Innovations in Building Energy Modeling
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Innovations in Building Energy Modeling Research and Development Opportunities Report for Emerging Technologies November 2020 Innovations in Building Energy Modeling: Research and Development Opportunities Report Disclaimer This work was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, nor any of their contractors, subcontractors or their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or any third party’s use or the results of such use of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof or its contractors or subcontractors. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof, its contractors or subcontractors. ii Innovations in Building Energy Modeling: Research and Development Opportunities Report Acknowledgments Prepared by Amir Roth, Ph.D. Special thanks to the following individuals and groups. Robert Zogg and Emily Cross of Guidehouse (then Navigant Consulting) conducted the interviews, organized the stakeholder workshops, and wrote the first DRAFT BEM Roadmap. Janet Reyna of NREL (then an ORISE Fellow at BTO) provided extensive feedback on the initial DRAFT BEM Roadmap and helped create the organization for the subsequent DRAFT BEM Research and Development Opportunities (RDO) document. The IBPSA-USA Advocacy Committee and its leadership collected feedback on the DRAFT BEM RDO document and for continued dialogue with BTO to help address industry and community concerns. Michael Deru of NREL (then on detail to BTO) helped review, organize, and prioritize the feedback on the DRAFT BEM RDO document. A final thanks to the many organizations and individuals who provided valuable feedback on both DRAFT documents. iii Innovations in Building Energy Modeling: Research and Development Opportunities Report List of Acronyms AEE Association of Energy Engineers AEO Annual Energy Outlook AHJ authority having jurisdiction AIA American Institute of Architects API application programming interface BAU business as usual BCL Building Component Library BCVTB Building Controls Virtual Test Bed BDE Building Data Exchange BEM building energy modeling BEMP ASHRAE’s Building Energy Modeling Professional credential BESA AEE’s Building Energy Simulation Analyst credential BIM building information modeling BOMA Building Owners and Managers Association BPI Building Performance Institute BTO U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office CBEA Commercial Building Energy Association CBECS EIA’s Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey CCx continuous commissioning CEC California Energy Commission CGDB Complex Glazing Database CLI OpenStudio Command Line Interface DDx AIA’s Design Data Exchange DOE U.S. Department of Energy DOD U.S. Department of Defense EIA U.S. Energy Information Administration EE energy efficiency EEM energy efficiency measure iv Innovations in Building Energy Modeling: Research and Development Opportunities Report EERE DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy EMS energy management system EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ERDA Energy Research and Development Administration ESPC energy savings performance contract EUI energy use intensity FDD fault detection and diagnosis FMI Functional Mockup Interface FRP Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Flexible Research Platform GEB Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings GHG greenhouse gas GSA General Services Administration GSF gross square footage HERS RESNET’s Home Energy Rating System HVAC heating, ventilation, and air conditioning IBPSA International Building Performance Simulation Association IBPSA-USA The USA chapter of IBPSA ICC International Code Council IDF EnergyPlus’s Input Data Format IECC International Energy Conservation Code IGDB International Glazing Database LEED U.S. Green Business Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design credential LBNL Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory MHEA Mobile Home Energy Audit MPC model predictive control MulTEA Multifamily Tool for Energy Auditing MYPP BTO’s Multi-Year Program Plan M&V measurement and verification NEAT National Energy Audit Tool v Innovations in Building Energy Modeling: Research and Development Opportunities Report NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology NREL National Renewable Energy Laboratory NSF National Science Foundation NZERTF net-zero energy research test facility ORNL Oak Ridge National Laboratory OSM OpenStudio Model OSW OpenStudio Workflow PAT OpenStudio’s Parametric Analysis Tool QA quality assurance R&D research and development RECS U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Residential Energy Consumption Survey RESNET Residential Energy Services Network RMI Rocky Mountain Institute SDK software development kit SEED Standard Energy Efficiency Data Platform SEER Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating TPEX BTO’s Technology Performance Exchange TRACE Trane Air-Conditioning Economics USGBC U.S. Green Buildings Council VRF variable refrigerant flow vi Innovations in Building Energy Modeling: Research and Development Opportunities Report Report Purpose, Scope, and Approach Building energy modeling (BEM) is a multipurpose tool for building energy efficiency (EE). The U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Office (BTO) seeks to expand the use and effectiveness of BEM in the design and operation of commercial and residential buildings with the goal of achieving lasting reductions in total and peak energy use. This report identifies gaps and outlines recommended initiatives to achieve this goal, based on a combination of technical analysis and stakeholder input. In addition to BTO, this report can benefit BEM professionals (architects, mechanical engineers, energy consultants, building auditors, equipment manufacturers, and BEM software vendors) and BEM clients (building owners and operators, EE program administrators, EE service providers, policymakers, and policy and code jurisdictions such as states and cities). This report was developed in two phases. In the first, BTO worked with a team from Navigant Consulting (now Guidehouse) to characterize objectives, opportunities, and current activities; identify gaps and barriers; and define initiatives. To collect input, Navigant conducted telephone interviews and workshops with industry experts. The initial phase produced a draft report, which was released for public review in 2016 and yielded over 400 comments. Based on these comments, BTO compiled a second draft report that addressed many of those comments while acknowledging changes that had occurred both at BTO and in the industry. Unlike the first draft report, the second focused much more heavily on BTO’s own role, portfolio, and activities. BTO is a direct player in the BEM field—it funds the development of several significant software packages that are embedded in commercial products—and transparency about its goals and future plans is requisite. BTO recognizes that a great number of other public and private organizations contribute to the BEM enterprise. With the second draft report, BTO did not attempt to produce a blueprint for the industry as a whole, but rather a working document BTO can use to iteratively solicit stakeholder input and synthesize it into a program. BTO released the second draft report for public review in 2019. The second round of review generated 83 pages of feedback and comments—almost exactly the length of the draft report itself—a significant portion of which was collected and synthesized by IBPSA-USA Advocacy Committee. This final report incorporates this feedback. This report does not address the use of BEM in support of building-based grid services, a recent BTO initiative called Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB). In 2019, BTO published a report that specifically addresses the role of BEM—and other “integration” technologies—in GEB (Roth and Reyna 2019). vii Innovations in Building Energy Modeling: Research and Development Opportunities Report Executive Summary The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO) seeks to achieve significant and lasting reductions in energy use in U.S. commercial and residential buildings. Deep and sustained savings reduce consumer costs, help mitigate grid stress and improve reliability, and support building and system resiliency. As one of the means to achieve this larger goal, BTO seeks to increase the use of building energy modeling (BEM) both in the design and operation of individual buildings, but also in activities that support building EE, including EE code development, EE program management, product design, research, and education. BTO has pursued this goal and invested in BEM since before DOE rose to the status of a cabinet-level department. Currently, BTO develops the open-source BEM engine EnergyPlus®, the open-source BEM software development kit (SDK) OpenStudio®, and funds and directs a number of other initiatives. A complete listing of BTO’s current activities in BEM is available on BTO’s BEM subprogram webpage.1