Review and Recommendations of Existing Methods and Tools for Building Energy Analysis: Subtask 2.4 for the Southern Energy Efficiency Center

Abstract

The Southern Energy Efficiency Center (SEEC) was established to substantially increase the deployment of high-performance “beyond-code” buildings across the southern region of the U.S. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program and administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory. During its first 18-month phase, to expand the use of existing methods, procedures and tools for building energy efficiency in the marketplace; project efforts include identifying the existing tools from very simple calculators for estimating energy savings to detailed methods for measurement and verification of commercial building energy savings and defining their technical and practical characteristics. This work is defined under the SEEC Subtask 2.4 Expand the Use of Existing Methods and Tools. This report presents preliminary deliverables of this subtask developed and documented by the Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) for use by the SEEC member state region. The primary goal of this subtask is to provide the state energy offices with the list of available tools and recommendations for use. By scrutinizing the information gathered, these recommendations have been developed to encourage the use of a number of existing tools that are not widely used, but provide valuable information and insight on the benefits of building energy efficiency in the SEEC member states. The resultant summary spreadsheet will also allow them to choose the appropriate tool, either simple calculators or detailed methods, according to the inquiry.