The presentations, news, research summaries, reports, and technology overviews are collected here by focus area and represent the body of work developed by the CBEI partners during the 5-year project period. For additional information on market challenges, approach, and impacts, see each focus area overview.
This study is focused on simulation-based parametric evaluation of building enclosure measures that can be taken during the retrofit of Building 661 case.
The exercise seeks to identify, study and evaluate existing energy simulation software in the construction industry that are suitable for the early stages of architectural design, i.e., during the conceptual or early schematic design phases.
This report discusses and explains the suite of programs developed to facilitate analysis and interpretation of EnergyPlus simulation outputs for design decision support purposes.
The online web-based simulation tool survey covering energy, lighting and CFD simulation is intended to gather pertinent information for evaluating the current usage, strengths, and weaknesses and provide recommendations on the best available Energy, CFD, and Lighting simulation tools in industry.
This study is focused on simulation-based performance assessment of a number of electric lighting system design scenarios aiming to get energy savings with increased system efficiency coupled to daylight-linked controls while preserving visual comfort conditions for indoor spaces.
This research on energy efficiency and occupant behavior in multi-tenanted buildings provides valuable insights into the challenges that confront the goal of achieving a 50% energy reduction in commercial buildings in the Greater Philadelphia region by 2014.
This report provides a detailed analysis is conducted on the process of developing building envelope components within EnergyPlus environment with the aim of identifying required input data and the design correlates for opaque and transparent assemblies. Alternative envelope model definition methods are discussed and explained through schemas developed to reveal relationships (hierarchies) between EnergyPlus classes and objects pertaining to a specific definition method.
The purpose of this Integrated Technology Research Roadmap is to support the transformation of commercial / institutional / multi-family building energy efficiency retrofits by providing robust field-verified models and scalable, tested, integrated technology solutions to existing GPIC building stock. Furthermore, the goal of this Roadmap is to demonstrate, in the Philadelphia region, operational energy savings of 50 percent in the 2013-2020 timeframe in a scalable manner across a broad range of building types, while providing good indoor environment.
This report explains the design and performance of demonstration of BIPV Systems for Bldg. 661. The results shows that very few surfaces on Building 661 that have an unrestricted, clear view of the sky for an adequate amount of incident solar irradiation for use in energy conversion systems.
The purpose of this document is to describe the technical investigation performed by the IBM team regarding the pros and cons of the BIMserver (Open source Building Information Modelserver or BiMserver, aka BIMserver.org) in the context of the requirements of the GPIC BIM/BEM (Building Information Modeling/ Building Energy Modeling) Server and Data Hub. BIMserver is a joint effort by Netherlands organization for applied scientific research (TNO), Technical University Eindhoven, VTT (Finland), CSIRO (Australia), AEC3 (Germany, Great Britain), Initiatiefgroep Open, Standaarden (Netherlands), and a growing group of others.
This report summarizes the findings from a review of a wide range of lighting software tools with a focus on the modeling capabilities of these programs, and in particular the capabilities of these programs in the area of daylighting analysis.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) awarded $455,000 to the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub (EEB Hub) and several of its members to train building operators in the commercial, industrial and educational sectors so that they can more efficiently and economically operate their facilities. The award helps boost the EEB Hub’s objective to inform, train and educate people about proven energy-saving strategies and technologies towards the goal of reducing energy use in the Greater Philadelphia commercial building sector by 20 percent by 2020.
This report contains some general findings of a series of daylight models that was conducted for Building 661 with its existing fenestration systems and with a few small modifications that were made to these systems.
The purpose of this workshop was to bring together representatives from all of the tasks and from industry to develop a common understanding of Integration for GPIC, particularly as it relates to the lifecycle of a facility. The goal of this workshop was to develop the essential activities and interrelationship of tasks for the GPIC Energy Efficient Building Hub as they relate to the lifecycle of a building from planning through to operations.
To avoid unnecessary investments in transmission and generation resources, a good solution is to apply Demand Response programs to reduce the demand for electricity at peak hours, when generating electricity is more costly. Customers do not see how the electricity prices change on the real-time market, since most of them pay a flat rate based on the average price of electricity, therefore Demand Response programs can offer incentives to consumers to reduce their usage at peak hours, through rebates or as a response to higher electricity prices.