Future for Building Energy Modelling

Courtesy of Integrated Environmental Solutions Limited (IES).

On April 24, 2018, has been published the long-awaited ASHRAE Standard 209-2018, Energy Simulation Aided Design for Buildings except Low Rise Residential Buildings, which describes the most beneficial use of energy modeling for any constructions. I believe that it is a great reference for energy modeler however, it is not tomorrow that all projects will comply to this standard of using energy model to inform and optimize the design through 11 cycles from early concept to post-occupancy.

The importance of this movement is the message that experts wish to communicate to decision makers (general contractors, real estate firms, and investors) that an energy efficient building is designed with an integrative process which requires the involvement of a building energy modeler professional at all stages of the project, if possible.

The most probable outcome in the future years, as it has the bigger impact, would be that energy models are used in early phase of the project to define site information (location, orientation, shapes, height), then during the design process an accurate energy model would help HVAC engineers to choose/ optimize the systems to be installed. Finally, energy models would still be used to document compliance to standards such as ASHRAE 90.1 to obtain a green building certification

Few multinational companies understand the benefits of energy modeling-based optimization and this is a small investment compared to the efficient constructed building. For all construction industry professionals, ask yourself when you make your next project decisions: is it based on energy model analysis, or we always did it that way?

Energy Modeling in Architectural Design By Timothy L. Hemsath, Kaveh Alagheh Bandhosseini

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• ASHRAE 209-2018
• Energy Modeling in Architectural Design 
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