Energy assessment of office buildings in China using LEED 2.2 and BEAM Plus 1.1

• Energy assessment of current versions of LEED and BEAM Plus were compared.
• Comparison was based on three office buildings – one in Beijing and two in Shanghai.
• Energy assessment result was found dominated by the energy use for air-conditioning.
• Assessment results were comparable for buildings assessed by LEED and BEAM Plus.
• Comparable results would not be affected by difference in tariff between locations.

LEED and BEAM Plus have been formally launched for more than 10 years. They are the two most recognized building environmental assessment schemes in China. Previous works have been done on benchmarking the energy assessment of the two schemes. However, benchmarking was either based on their earlier versions of which substantial changes have been made, or focused on their assessment issues and metrics without making reference to actual building characteristics. This paper compares the energy performance assessment results of three new office buildings in China (one in Beijing and two in Shanghai) using current versions of LEED and BEAM Plus. The three office buildings were chosen for their similarities in design. The study revealed that despite the variations in different aspects between LEED and BEAM Plus, assessment results of the three studied buildings were comparable. Amongst various building end uses, energy use for air-conditioning was found dominating the assessment results. Comparison results also show that although different tariff systems are adopted in Beijing and Shanghai, the difference will not affect the assessment results as long as same tariff system is used for predicting the energy cost of the baseline and design cases.