Building Energy Modeling

b. Building Energy Modeling This subtopic solicits R&D proposals for new methods, tools, applications for whole building energy modeling (BEM) and closely related areas. BTO's goal is to expand the effective use of BEM in all use cases, supporting energy efficiency, demand flexibility, or both. Whole building energy modeling (BEM) is a multi-purpose tool for building energy efficiency. At the individual building project level, it supports optimized design of new and retrofitted buildings and districts, HVAC equipment selection, sizing, and control design, code-compliance, ratings and certificates, and incentives. BEM on prototypical model supports the development of energy-efficiency codes, design guides, incentive programs, and products. BEM also has some applications in building operations. Although BEM typically implies physics-based modeling, reduced-order, data-driven, and hybrid models have been demonstrated to be sufficient for some applications and have both model development and execution time advantages over physics-based models. Proposals may target any BEM use case (e.g., design, code-compliance, portfolio analysis), any sub-task associated with one or more BEM use-cases (e.g., Building Information Model-to-BEM, model input calibration, quality assurance), any building or project type (e.g., new or existing, commercial or residential, individual building or campus), and any approach (e.g., physics-based, data-driven, hybrid). Although DOE funds the development of a number open-source physics-based BEM tools and packages, use of DOE-funded BEM tools is not required. Applicants should explicitly state which existing tools (in whole or in part) they will be using and which (if any) they plan to develop as part of the proposed work. Interested applicants may refer to BTO's draft research & development opportunities document for more information about specific barriers to the effective adoption of BEM and possible initiatives to address them [1]. Questions Contact: Amir Roth, Amir.Roth@ee.doe.gov