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Newswise RICHLAND, Wash. Commercial buildings could cut their heating and cooling electricity use by an average of 57 percent with advanced energy-efficiency controls, according to a year-long trial of the controls at malls, grocery stores and other buildings across the country. The study demonstrated higher energy savings than what was predicted in earlier computer simulations by the same researchers.

Weve long known that heating and cooling are among the biggest energy consumers in buildings, largely because most buildings dont use sophisticated controls, said the studys lead researcher, engineer Srinivas Katipamula of the Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. But our tests of controls installed at real, working commercial buildings clearly demonstrate how much more energy efficient air-conditioning systems can be.

This research was supported by DOEs Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy and the Bonneville Power Administration.

Sitting on the roofs of many commercial buildings are shiny metal boxes containing heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning (also known as HVAC) units. These are pre-made in a factory and have all their components inside a box, leading the industry to call them packaged HVAC units. Another kind of commercial HVAC, called air handling units, have long used sophisticated controls to ensure they work as efficiently as possible. But packaged units are often allowed to run for hours on end, even if they arent needed, and receive little maintenance.

Packaged HVAC units consume the same amount of electricity each year as 8 million U.S. residents, or about 2,600 trillion British thermal units of energy. All those ignored and often-inefficient HVAC systems add up, creating higher power bills and contributing to the nations greenhouse gas emissions.

Putting an idea to the test Katipamula and his PNNL colleagues have spent their careers thinking up ways to reduce energy use in buildings. In 2011, they set out to adapt the controls already found in air handling HVAC units for use in packaged rooftop HVAC units. The goal was to enable packaged units to automatically adjust their operations based on conditions inside and outside a building. Using sensors and variable-speed motors, the controls decide when and how fast ventilation fans should run, and if the units can use naturally cold air from the outside instead of mechanically cooling indoor air.

While the PNNL team was evaluating how these controls could work, they learned a few companies were simultaneously and independently in the process of developing such advanced controls. During the summer of 2012, the team installed one of the commercially available control kits on 66 rooftop HVAC units at eight volunteer commercial buildings in Washington state, Ohio, California and Pennsylvania. The buildings included shopping malls, grocery stores, big-box stores and a medical clinic. The installed devices, manufactured by Transformative Wave of Kent, Wash., were chosen because they most closely resembled the advanced controls PNNL had envisioned.

Real energy savings Katipamula and his colleagues found that, compared to standard operations, the HVAC units using advanced controls cut their energy use by an average of 57 percent. The actual energy savings ranged from 20 to 90 percent. Larger buildings such as malls, which need bigger HVAC units, saved more energy than smaller buildings. And buildings that ran ventilation fans more, such as stores open long hours, tended to save more energy.

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Electricity Use Slashed with Efficiency Controls for Heating, Cooling

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A conceptual rendering of the three-story, modern-looking office building proposed by R.D. Scinto for Commerce Drive, with a parking area on the first floor and offices on the two upper floors.

Developer Robert Scinto is proposing the construction of a new 58,550-square-foot office building on Commerce Drive.

Plans call for a modern-looking three-story structure on an almost five-acre parcel at 20 Commerce Drive. The first floor would be used for parking.

There would be 240 parking spaces, or one space for every 1.5 employees in the building. The property is between Progress and Research drives, and the driveway would be on Commerce Drive.

The applicant is R.D. Scinto Inc. of Shelton, acting through an entity called Second Treetops Inc. of Norwalk.

Robert Scinto

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) briefly discussed the Scinto application on May 13, and scheduled a May 28 public hearing to get input on the proposal.

Scinto is seeking site plan and special exception approval. The land now is zoned for Light Industrial Park (LIP), which is consistent with Scintos intended use.

A special exception application involves a permitted use within a zone that would be subject to some specific conditions.

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Scinto proposes new office building in Shelton

BUTTE, Mont. -

NorthWestern Energy's new office building is being built on the corner of Park and Main, and will replace the company's current offices made up of five different structures at 40 East Broadway.

NorthWestern Energy officials and city leaders broke ground on a 100,000-sq. ft. office building in Uptown Butte Thursday morning.

"This has been a hard project, a complicated project, a challenging project, but a really, really fun project," NorthWestern Energy CEO and President Bob Rowe said to the audience.

Rowe said construction of the $25 million building proves his business's long term commitment to customers.

"Building something that is efficient, not extravagant, but does fit this neighborhood that we think will help meet our needs for the next 100 years," said Rowe.

According to NorthWestern Energy, the new five-story building will provide a modern working space for 220 workers, many of whom now work out the company's oldest building.

"We've gone from the boardrooms to the planning tables, to reality. This thing is happening and we couldn't be more pleased," said Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Matt Vincent.

He said he has already seen more development interest in the Uptown area, and he has NorthWestern Energy to thank for it.

"Hopefully they'll like it enough to call it their home, and we can start that upward trend again," said Vincent.

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NW Energy breaks ground on new state headquarters

After more than a year of cruising Dallas North Tollway looking for an office location, Internet retailer Amazon has finally landed at the Galleria complex.

Amazon has rented 88,615 square feet of office space in the Two Galleria Tower at 13455 Noel Road, according to a copy of the lease filed in Dallas County records.

The company is taking about five floors in the office high-rise, which is located just north of LBJ Freeway and next door to the Galleria Dallas shopping mall. Amazon also has an option to rent additional office space in all three of the Galleria office towers, according to the lease documents.

Representatives with Amazon did not respond to requests for details about what operations would be housed in the building.

The retailers office lease is one of the largest such recent transactions in the LBJ Freeway corridor, which lost businesses during the last few years reconstruction period.

Amazon originally looked at an office building in West Plano but backed out of that deal at the last minute.

Earlier this year the company refocused its attention on buildings in Far North Dallas and Addison, leasing agents say.

Commercial real estate firm JLL represented Amazon in its hunt for office space and negotiated the Galleria lease with Colliers International.

The timing for Amazons lease at the Galleria couldnt be better. FedEx Office another major tenant in the buildings recently announced it would leave for a new headquarters next door to Toyota Motors campus location in West Plano.

Amazon has been expanding its presence in North Texas with two new distribution centers.

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Amazon takes big office block at Dallas Galleria complex

A look at multibillion-dollar developments aiming to transform New York's west side:

HUDSON YARDS

This $20 billion, 28-acre complex to be completed by 2024 features 16 buildings 14 of them high-rises occupying an area between 30th and 34th streets, and Tenth Avenue and the West Side Highway.

The first, 52-story tower rising over platform-covered rail yards is expected to open in 2015, anchored by the Coach luxury retailer with tenants including L'Oreal USA and the German software giant SAP.

Work has begun on a second, 80-story skyscraper that will be home to Time Warner, the parent company of CNN and HBO.

Hudson Yards will offer 5,000 residential units, about 100 shops and restaurants, 14 acres of public open space, a public school and a luxury hotel.

MANHATTAN WEST

This $4.5 billion, 5-acre complex to be completed by 2018 features five buildings three of them high-rises covering an entire square block between Ninth and Tenth avenues, and 31st to 33rd streets.

Also rising over rail yards, its two office towers and one residential skyscraper will look over a green outdoor plaza, a hotel and a 16-story office building constructed in 1969 that houses the world headquarters of The Associated Press and other media outlets. The older building is undergoing a $200 million renovation.

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A look at major construction on NYC's west side

By Rick Smith, The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS Yet more progress is taking shape in the New Bohemia arts and entertainment district.

The City Councils Development Committee this week backed a plan to seek proposals from developers who will buy and develop the vacant, city-owned site of the former Iowa Iron Works plant on the west side of the 400 block of 12th Avenue SE.

Caleb Mason, the citys redevelopment analyst, told the three-member council committee that several developers have expressed interest in the property.

Those include local developer Joe Ahmann, who is the developer on the new three-story brick office building now under construction across 12th Avenue SE from the Iowa Iron Works site. The new building, which be the new home of Geonetric Inc., a growing local health care software and services company, once was the site of the Iowa Steel plant.

The city acquired both the Iowa Steel and Iowa Iron Works properties more than a decade ago, and with the help of federal and state brownfield money, demolished both plants, cleaned up the sites and readied them for redevelopment.

The council committee, which is chaired by council member Monica Vernon, agreed with Mason that the city should seek proposals for a master plan to develop the entire 4.83-acre Iowa Iron Works parcel that sits between 10th and 12th avenues SE behind the New Bo City Market.

Mason said development proposals in New Bohemia must abide by the special design standards in place in the district, which call for buildings to be built close to the street with parking in the rear. The city also will be looking for a mixed-used plan that includes market-rate housing, Mason said.

Vernon said she wouldnt mind seeing another multistory brick building as part of any development that would mirror the new brick Geonetric office building going up across the street.

Dream big, she said the city needed to tell developers.

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New Bo plans on move for Iowa Irons Works site

Editor's note: We recognize how quickly Charlotte has changed over the years, so here's us trying to preserve its story. In this series, native author David Aaron Moore answers reader-submitted questions about historic places in Charlotte. Submit inquires about unusual, noteworthy or historic people, places and things to davidaaronmoore@post.com.

You've covered the Richard Wearn House both here and on a WSOC news report I saw last year. I know much of the property was razed to make way for a housing development, but I see the Wearn House is still intact. Will it be razed, too? - Elaine Edwards, Mint Hill, N.C.

For those who have just joined the conversation, I'll quickly recap the story of the Richard Wearn House. Construction finished on the pre-Civil War home in 1844. It started life as a log cabin and evolved into a wood-plank federal-style farmhouse that was later Victorianized with the addition of period-appropriate latticework and a wrap-around porch.

One of the oldest structures remaining in all of Charlotte, it is important for a number of reasons. Builder Richard Wearn spearheaded the Charlotte gold rush, the first in the country. The house was built prior to the abolition of slavery, so it serves as an example of an important time in history for both black and white Charlotteans, reminding us of the unimaginable struggles faced at the time. For nearly 100 years, it was part of the Hayes estate, a massive piece of property that stretched from what is Freedom Drive to Tuckaseegee Road and beyond, and was a nursery, providing ornamental plant life for many of the city's most important sites.

The Wearn House has been teetering on the edge of the chopping block since the 1980s, when the last member of the Hayes family moved away from the property and into a care facility, where he died in 2006. The house was sold at auction the following year, to Magnolia Acres LLC.

I attended that auction and can still hear the words of one potential buyer ringing in my ears now, eight years later.

"Looks like a tear-down to me," he said flatly. I looked at him in shock and responded sharply: "I don't suppose you have any idea what the history is behind this house, do you?" He shrugged and walked away, oblivious and disinterested.

The phrase tear-down would later come back to haunt me.

Less than two miles away, near the corner of Tuckaseegee and Little Rock, stood a similar two-story, late-19th century farmhouse.

It wasn't as old as the Wearn House, but it had survived for over a century and was a fine example of federal-style architecture. Inside the two-story house were secret passageways hidden behind oak panels in closets. A huge living room boasted an ornate fireplace. On one end was a screened in day porch, the other a glassed-in sunroom. The house was for sale for many years, but a buyer was never found. Other than exploring it on a few occasions, I never took the time to learn the story behind the owners, other than it was built by the grandparents of the son, who was trying to sell the property. I still cringe today when I recall driving by the house and catching it in a state of half "tear-down."

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Question the Queen City: The historic Wearn House can still be saved