FORUM

Council House 2 (CH2) in review

Matthew Hoogland, M.AIRAH, Exergy Australia; and Dr Paul Bannister, M.AIRAH, Exergy Australia

ABSTRACT
Council House 2 (CH2) is the City of Melbournes flagship building for sustainability. The building showcases a number of
innovative technologies and has attracted recognition with numerous environmental awards. But how does the building actually
perform and what lessons does it have for the broader industry? The City of Melbourne was asking these questions when they invited
Exergy to conduct a review of the buildings energy efficiency performance in July 2012.
Exergys review focused on the operation of the buildings various systems, including passive chilled beam, tri-generation,
thermal storage phase-change material, shower towers and more. Key issues identified mainly pertained to the HVAC commissioning
and control strategies applied to these systems not only in isoaltion, but in the complex web in which they come together.
The City of Melbourne is now in the process of implementating the first stage of measures with calculated potential to reduce energy
consumption by 25%. Crucial to the success of this project will be a staged process of implementation and measurement to determine
how best the buildings systems can complement each other in various modes of operation.

INTRODUCTION

BUILDING FEATURES

Officially opened in August 2006, CH2 was Australias first

6 star Green Star Design building, and showcases a number
of sustainable building features. The building was designed to
set new standards for low energy and high occupant comfort,
bringing together a range of innovative technologies not only
for the benefit of those to work in it, but also to serve as
a sounding board for the broader industry.

The features of CH2 that were intended to contribute to

high-level energy performance are listed below. Note that we
have divided the features according to the significance with which
we observed them having to the buildings current performance:

But how does the building actually perform? With doubt

that the building was achieving its ambitious targets, the
City of Melbourne invited Exergy to undertake a review
of the buildings energy efficiency performance in July 2012,
providing an opportunity to review the performance of the
innovative and experimental design features of the building.
The aims of the project were to:
Quantify the existing performance of the building against
NABERS 1 Energy benchmarks
Identify issues impeding energy efficiency performance
Detail measures to improve the NABERS Energy rating

Core features:
Passive chilled beam cooling
Tri-generation
Hydronic radiant heating
Extensive heat transfer and recovery between water loops
Phase-change material tanks for thermal storage.

Peripheral features:
Building integrated wind power
Solar PV and domestic hot water
Shower towers
Electronically actuated windows and shading
Daylight harvesting.

The review was based on the findings of a whole building level

2 energy audit conducted by Dr Paul Bannister, M.AIRAH;
Matthew Hoogland, M.AIRAH; and Ben Carmichael of Exergy
Australia as per the requirements of AS/NZS 3598:2000.

At the time of CH2s construction most of these technologies

were far from common within Australias commercial building
industry. And while chilled beam technology and tri-generation
systems have since become more widespread, features such as the
shower towers and phase-change storage tanks are still relatively
uncommon among Australias commercial building stock.

Note that the scope of the review was predominantly targeted at

identifying energy efficiency measures to improve the NABERS
Energy performance of the building. We acknowledge that there
are numerous features of interest within the building. However,
in general, our investigation only went as far as that required to
improve the efficiency of the core systems that the energy audit
revealed to be making a significant impact on the buildings
consumption. As such, detailed investigation of the peripheral
features of the building such as renewable power sources and
automated shading systems were not covered. We also note
that water efficiency and indoor environment quality were not
included in the scope of the review.

Of the buildings array of technologies, arguably most technically

significant is the extensive potential for heat transfer between
the seven distinct water loops. A water schematic of the sites
servicing is presented in Figure 2. Among others, heat exchangers
can be observed between the domestic hot water system and
the primary heating water system, the primary heating water
system and the primary condenser water system, the primary
condenser water system and the supplementary condenser water
system, and the supplementary condenser water system and the
primary heating water system. Although none of these processes
in isolation are particularly unusual, their summation equates to
a system of unusual potential and complexity.

Identify lessons that can be learnt from CH2.

44

E CO L I B R I U M M A R C H 2 0 1 4

FORUM

Unit

Figure 1: CH2 west facing facade (from Swanston St).

The complexity of CH2s design, coupled with the industrys

general lack of familiarity with its features has proven to be one
of the key challenges for the buildings operation.

Microturbine
heat recovery

Absorption
chiller

HEX-1

HEX to transfer coolth from the primary

CHW to secondary CHW

HEX-2

HEX for transfer between the cooling

towers and the supplementary CDW
system

HEX-3

HEX for heat recovery from the primary

CDW return to airside heating

HEX-4

HEX for heat injection into the

supplementary CDW system (for reversecycle PACs)

HEX-5

HEX for transfer of coolth from the

shower towers to the chilled beam
network

HEX-6

HEX for transfer of coolth to pre-cool

the secondary CHW return after its path
through HEX-7 and/or HEX-8

HEX-7

HEX for transfer of coolth from the

secondary CHW system to either of the
chilled beam network directly or via the
PCM tanks (parallel to HEX-8)

HEX-8

HEX for transfer of coolth from the

secondary CHW system to either of the
chilled beam network directly or via the
PCM tanks (parallel to HEX-7)

Table 1: Heat exchanger (HEX) legend corresponding to Figure 2.

Description

Screw
chillers

C
C

Cooling towers
Boilers
H

HEX 1

HEX 2

AHUs
L1-9
heating
convectors

HEX 3

L1-9
chilled
beams
C

HEX 5

Shower
towers

C
C

HEX 6
C

PCM
tanks

HEX 4
H

Secondary CHW loop

Shower tower loop
Primary CDW loop

HEX 7
HEX 8

Primary CHW loop

HHW loop

C
C

L1-9
CDW

DHW
HEX

Retail PACs

Chilled beam loop

Tenant CDW loop
Heat flow

Cool flow

Figure 2: Simplified water schematic of HVAC services for CH2, demonstrating the diverse array of water loops and
the heat transfer potential between them. Note that each line represents a flow and return path. See HEX legend in Table 1.

M A R C H 2 0 1 4 E CO L I B R I U M

45

FORUM

CURRENT ENERGY PERFORMANCE

250

The actual energy performance of CH2 does not currently

meet the high standard of its design. Our analysis revealed the
whole building NABERS Energy performance of the building
to be 4.08 stars. With the aid of data obtained from the floorby-floor sub-metering system we were able to drill down to
investigate the weighting of the base building and tenancy on
the whole building performance. Our analysis found the base
building to be performing at 3.24 stars NABERS. With several
major property owners in Australia now reporting average
portfolio ratings of 4.5 stars or higher, this is well below the
current industry standard for good performance2 . At 3.24 stars,
the emissions attributable to CH2s base building services are
68% greater than what they would be if the base building was
performing at 4.5 stars.

200

150
kW
100

50

Estimated
base
building
NABERS
rating

Estimated
tenancy
NABERS
rating

250

1/7/11 to
30/6/12

1/7/11 to
30/6/12

1/7/11 to
30/6/12

200

971,270

571,292

399,978

Whole
building
NABERS
rating
Date
range
Electricity
(kWh)
Gas (MJ)

5,133,122

100

Hours of
occupancy

49.2

49.2

49.2

50

No. of
computers

n/a

n/a

454

4.08

3.24

5.43

NABERS
rating
(decimal)
NABERS
star rating

Wed
Thu

Fri
Sat

Sun

150

5,133,122

Diesel
(Litres)

4.0 stars

3.0 stars

5.0 stars

Table 2: NABERS Energy performance parameters

for July 2011 to June 2012.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS

Interval data was obtained for the office buildings sole electrical
utility meter. The analysis revealed unusual variation in the base
load over weekdays and seasons, as presented in Figure 3. With
minimal occupation of the building outside of business hours,
these observations were tell-tale signs that there may have been
frequent HVAC operation occuring outside of the operational
hours of the building.
Site inspections were conducted over a course of several months
and at various times of the day and night to observe the building
in its different modes of operation. The end-use breakdown is
presented in Figure 4 as constructed according to the findings
of the site inspections. A Sankey flow diagram (Figure 5) was
46

Mon
Tue

E CO L I B R I U M M A R C H 2 0 1 4

kW

Shoulder Weekday

Winter Weekday

Summer Weekend

Summer Weekday

Shoulder Weekend

Winter Weekend

Figure 3: Average daily (above) and seasonal (below) electrical

load profiles, highlighting daily and seasonal variation in the base load.

also produced to help illustrate the diversity of energy sources

and complementary systems within the building.
It is noted that the sub-metering system could not significantly
inform the breakdown of base building services due to
inadequate coverage and poor data quality from some meters.

KEY ISSUES
The key issues preventing CH2 from realising its potential were
found to be in the strategies and commissioning of its HVAC
controls. Widespread opportunities for optimising control were
observed and could broadly be categorised into three groups:
Priority of cooling modes. One way in which CH2 is
unlike most buildings is that it has several different ways of
generating cooling to provide to the floors. The source of
cooling can either be via absoprtion chiller heat recovery

FORUM

350
Pumps
15%

300

Fans
13%

250
Chillers
16%

200
kW

Office lighting
12%

150
Coolin
g

towers

4%

100

d in g

50

Miscellaneous 0%

Figure 4: Electricity end-use breakdown for a 12-month period

(above) and an average business day in summer (right).

3500 MJ

:00
21

:00
18

Pumps
Fans
Average summer profile

Solar PV

Total electricity supply

4,165,200 MJ

2525000 MJ

Microturbine

25200 MJ

Boilers

648000 MJ

1004400 MJ
658800 MJ

2322000 MJ

Office
equipment

Flue losses

HVAC electrical
Heat recovery
327600MJ

152000 MJ

478800 MJ

Fans
122400 MJ

Pumps

57600 MJ

547200 MJ

637200 MJ

288000 MJ

1098000 MJ

861000 MJ

Lighting

Heat
rejection

:00

Chillers

PAC units
Miscellaneous
Cooling towers

Utility gas supply

5,133,000 MJ

Miscellaneous 154800 MJ

Car park
lighting

15

Lifts

Office lighting
Office equipment
Car park lighting

2607000 MJ

Base building
lighting

12

Base building lighting

3513700 MJ

Utility
electricity
supply

Office
lighting

:00

0
9:0

3:0

0:0

3%

Car park
lighting
1%

t in g
ligh

Lifts
3%

6:0

b u il

Office equipment
25%

B as e

PAC units
8%

1500500 MJ

505000 MJ

Combustion
losses

173000 MJ

115000 MJ

Reticulation
losses

831000 MJ

327600 MJ

Standing
losses

Chillers

58500 MJ

PAC
units
Field
heating

162000 MJ

33300 MJ

Solar
hot water

Domestic
hot water

Cooling
towers

Shower
towers

electricity [MJ]
gas [MJ]
hot water energy [MJ]
heat (losses) [MJ]

Field
cooling

Condenser water [MJ]

PCM/reticulation
losses

Chilled water [MJ]

Rejected heat [MJ]

Figure 5: Sankey flow diagram. This diagram demonstrates the flow of energy into the building and throughout its sub-systems.
The diversity of energy sources and uses within the building is evident, as well as the degree of energy transfer and heat
recovery between the range of sub-systems. Note that thermal energy flows in the CHW and CDW networks are not quantified.

M A R C H 2 0 1 4 E CO L I B R I U M

47

FORUM

from the micro-turbine, the screw chillers, the cooling

towers or the shower towers. Production of cooling can either
be after-hours and stored within phase-change material
(PCM) tanks or delivered directly during occupied hours.
Observations of the building through a range of conditions
revealed that the system often failed to prioritise the most
efficient cooling mode available. This regularly resulted in
significant energy wastage overnight for charging of PCM
tanks, which proved to be the issue responsible for the
overnight operation (Figure 3). More importantly though,
poor consideration of cooling modes meant the building was
largely operating without an economy cycle, thus leading to
excessive use of the electric chillers.
Optimisation of HVAC parameters. A number of the
temperature, flow and pressure set-points that the buildings
air and water systems were operating to were fixed in spite of
variable demand conditions. Examples included constantpressure control for chilled water and heating hot water pumps,
constant-flow control for air-handler fans, and constant water
temperature control for chiller plant condenser water.
Tuning of HVAC operation. A range of smaller operational
issues were identified that summed up to a reasonable
quantity of lost energy for the site. Such issues included
general exhaust fans running when not required, car park
ventilation fans running irrespective of CO set points, pumps
running when there was no heating/cooling within the fluid
they were circulating, heat exchangers (HEX) opening the
primary valve without the secondary valve, and so on.
A comprehensive revision of the strategies and commissioning
of the HVAC controls was recommended to address these issues,
including improved economy cycle operation, vairable set-points
for key water and air systems, and a general tightening up of
HVAC control to avoid wasteful operation.

Figure 6: Cooling system operating when free cooling is available

from ambient conditions.

corresponding to a wet bulb temperature of approximately

10C. In these cool conditions, the cooling towers are capable
of providing sufficient cooling to the building, with no need
for the chilled water plant. This opportunity exists for most of
winter but was overlooked by the systems control strategy.
As noted in the green circles labelled B, there were a
number of pumps operating at this time apparently for
no purpose. The absorption chiller had faulted out of
operation, preventing the cooling system from providing any
cooling. However, the failure was not communicated to the
pumps, and thus they were each running to circulate roomtemperature water throughout the building.

PCM charging with chilled water

However, the physical components of a system must be operating

reliably for controls measures to achieve their full potential.
Observations of CH2s plant suggested the system was generally
in good working condition, but there was evidence of a modest
range of less visible issues that may have been preventing
optimum performance. The majority of these issues were
consistent with the usual failure modes of commercial HVAC
systems, including air within the water networks, instances of
dubious sensor accuracy, valves failing to seal, compromised
HEX efficiency and poor performance of PCM tanks. A tune-up
process was recommended to help mitigate the risk they posed to
the performance of the building.

EXAMPLES OF CONTROL
OPPORTUNITIES
A series of screenshots from the BMS are presented below with
notes against the opportunities they highlight.

Erroneous cooling system

operation during business hours
Figure 6 demonstrates the buildings cooling system operating
on July 27, 2012. The following opportunities for improvement
were observed:
As noted in the yellow circle labelled A, the outside
air conditions at this time were 12.5C and 72%RH,
48

E CO L I B R I U M M A R C H 2 0 1 4

Figure 7: Chilled water system operating at 04.00 to charge

the PCM tanks.

Figure 7 demonstrates the chilled water system operating

at 04.00 on November 21, 2012. The chillers were found to
be operating overnight to charge the PCM tanks. This operation
appeared to occur regularly throughout the shoulder and
summer months between the hours of 00.00 and 06.00 on
business days. The design intent of the PCM charging process
is to take advantage of cool overnight conditions and charge the
tanks with the cooling towers to avoid having to use the electric
chillers during the day. If the PCM tanks are performing ideally,
charging them via the electric chillers overnight should not
result in a significant loss of energy. However, there did appear
to be a high level of energy loss associated with this operation.

FORUM

conditions (18.4C). Heating should not be required in an

office building with ambient conditions above 18.0C.

20

As circled in yellow and labelled B, the system elected to

operate the heat reclaim pump from the condenser water loop
to serve the heating needs of the air handlers at this time.
However, the temperature of the flow into the HEX, out of the
HEX, into the AHUs and out of AHUs was each measured at
19.5C, indicating there was no transfer of heat occurring in
the system and thus the pumps were not achieving anything.

15
10

11:00 PM

9:00 PM

10:00 PM

8:00 PM

7:00 PM

6:00 PM

5:00 PM

4:00 PM

2:00 PM

1:00 PM

12:00 PM

11:00 AM

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

8:00 AM

7:00 AM

6:00 AM

5:00 AM

4:00 AM

3:00 AM

2:00 AM

1:00 AM

3:00 PM

Average internal tank temp

PCM charging process
PCM discharging process

12:00 AM

Temperature (DegC)

25

Figure 8: PCM charging and discharging process on the 14/11/12

demonstrating the disparity between charging
and discharging times.

Logs of the charging and discharging process were plotted

against the average tank internal temperature in Figure 8.

As circled in green and labelled C, the heating hot water

network was engaged at this time. Inspection of the BMS
heating demand indicated that the AHU system was
registering a demand on the heating hot water plant despite
not using the heating hot water.

Constant speed pumping

The following observations were made:

While the charging process (signified by the decreasing
tank temperature) lasted for approximately five hours from
00.00 to 05.00, the tanks were fully discharged (signified by
increasing tank temperature) after one hour upon start-up.
The temperature is continuously decreasing during the
charging process. The temperature of a PCM remains
constant while the material is undergoing a phase change
(changing from liquid to solid). That the tank temperature
was continuously decreasing during the charging process
implied that there was no phase change within the tank; i.e.,
the chilled water was merely cooling the material down in
its existing phase (most likely liquid). The thermal storage
capacity of the tank relies on the materials nature to absorb
coolth as it changes from liquid to solid phase; thus the tanks
provide minimal storage without the phase-change process.

Erroneous operation of
heating plant and air-handling plant

Figure 10: Constant speed pumping control for heating

and cooling systems.

Figure 10 presents the operation of heating (in red) and cooling

(in blue) reticulation in the building on October 18, 2012. We
noted these pumps operating at the same speed across a range of
different internal and ambient conditions. Introducing dynamic
resets to the pressure set-points was recommended to help
them turn down to meet demand, which would also apply more
broadly to other air and water systems as well.

MEASURES FOR IMPLEMENTATION

The report was delivered in December 2012, with
recommendations made for wholesale revision to the HVAC
controls in addition to a suite of hardware tuning items and
minor retrofits. With budget awarded for FY13/14, at the time
of writing the City of Melbourne and Exergy are in the planning
phase for implementation of the first stage of measures. They are
presented in Table 3.

Figure 9 demonstrates the outside air-handling plant operating on

October 18, 2012. Several issues were observed with its operation:

Figure 11 demonstrates the measures improving the base

buildings rating to 4.5 stars. However, it is important to note
that the savings were conservatively calculated as what we
expected to be available from an install and leave it type
approach. We anticipate that an intensive process of monitoring
and tuning will reveal greater potential from the buildings
existing systems.

As circled in red and labelled A, the heating pump had been

engaged for the air-handling plant despite the mild ambient

Crucial to the success of this project will be a functioning

sub-metering system to inform a critique of each of the buildings

Figure 9: Air-handling plant engaging the heating system

in mild conditions.

M A R C H 2 0 1 4 E CO L I B R I U M

49

FORUM

Measure

%
Energy
saving

Payback
(yrs)

Base
building
NABERS
star impact

HVAC controls
revision of
re-commissioning

19.7%

5.2

1.14

Upgrade
supplementary
CDW system to
variable flow

1.4%

9.3

0.13

Optimise
after-hours DHW
servicing

3.9%

8.1

0.06

Back-of-house
lighting controls

0.3%

22

0.02

Sub-metering
verification and
monitoring

n/a

n/a

n/a

Total

25.2%

CONCLUSIONS
1. CH2 is currently performing well below its potential due to
the state of the HVAC controls. It appears that the complexity
associated with the buildings web of relatively unfamiliar
sub-systems has led to a range of flawed strategies and
operational issues.
2. The building is an excellent illustation of the importance of
optimising control strategies and commissioning control
behaviour for sub-systems, not only individually but also in their
operation as a whole system and under numerous scenarios.
3. The building is expected to achieve 4.5 stars NABERS base
building performance with the measures currently intended
for implementation. Further improvement is expected to be
realised with intensive monitoring and tuning.
4. Upgrade of the buildings sub-metering system, combined
with a staged process of implementation and measurement
is necessary not only to optimise the buildings operation but
also to inform the industry on the performance of its more
experimental technologies. This review marks the beginning
of a project from which much more will hopefully be learnt
regarding the performance of its many features.

FOOTNOTES
1.

7.2

1.36

Table 3: Short-to-medium term measures for implementation.

Monitoring
and tuning

National Australian Built Environment Building Rating

System, www.nabers.gov.au
2. See annual reports available online for CPA,
GPT Group and DEXUS. Each accessed 21/01/2014:
http://www.cfsgam.com.au/au/property/cpa/Investor_
Centre/Reports_and_presentations/
http://www.gpt.com.au/Sustainability/Our-Environment/
NABERS-Ratings
http://dexus.com/investor/home.aspx

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
2.5

3.5
4
4.5
5
Base Building NABERS Energy Rating

5.5

Existing rating

HVAC controls revision

HVAC re-commissioning
Optimise after hours DHW servicing
Sub-metering and monitoring

Upgrade CDW system to variable flow

BOH lighting controls

Figure 11: Base building NABERS improvement path.

features as they are plugged in and out of the control strategy.

This process will serve to provide a blueprint for how the
buildings complex array of sub-systems can best collaborate
with each other. Furthermore, with this information the building
will finally be in a position to provide feedback to the industry
on the performance of the experimental technologies it features.

We would like to acknowledge the keen assistance of

Michele Leembruggen (Sustainability Branch), Allen McCowan
(Property Services) and their colleauges within the City
of Melbourne, as well as Matt Waller of Transfield Services
and Peter Collins of Schneider Electric.

About the authors

Matthew Hoogland, M.AIRAH, is a senior
consultant with Exergy Australia based in
Melbourne. Email him via matt@xgl.com.au
Dr Paul Bannister, M.AIRAH, is the manging
director of Exergy Australia, based in Canberra.
Email him via paul@xgl.com.au