitative HVAC
Plug-load Off-hours The ratio of plug-load energy consumption during off-hours divided by the total plug-load
–  – Quantitative Plug- load
Ratio consumption.

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 Table 3: Component level performance indicators

Performance Metric Acronym Definition Units Indicator Scope

Cooling: The ratio of the rate of heat removal to the rate of energy input of a complete
Coefficient of refrigerating system.
COP – Quantitative HVAC
Performance Heating: The ratio of the rate of heat delivered to the rate of energy input of a complete
heat pump system.

The ratio of the cooling capacity in BTU to the power input in watts, measured in a constant
condition (EER is normally calculated with a 95°F outside temperature and an inside BTU/
Energy Efficiency Ratio EER Quantitative HVAC
(return air) temperature of 80°F and 50% relative humidity) without considering seasonal h/W
temperature changes.

The ratio of the cooling output (measured in BTU) during a typical cooling-season divided by
Seasonal Energy
SEER the total electric energy input (in watt-hours) during the same period. The higher the unit's BTU/Wh Quantitative HVAC
Efficiency Ratio
SEER rating, the more energy efficient it is.

Heating Seasonal HSPF is defined as the ratio of heat output (measured in BTUs) over the heating season to
HSPF BTU/Wh Quantitative HVAC
Performance Factor total input electricity used (measured in watt-hours).

A single-number expressing integrated part-load efficiency of air conditioning or heat pump

Integrated Part Load
IPLV equipment weighted on different part-load operation conditions (100%, 75%, 50%, and – Quantitative HVAC
Value
25%-part load).

The overall efficiency of the boiler considering the effectiveness of the heat exchanger and
Boiler Efficiency η – Quantitative HVAC
the radiation and convection losses.

Luminous efficacy is a measure of how well a light source produces visible light. It is the
Luminous Efficacy Lm/W Lm/W Quantitative Lighting
ratio of luminous flux to power, measured in lumens per watt.

The ratio of the actual fan efficiency to a baseline fan efficiency, both calculated at a given
Fan Energy Index FEI – Quantitative Fan
airflow and pressure.

ACEEE Appliance Label – A label indicating annual operating cost and energy consumption for appliances. – Rating Score Appliances

EnergyStar Label – A label indicating whether a product meets EPA’s energy specification. – Qualitative Appliances

Table 4: Lighting system KPIs

System Sub-system KPI Definition KPI Unit Impact Category

Lighting energy use per m2 floor area per year. kWh/(m2*yr) Energy

Lighting power per m2 floor area. W/m2 Demand

Interior, Exterior and
Lighting System Emergency Lighting Lighting energy usage normalized per day. kWh/day Energy
System (three categories)
Energy use intensity based on people count over a year. kWh/(person*yr) Energy

Lighting energy consumption per occupied hour. kWh /(FTE_Occupied Hours) Energy

Table 5: Miscellaneous system KPIs

System Sub-system KPI Definition KPI Unit Impact Category

Energy demand of the system per m2 floor area, per person. W/m2 Demand
Plug Loads or Occupants and Non-
Miscellaneous occupants (two Annual energy consumption per m2 floor area, per person. kWh/(m2*yr) Energy
Loads categories)
The percentages of four statuses – active, idle, sleep, and off. Usage Profile Energy

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 Building Performance Metrics and Definitions – an Overview

Table 6: HVAC system KPIs

System Sub-system KPI Unit KPI Definition Impact Category

Overall HVAC system energy use intensity, including subsystems of cooling, heating, air
– kWh/m2 Energy
distribution, and ventilation.

Overall HVAC system peak power demand intensity, including subsystems of cooling, heating,
– W/m2 Demand
air distribution, and ventilation.

W/m2 Cooling system demand per floor area. Demand

kWh/kWh Cooling system consumption per delivered cooling energy. Energy

kW/ton Cooling system power demand per delivered cooling tonnage. Demand

Cooling System kWh/m2 Cooling system energy use intensity. Energy

kWh/(m2*C DD) Cooling system energy use intensity normalized by cooling degree days. Energy

Energy efficiency of a central cooling plant, including energy use of chillers, chilled water
pumps, cooling towers, and condenser water pumps (for water-cooled chillers). The KPI is
Ton-hour/kWh Energy
calculated as the ratio of ton-hour of delivered cooling energy to kWh of consumed electricity
of all central plant equipment.

HVAC cfm/m2 Airflow rate per m2 floor area. Energy

System
Air Distribution W/cfm Airflow rate per unit of consumed electricity Demand
System
FEI (Fan Energy The ratio of the actual fan efficiency to a baseline fan efficiency, both calculated at a given
Energy
Index) airflow and pressure.

Δppm(CO2) The difference between indoor and outdoor air CO2 concentration. Air quality

Ventilation cfm/m2 The average outdoor airflow rate per m2 floor area for a given time interval. Air quality

cfm/person The average outdoor airflow rate for a given time interval per person. Air quality

Actual Working
The ratio of actual working hours to the theoretical working hours of economizer. Energy
Ratio
Air Economizer
Mechanical Cooling
The ratio of mechanical cooling hours to free-cooling hours. Energy
Ratio

W/gpm Ratio of hydro-system (water, refrigerant) power to the flow rate transported. Demand
Hydro-
transportation PEI (Pump Energy Ratio of the electrical input power of a reference pump to the electrical input power of the
Energy
Index) actual pump.

References
[1] Han Li, Tianzhen Hong, Sang Hoon Lee, Marina Sofos, System-level Key Performance Indicators for Building Performance Evaluation,
Energy Technologies Area February 202, DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109703
[2] X. Cao, X. Dai, J. Liu, Building energy-consumption status worldwide and the state-of-the-art technologies for zero-energy buildings
during the past decade, Energy Build. 128 (2016) 198–213. doi:10.1016/J.ENBUILD.2016.06.089.
[3] EIA, Commercial buildings energy consumption survey (CBECS), 2015.
[4] S. Wang, C. Yan, F. Xiao, Quantitative energy performance assessment methods for existing buildings, Energy Build. 55 (2012) 873–
888. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.08.037.
[5] A.B.R. González, J.J.V. Díaz, A.J. Caamaño, M.R. Wilby, Towards a universal energy efficiency index for buildings, Energy Build. 43 (2011)
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