A new approach is needed to advance energy efficiency in buildings. A multitude of trends and innovations offer new opportunities for progress increasingly converging on the prospect of a new basic concept: whole-building systems. Although concentrating on incremental component efficiency has yielded strong results to date, and may yield further incremental, small improvements, a holistic whole-building strategy promises to be a game changer — and the path to significant building energy efficiency. An industry shift to whole-systems efficiency offers the first step toward a transformation in buildings to parallel what has been witnessed in telecommunications, logistics, and other reengineered industries.
History repeatedly demonstrates that innovation and progress often stem from the convergence of several sometimes random and unrelated trends in technology. Today, such trends include low-cost natural gas, practical building-scale combined heat and power systems, heat/energy recovery in water heating and ventilation systems, economically viable solar voltaic generation, smart grid and energy storage, and variable-speed HVAC equipment that saves energy and could adapt to fluctuations in renewable power generation and respond to utility peak-load conditions. Practical and effective building control systems tying these developments together could substantially reduce energy usage and stress on the electric grid, and ensure that buildings continue to operate properly.