The Living Building Challenge 3.1 Net Positive Energy Imperative requires a building to produce — using clean methods — at 105 percent of the energy that it uses.

From the Lord Aeck Sargent blog that’s also following the Living Building at Georgia Tech:

The amount of intentionality and rigor required in the energy design of a project with a fixed energy budget is remarkable.  Decisions about operations have become as important as decisions about design. Factors such as operating hours, thermostat setpoints, plug loads, etc.—items that could otherwise seem trivial—assume enormous importance when the energy budget is constrained and all power must be generated locally.

The post — written by LAS’ Ramana Koti and David Mead, along with PAE’s Marc Brune — does a nice job of getting at the complexity of energy modeling and energy conservation measures for a Living Building. Read it here.