Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

COUNCIL HOUSE 2 (CH2) IN REVIEW

MATTHEW HOOGLAND DR PAUL BANNISTER

Senior Consultant Managing Director
Exergy Australia Pty Ltd Exergy Australia Pty Ltd
L7, 51 Queen St Melbourne VIC Unit H, 58-69 Lathlain St Belconnen, ACT
matt@xgl.com.au paul@xgl.com.au

ABSTRACT

Council House 2 (CH2) is the City of Melbourne’s 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 building’s energy efficiency performance in July 2012.

Exergy’s review focussed on the operation of the building’s 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 building’s
systems can complement each other in various modes of operation.

INTRODUCTION

Officially opened in August 2006, CH2 was Australia’s 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.

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 building’s
energy efficiency performance in July 2012, providing an opportunity to review the performance of
the innovative and experimental design features of the building.

 Quantify the existing performance of the building against NABERS1 Energy benchmarks
The aims of the project were to:

 Identify issues impeding energy efficiency performance

 Detail measures to improve the NABERS Energy rating
 Identify lessons that can be learnt from CH2

1
National Australian Built Environment Building Rating System, www.nabers.gov.au

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

The review was based on the findings of a whole building level 2 energy audit conducted by Dr
Paul Bannister, Matthew Hoogland and Ben Carmichael of Exergy Australia as per the
requirements of AS/NZS 3598:2000.

Note that the scope of the review was predominantly targeted at identifying energy efficiency
measures to improve the NABERS performance of the building. We acknowledge that there are
numerous features of interest within the buidling however in general, our investigation only went as
far as that required to improve the efficiency of the core systems making a significant impact on the
building’s consumption. As such, detailed invesigtation of the peripheral features of the building
such as renewable power sources and automated shading systems were not covered.

BUILDING FEATURES

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 building’s

 Core features:
current performance:

o Passive chilled beam cooling

o Tri-generation
o Hydronic radiant heating
o Extensive heat transfer and recovery
between water loops
o Phase change material tanks for thermal

 Peripheral features:
storage

o Building integrated wind power

o Solar PV and domestic hot water
o Shower towers
o Electronically actuated windows and
shading
o Daylight harvesting

At the time of CH2’s construction most of these

technologies were far from common within Australia’s
commercial building industry and whilst chilled beam
technology and tri-generation systems have since become
more widespread, features such as the shower towers and
Figure 1. CH2 west facing facade (from
phase change storage tanks are still relatively uncommon
Swanston St)
amongst Australia’s commercial building stock.

Of the building’s 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 site’s
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

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

primary heating water system. While none of these processes in isolation are particularly unusual,
their summation equates to a system of unusual potential and complexity.

The complexity of CH2’s design, coupled with the industry’s general lack of familiarity with its
features has proven to be one of the key challenges for the building’s operation.

Figure 2. Simplified water schematic of HVAC services for CH2, demonstrating the diverse array
of water loops and the heat transfer potential between them. See HEX legend in Table 1.

Unit Description
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 reverse
cycle 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

CURRENT ENERGY PERFORMANCE

The actual energy performance of CH2 does not currently meet the high standard of its design. We
informally assessed the whole building NABERS Energy performance of the building at 4.08 stars.
This represents better than average performance but is still below the building’s high potential.
With the aid of data obtained from the floor-by-floor sub-metering system we were able to drill
down further into the building’s energy consumption to investigate the weighting of the base
building and tenancy on the whole building performance. Whilst the tenancy was found to

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

performing well, the estimated base building rating of the property was 3.24 stars, which is average
and well below par for a building with the systems of CH2.

Whole building Estimated base Estimated tenancy

NABERS rating building NABERS NABERS rating
rating
Date range 1/7/11 to 30/6/12 1/7/11 to 30/6/12 1/7/11 to 30/6/12
Electricity (kWh) 971,270 571,292 399,978
Gas (MJ) 5,133,122 5,133,122 0
Diesel (Litres) 0 0 0
Hours of occupancy 49.2 49.2 49.2
No. of computers n/a n/a 454
NABERS rating (decimal) 4.08 3.24 5.43
NABERS star rating 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 building’s 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.

Figure 3. Average daily (left) and seasonal (right) electrical load profiles highlighting daily and
seasonal variation in the base load

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 presented

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

in Figure 4

Figure 4. Electricity end use breakdown for a 12 month period (left) and an average business day in
summer (left)
was constructed according to the findings of the site inspections. A Sankey flow diagram (Figure
5) was 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.

Figure 4. Electricity end use breakdown for a 12 month period (left) and an average business day in
summer (left)

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

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.

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

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 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 (Error! Reference source not found.). 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 building’s air and water systems were operating to were fixed in spite of
variable demand conditions. Examples included constant pressure 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
setpoints for key water and air systems and a general tightening up of HVAC control to avoid
wasteful operation.

However, the physical components of a system must be operating reliably for controls measures to
achieve their full potential. Observations of CH2’s 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.

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

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. Cooling system operating when “free cooling” is available from ambient conditions

Figure 6 demonstrates the building’s cooling system operating on the 27th July 2012. The
following opportunities for improvement were observed:

 As noted in the yellow circle labelled “A”, the outside air conditions at this time were
12.5°C and 72%RH, corresponding to a wet bulb temperature of approximately 10°C. 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 system’s 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 room-temperature
water throughout the building.

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

PCM charging with chilled water

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 the 21st of November 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 chillers during the day. In normal circumstances there would be little advantage
in running the chillers overnight to charge the PCM tanks but if they were operating ideally there
would not be a great penalty either. However, there appeared to be a high level of loss associated
with this operation. Logs of the charging and discharging process were plotted against the average
tank internal temperature in Figure 8.

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Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

Figure 8. PCM charging and discharging process on the 14/11/12 demonstrating the disparity
between charging and discharging times


The following observations were made:
Whilst 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 phase change material remains constant whilst the material is under-going 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 liquid phase. Without the phase
change process, the tanks provide minimal storage.

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

Erroneous operation of heating plant and air handling plant

Figure 9. Air handling plant engaging the heating system in mild conditions

Figure 9 demonstrates the outside air handling plant operating on the 18th October 2012. Several
issues were observed with its operation:

 As circled in red and labelled “A”, the heating pump had been engaged for the air handling
plant despite the mild ambient conditions (18.4°C). Heating should not be required in an
office building with ambient conditions above 18.0°C.

 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 19.5°C, indicating there was no transfer of heat occurring in
the system and thus the pumps were not achieving anything.

 As circled in green and labelled “C”, the heating hot water network was engaged at this time
and 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.

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Constant speed pumping

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 the 18th October 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.

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

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.

Base building
% Energy Payback
Measure NABERS star
saving (yrs)
impact
HVAC controls revision of re-commissioning 19.7% 5.2 1.14
Upgrade supplementary CDW system to variable
1.4% 9.3 0.13
flow
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% 7.2 1.36
Table 3. Short to medium term measures for implementation

Figure 11 demonstrates the measures improving the base building’s 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 building’s existing systems.

Figure 11. Base building NABERS improvement path

Crucial to the success of this project will be a functioning sub-metering system to inform a critique
of each of the building’s features as they are plugged in and out of the control strategy. This
process will serve to provide a blueprint for how the building’s complex array of sub-systems can
best collaborate with each other. Furthermore, with this information the building will finally be in a

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013

Published at the AIRAH Preloved buildings conference, Melbourne 2013

position to provide feedback to the industry on the performance of the experimental technologies it
features.

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 building’s 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 building’s sub-metering system, combined with a staged process of

implementation and measurement is necessary not only to optimise the building’s 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.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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.

Matthew Hoogland, 25 September 2013