Calibrating an Existing Building Energy Model

One of the most difficult aspects of performing energy analysis on existing building projects is calibrating the simulated results from the energy model to the building's actual energy use. Accurate calibration depends on utility billing data or trended performance data from the Building Energy Management System (BEMS) being properly integrated into the energy model. To the novice, this process can easily double the modeling effort, killing a project’s budget. In the first part of this session, you will learn how to build a simplified energy model in Autodesk® Vasari Beta 1.0 software and calibrate the model to monthly utility data in Autodesk® Green Building Studio® web-based software. The second half of the class will cover how to calibrate the simulated results of the DOE2 energy model to the actual building’s energy performance as captured by a properly configured BEMS system. Both of these strategies will be covered in a case study on the Autodesk headquarters building in San Rafael, CA.