Iowa State University Facilities, Planning, and Management is concerned with new LEED buildings on campus consuming more energy than originally predicted from the building energy models created as part of LEED certification requirements. The objective of this research project is to compare the actual and predicted energy consumption of the Biorenewables Research Laboratory (BRL), a 2011 LEED Gold building, to determine the magnitude and cause(s) of this discrepancy. This will lead to re-evaluation of energy model assumptions to improve future models of campus buildings. This objective will be accomplished through analysis of energy model and utility billing data, using historical weather data to weather-normalize energy use. The preliminary results of this research project conclude, when weather normalized, BRL is consuming roughly 4% less energy, but spending 25% more on utility bills than the model originally predicted. Utility rates have been much higher than those used to calculate costs in the energy model. As utility costs are not exclusively influenced by energy consumption alone, future energy models should improve how utility rates are incorporated. Further investigation into the actual operation of the building systems is needed to determine specific system energy consumption discrepancies
