IBPSA-USA

BDE -Building Data Exchange

Our Project

The industry is in the process of making a steady shift towards connected databases and web technologies for the design, analysis, and operation of built environments. Consequently, the end-user must work with a multitude of unrelated data dictionaries, schemas, and file formats to represent building information for simulation. Although some efforts have been made in the recent past to standardize data models, most practitioners (and programmers), developers, vendors, manufacturers, and performance testing organizations have their own data structures resulting in tremendous market fragmentation. This fragmentation is detrimental to overall productivity because tools and workflows become incompatible, resulting in duplication of effort and inefficient use of project funding.

In the larger interest of the industry and to truly bridge the gap between owners, architects, engineers, modelers, software vendors, AHJs, and other related stakeholders, it is recommended that a consensus-based engine-neutral data dictionary and schema be developed to enable building data exchange. 

Addressing current barriers to data exchange, and if needed, facilitating the development of standard data models will help overcome some of the key barriers to greater adoption of building performance modeling outlined in USDOE BTO’s Emerging Technologies Research and Development document, namely – improving value proposition, increasing accuracy, making time available to develop core modeling capabilities, and facilitating end-to-end workflow automation. 

About

The Building Data Exchange Committee was formed to provide an inclusive forum to support the development of tool-agnostic consensus-based data models for the design, analysis, and operational performance of buildings. Our committee members co-author and publish Consensus Documents for Building Data Exchange and participate in related industry forums to encourage open information-sharing in the development of pertinent data infrastructure for buildings. The approved purpose and scope are reproduced below:

Purpose

  1. provide an inclusive forum to collaboratively support tool-agnostic data exchange through the development of consensus-based data models for the design, analysis, and operational performance of buildings; and
  2. participate in related industry forums and standards committees to encourage open information-sharing in the development of pertinent data infrastructure for buildings.

Scope

This committee can – 

  1. periodically distribute surveys to identify key barriers to developing a cohesive data ecosystem for multiple use cases throughout a building’s life-cycle;
  2. organize webinars for industry stakeholders to demonstrate their data models and solicit feedback from end-users, software developers, and others; and
  3. facilitate the authoring and publishing of Consensus Documents with standard data models for specific applications in building design, analysis, and operation.

The committee currently has four working groups:

  • Data Modeling: Developing a common framework and vocabulary for discussing and developing data models and data schemas
  • Climate Information: Facilitating the development of consensus data model(s) to represent climate information for building design, analysis, and operation
  • Compliance and Certification:  Improving the efficiency of sharing Building Performance Simulation (BPS) data with administrators of compliance and certification programs.
  • BIM to BEM: Inform other BDE working groups, including the Data Models and Compliance and Certification Reporting by focusing on the architectural aspects of BIM to BEM translation. The working group will document the findings in a consensus document prepared by the group’s core members and in collaboration with a larger group consisting of BEM and BIM professionals as well as software and schema developers. 

Committee Roster

Name Affiliation Interest Category
Amir Roth US DOE Government/AHJ/Rating Authority
Amir Rezaei Cannon Design General User – Architects/Engineers/Energy Modelers/BIM Specialists/Other
Anna Morton Morton Gestalt General User – Architects/Engineers/Energy Modelers/BIM Specialists/Other
Ben Brannon Arup General User – Architects/Engineers/Energy Modelers/BIM Specialists/Other
Blanca Dasi Espuig HOK General User – Architects/Engineers/Energy Modelers/BIM Specialists/Other
Chip Barnaby   BPS Software
Cory Mosiman NREL Schema Developer
Eric Shadd NORESCO Government/AHJ/Rating Authority
Erik Kolderup Kolderup Consulting General User – Architects/Engineers/Energy Modelers/BIM Specialists/Other
Gokulram Paranjothi NREL Schema Developer
Ian Molloy Autodesk BIM Software
Jason Glazer Gard Standards
Jordan Bull AEI General User – Architects/Engineers/Energy Modelers/BIM Specialists/Other
Joshua New ORNL BPS Software
Kamel Haddad NRC International
Matheus Bracht Federal University of Santa Catarina (LabEEE / UFSC) General User – Architects/Engineers/Energy Modelers/BIM Specialists/Other
Matt Steen NREL General User – Architects/Engineers/Energy Modelers/BIM Specialists/Other
Matthew Biesterveld Trane Technologies BPS Software
Matthew Duffy IESVE BPS Software
Michael Sawford EDSL BPS Software
Neal Kruis Big Ladder Standards
Nicholas Long NREL Schema Developer
Noel Merket NREL Schema Developer
Parag Rastogi arbnco Data Vendor
Richard See Digital Alchemy Schema Developer
Roberto Lamberts IBPSA Brazil International
Sagar Rao AEI Schema Developer
Scott Criswell SAC Software Schema Developer
Shivraj Dhaka IGBC International
Simon Whelan FenestraPro BIM Software
Stephen Roth Carmel Software Schema Developer
Suhaas Mathur GBCI Government/AHJ/Rating Authority
Supriya Goel PNNL Standards
Tianzhen Hong LBNL BPS Software
Tim McDowell TESS BPS Software

BDE Surveys

Use of data models within the building performance simulation sector

The IBPSA-USA Building Data Exchange (BDE) subcommittee circulated a survey on the use of data models in the building performance simulation realm.  The survey was announced through the IBPSA-USA listserv and other email mailing lists.  A total of 62 responses to the survey were collected.  The vast majority of the respondents fell into three work categories: consulting engineer (34%), energy modeler (32%) and researcher (23%).

Read the full survey report here.

Meetings

Full committee meetings are held every month. The links to the notes for the monthly meetings are updated below. 

  1. 5/8/2020 
  2. 6/11/2020
  3. 7/09/2020
  4. 8/13/2020
  5. 9/10/2020
  6. 11/12/2020
  7. 12/10/2020
  8. 1/14/2021
  9. 3/11/2021

Consensus Documents

Climate Data Model Specification

This document defines the capabilities or functionalities of a data model to exchange climate data for use in performance simulation for building design, analysis, and operation. 

  • The document is published below and is also available for download