DOE’s Building Energy Modeling, or BEM, is a versatile and multifunctional tool employed in the construction industry for new building design, retrofit planning, compliance with building codes, green certification, tax credit eligibility and utility incentives and real-time building management.
ORNL is a contributor to the research, development and implementation of BEM and supports the following initiatives:
- Develop and maintain BEM engines and tools, including EnergyPlus, OpenStudio, and Spawn-of-EnergyPlus.
- Support development and maintenance of ASHRAE Standard 140 and 205 for the standardization and evaluation of building energy modeling engines and processes.
- Perform empirical validation of BEM through the utilization of ORNL’s Flexible Research Platform to ensure models align with real-world building performance data and promote utilization of BEM engines in applications.