Building Something New
New construction projects provide an amazing opportunity to identify, design and incorporate essential energy efficiencies into your building from the start.
Since energy & utilities represent the biggest controllable operating expense for commercial, multifamily & residential buildings, it pays significant dividends to invest in your building’s resiliency.
Involve RBG in the conversation early on so that we can provide critical energy modeling, design consultation and drawing reviews during the planning phases. Once construction has begun, tap RBG for Air Leakage Testing and Weatherization to ensure a tight building envelope.
Once built, our Commissioning services ensure that your building’s systems were installed properly and work as intended so that you ultimately realize the efficiency gains you planned for and invested in.
Charrettes & Energy Modeling
RBG leads Energy Efficiency Charrettes (sometimes called “Integrated Design Charrettes”) during your new building’s planning phase, generally well before any blueprints are created.
A charrette is an intensive, multi-day collaborative workshop for all key building stakeholders, including your architect, Facilities Manager, construction manager and mechanical engineer your IT and Operations Managers, a Utility representative and your Energy Modeler (often RBG).
The goal is to accelerate the design of energy efficiency into all aspects of your building so that it will use as little energy as possible while maintaining comfort and other standards.
Led by RBG, the charrette team:
- Builds a base-case energy model to start with, based on existing similar buildings or your current preliminary design.
- Brainstorms possible energy efficiency strategies, materials, building systems that match the intended use of each space
- Models different combinations of these options to identify component compatibilities and which combinations will have the greatest impact on energy usage, and
- Analyzes budget and ROI implications for your project and ongoing OPEX
RBG has extensive experience building energy models that allow you to explore different “what if” scenarios as well as the impact each could have on your building in the short- and long-term with respect to energy costs and payback periods.
Design Consultation and Drawings Reviews
Before pouring a concrete slab or framing up walls, RBG will conduct a design consultation and drawings review, because changes are a lot easier to make in the digital world than the physical one.
We will identify additional energy efficiency opportunities as well as any potential misalignments in the building layout, materials, and proposed systems & lighting design.
The design consultation, which often happens in parallel with the charrette and energy modeling activities, sets the vision and goals for the building from an energy efficiency standpoint.
Specifically, the design consultation results in:
- Defined energy targets for the building
- Consensus on the best site orientation for the building
- Agreement on the shape of the structure as well as the target R-values (thermal resistance) for the walls and roof, and
Once the architects have provided drawings based on the charrette, energy modeling and design consultation, RBG gives them a thorough once-over. Specifically, we are checking the plans for any potential latent energy loss situations or leaks so that they can be corrected before construction begins.
Air Leakage Testing
The process of incorporating energy efficiency into your new building continues throughout the construction process.
Air Leakage Testing, which is sometimes referred to by the main tools used in the process – Blower Door & IR (Infrared) Testing – checks your building envelope for air leaks that would otherwise sabotage your energy efficiency efforts.
RBG recommends the best practice of performing an air leakage test mid-construction as well as one post-construction, as they involve somewhat different processes and serve two different (but related) goals.
The mid-construction air leakage test is conducted as a diagnostic, after completion of the framing and sheathing but before drywall is hung. This allows any leaks that are found to be fixed much more easily (and much less expensively) than after the drywall has been hung.
The mid-construction test also often includes both a positive pressurization to ensure that seams, tapes and flashing do not fail and a negative pressurization which primarily checks for leaks.
The post-construction air leakage test generally involves negatively pressurizing the house to check for leaks and prove that the structure meets legally mandated airtightness thresholds and certain certification requirements like LEED or Passive House.
In both cases during the air leakage testing, RBG will walk the building with IR (infrared) cameras to more easily spot cracks, leaks and even insultation that has compressed or slumped after drywall was hung.
For all air leakage tests, RBG provides a report summarizing:
- Quantitative results of he blower door test
- Qualitative results of our observations during walk-throughs, and
- RBG’s recommendations for fixes or improvements to the building envelope, and
- Estimated costs for these improvements as well as the ROI / payback time for investing in them
Grants & Certifications
A critical step for most new construction projects is applying for and winning energy efficiency certifications as well as grants to help defray costs. In particular, RBG supports the pursuit of Passive House Certification, widely considered to be the most rigorous voluntary building standard for energy efficiency in the world. A prerequisite (or baseline) for Passive House Certification is ENERGY STAR certification which is earned through the incorporation of energy efficient appliances, lighting, HVAC systems and more into your building. The result? A structure that is 10% – 20% more energy efficient than one built to standard code. RBG has a credentialed ENERGY STAR Functional Testing Agent on staff who can perform the required testing and complete all the necessary paperwork for this very achievable standard. For building owners who wish to take their efficiency to the next level, RBG provides consulting that walks you through the Passive House Certification process. This rigorous certification results in a building that uses 40% – 60% less energy and up to 90% less heating and cooling energy – thereby saving significant money down the road and over time.. For Passive House Certification, we help with:
- Feasibility Studies
- Energy Modeling
- Air leakage Testing
- ENERGY STAR Functional Testing
- Technical Assistance, and
- General Certification Process Support
RBG recognizes that the requirements for each building are unique. As such, RBG supports your certification efforts with everything from a simple one-off desktop review of your plans to a multi-year engagement covering ideation & design all the way through to post-construction support.
Given the scale and breadth of the Passive House Certification process, it makes good sense to engage an experienced partner like RBG to ensure that the money and time invested pays off in the end.
Our deep certification expertise, close relationships with key players in the ecosystem (utilities, installers, general contractors, reviewers, certification bodies et al.), and a long track record of successful certifications makes RBG a smart choice of partner.
RBG can also assist as you apply for specific energy efficiency grants in order to help defray the costs associated with building or weatherizing your structure. Given our experience in this space, we can review the grant requirements and flag anything we want more details about as well as provide some of the services typically required by these grants, like energy audits or modeling.
Multi-Family Housing Projects – New Construction
New Hampshire – and indeed all of New England – faces a chronic undersupply of housing options. Overall, the region’s housing deficit numbers in the hundreds of thousands of units, with New Hampshire’s housing stock alone coming up ~60,000 units short by 2030.
As such, new multifamily construction projects aim to alleviate some of that shortage, and each provides an opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of New England’s housing stock.
With deep experience supporting the development of both residential and commercial properties, RBG is New England’s partner of choice for ensuring maximum energy efficiency in new builds.
From energy modeling and design consultation to mid- and post-construction testing and diagnostics to weatherization and commissioning, RBG unlocks energy efficient grants, certifications and outcomes.
How does weatherization help lower costs?