Parametric Modeling with OpenStudio and DesignBuilder – IBPSA-USA Boston Chapter

The IBPSA-USA Boston Chapter promotes the science of building performance simulation in order to improve new and existing buildings worldwide while connecting Boston-area practitioners. Please spread the word among your colleagues in the Boston area! Stay informed about this event and future ones by signing up for our email list and joining our LinkedIn group. Contact ibpsa.boston@gmail.com with any questions. Date & Time: Tue, Sep 28, 2021; 9:00 AM – 10:00 PM Pacific Register Here on Eventbrite Presentation Abstracts: 1.) Burr & Burton Academy’s Founders Hall is a 25,000 square foot, 2.5 story classroom building centrally-located in the Burr & Burton campus in Manchester, VT. The design team approached the project with a desire to incorporate robust energy efficiency measures, creating a high-performance, potentially net-zero-ready building. Green Mountain Power (GMP), with the help of VEIC and Efficiency Vermont, engaged the project in their Flexible Load Management (FLM) Pilot Project, which offers incentives to buildings willing to consider electrical load shedding or shifting control strategies. VEIC performed BEM analysis of various heating and thermal energy storage strategies to optimize the building for the FLM program within its space constraints. This is one of several projects (new and existing buildings) where VEIC will be working with GMP on modeling grid-interactive buildings to help better understand buildings as a grid resource and plan for longer term strategies. 2.) This DesignBuilder presentation will introduce an innovative approach to aid the design process, using optimization in a simulation tool to undertake rigorous cost-benefit analysis. Optimization uses a genetic algorithm in a “survival of the fittest” process that mimics natural evolution, automatically finding solutions that provide the best “trade-off” between cost, energy consumption, and comfort for a given set of design criteria. Optimization achieves this in a fraction of the time that traditional parametric or manual iterative simulation methods would take, removing the time-related barriers associated with assessing large numbers of potential solutions. Fully informed decisions can then be made, increasing confidence in both the design team and client. After introducing optimization fundamentals, we will show you how DesignBuilder has been used for advanced cost-benefit analysis of building envelopes and other carbon, energy and cost savings in example projects. Presenters: Craig Simmons, VEIC Nishesh Jain, DesignBuilder