Guidelines for Using Building Information Modeling for Energy Analysis of Buildings

Abstract

Building energy modeling (BEM), a subset of building information modeling (BIM), integrates energy analysis into the design, construction, and operation and maintenance of buildings. As there are various existing BEM tools available, there is a need to evaluate the utility of these tools in various phases of the building lifecycle. The goal of this research was to develop guidelines for evaluation and selection of BEM tools to be used in particular building lifecycle phases. The objectives of this research were to: (1) Evaluate existing BEM tools; (2) Illustrate the application of the three BEM tools; (3) Re-evaluate the three BEM tools; and (4) Develop guidelines for evaluation, selection and application of BEM tools in the design, construction and operation/maintenance phases of buildings. Twelve BEM tools were initially evaluated using four criteria: interoperability, usability, available inputs, and available outputs. Each of the top three BEM tools selected based on this initial evaluation was used in a case study to simulate and evaluate energy usage, daylighting performance, and natural ventilation for two academic buildings (LEED-certified and non-LEED-certified). The results of the case study were used to re-evaluate the three BEM tools using the initial criteria with addition of the two new criteria (speed and accuracy), and to develop guidelines for evaluating and selecting BEM tools to analyze building energy performance. The major

Obstacles to the Automation of Building Performance Simulation: Adaptive Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) design

“…Typically, the use of BPS to predict energy consumption during building operation requires calibrating the building energy model or the EAM to be as close as possible to how the building will actually be built, occupied and operated (Summerfield & Lowe, 2012;Reeves, Olbina, & Issa, 2015). It was fortunate that the automated BPS workflow experimented in this study allowed users to finely tune the inputs to calibrate the energy model with lots of pre-computed DOE 2.2 whole building energy simulations that represent all worldwide climate zones and a wide range of typical building forms, functions and efficiency (Egger, Autodesk Insight 360, 2015) during the BIM models development and the EAM generations.…”

A review of Building Information Modeling research for green building design through building performance analysis

“…Besides Azhar and Brown (2009), Reeves et al (2012aReeves et al ( , 2015 also evaluated various building energy modeling (BEM) tools to provide guidelines for design and delivery of high-performance buildings. In their research, twelve BEM tools were evaluated by four criteria: interoperability, user-friendliness, available inputs, and available outputs.…”

“…(2) Research goal: What BPA types and BIM uses are studied in the collected literature are identified as their central research goals for analyses and discussions. Ten key BPA types are chosen in this study based on the frameworks developed by Azhar and Brown (2009) and Reeves et al (2012Reeves et al ( , 2015. To be noticed, some BPA types are grouped together for they are based on the same physics principles (i.e.…”

“…Krygiel and Nies (2008) utilized Revit for calculation of roof area and used Microsoft spreadsheets for further calculation of rainwater reuse with climate data and overall building water loads by fixtures to calculate and optimize water harvesting. Reeves et al (2012aReeves et al ( , 2015 noted the available outputs of 12 BEM tools and their results showed that only five of these tools were able to conduct analysis related to water usage: eQuest, EcoDesigner, GBS, Ecotect, and EnergyPlus.…”

Optimizing Energy Efficiency in Operating Built Environment Assets through Building Information Modeling: A Case Study

“…Gokce et al [26] develop a continuous assessment process by combining the data from different sources and phases in a single data repository centred on a building's BIM spaces. However, Reeven et al [27] highlight that a limitation in using BIM (associated with the building energy model (BEM)) for monitoring the building performance in operation is its "inability to simulate building performance under realistic conditions". Indeed, these authors mention that "inaccurate input related to occupant behavior and building operation is a common and substantial source of error in building performance simulations under realistic conditions".…”