California Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research Program LBNL No 51244 HPCBS No E2P2 3T1b High Performance Commercial Building Systems Software Interoperability for Energy Simulation Element 2 Life Cycle Tools Project 2 3 Interoperability Robert J Hitchcock Ph D Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory July 31 2002 DISCLAIMER This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by the United States Government While this document is believed to contain correct information neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof nor The Regents of the University of California nor any of their employees makes any warranty express or implied or assumes any legal responsibility for the accuracy completeness or usefulness 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 its 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 The Regents of the University of California The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof or The Regents of the University of California This report was prepared as a result of work sponsored by the California Energy Commission Commission It does not necessarily represent the views of the Commission its employees or the State of California The Commission the State of California its employees contractors and subcontractors make no warranty express or implied and assume no legal liability for the information in this report nor does any party represent that the use of this information will not infringe upon privately owned rights This report has not been approved or disapproved by the Commission nor has the Commission passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the information in this report ERNEST ORLANDO LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER LBNL 51244 IO 486 ASHRAE Transactions Vol 109 1 January 2003 Software Interoperability for Energy Simulation Robert J Hitchcock Ph D Commercial Building Systems Group Building Technologies Department Environmental Energy Technologies Division Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California 1 Cyclotron Road Berkeley California 94720 8134 July 31 2002 This work was completed under contract to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as part of the High Performance Commercial Building Systems program This program is supported by the California Energy Commission s Public Interest Energy Research PIER Buildings Program and the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Building Technologies Program of the U S Department of Energy under Contract No DE AC03 76SF00098 Software Interoperability for Energy Simulation Robert J Hitchcock Ph D Abstract This paper provides an overview of software interoperability as it relates to the energy simulation of buildings The paper begins with a discussion of the difficulties in using sophisticated analysis tools like energy simulation at various stages in the building life cycle and the potential for interoperability to help overcome these difficulties An overview of the Industry Foundation Classes IFC a common data model for supporting interoperability under continuing development by the International Alliance for Interoperability IAI is then given The process of creating interoperable software is described next followed by specific details for energy simulation tools The paper closes with the current status of and future plans for the ongoing efforts to achieve software interoperability Introduction Whole building integrated design can result in buildings that are energy efficient and of overall higher quality To be successful this design approach requires the use of multiple analysis tools capable of evaluating alternative design solutions from a variety of performance perspectives of which energy efficiency is only one However the time and resources necessary for setting up completely separate analyses have historically limited the use of sophisticated tools such as energy simulation during the building design phase All of the details of a design solution must be extracted from existing design documentation such as CAD drawings and supporting text documents and reentered into the energy simulation tool This procedure is not only costly in time and resources it is also prone to error The turn around time for evaluating each proposed design solution can mean a critical delay of days or even weeks The alternative of waiting to evaluate and correct a nearly completed design solution leads to sub optimal design corrections Furthermore even in those projects that employ energy simulation during design the use of these tools is difficult to dynamically carry forward to later stages of the building life cycle The input to and output from energy simulation is static Re simulation of the building as it changes over time e g from alterations in occupancy use or operation or more substantial renovation requires significant data reentry Even if the input files and output results from the design stage have been archived it is a difficult task to accurately collect all of the information on building changes reconcile these changes with the earlier input and compare new analysis output with the previous results These difficulties mean that although energy simulation could be a useful tool in assuring optimum building performance over time it is employed even less frequently during building operations and maintenance stages than during design But what if a complete description of the building adequate not only for energy simulation but also for analyses such as construction cost estimation occupant comfort and health evaluation and chemical biological vulnerability assessment was easily accessible by multiple software programs What if the building information created within CAD tools could be easily shared with energy simulation and cost estimation tools and the additional information input by users of these tools could be easily propagated to others What if all of this information was archived in a manner that it could be dynamically updated to reflect changes over time and made accessible to authorized participants in
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