Project Website: https://bemcyclopedia.com/
Lead Performer: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab – Berkeley, CA
Partner(s):
-- Model Efficiency – Concord, MA
-- Kolderup Consulting – San Francisco, CA
DOE Total Funding: $250,000
FY21 DOE Funding: $250,000
Project Term: Mar 2020 – Sep 2021
Funding Type: directed
Project Objective
Interviews with architects and modelers at architecture firms revealed that a significant need is a “go-to” resource for beginning modelers to learn how to perform BEM analysis and to understand the underlying building physics principles. Modelers are forced to cobble together an education through various non-uniform sources. This situation has exacerbated variance and unpredictability in BEM where the quality of results and the ability to interpret the results is highly variable depending on the practitioner and how well he/she is able to teach themselves and what resources he/she discovers and chooses to use.
Those same interviews yielded many opinions on the best way to disseminate training content. Some respondents favored “bite-sized” chunks of information that they could review on demand (e.g. short tutorials or videos) while others favored full day workshops. Most respondents agreed that the most effective way to learn BEM (or anything) is to learn it while applying it to a specific project.
This project is developing BEMcyclopedia, a wiki that serves both general and tool-specific BEM training content in a project and task oriented way. The BEMcyclopedia is intended to cater to beginning modelers but will also include advanced material for experienced practitioners. It will contain content that is tailored to different user types (e.g., architects, mechanical design engineers, energy consultants) and modeling use case (e.g., early-stage design, HVAC system design, EUI prediction, code-compliance), and provide background material (e.g., building physics, HVAC) as needed.
Contacts
DOE Technology Manager: Amir Roth
Lead Performer: Cindy Regnier, LBNL