This article is part of BD+C's special five-part Technology Report 2014: Top tech tools and trends for AEC professionals.
For more than a decade, the U.S. Department of Energy has made its EnergyPlus energy analysis and thermal load simulation program available for free to Building Teams.
Using EnergyPlus, AEC professionals can model heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation, and other energy flows, as well as water consumption, within a building design.
But without a major rewrite of the program since its creation, using EnergyPlus could exhibit slow performance and occasionally inaccurate analysis results.
The programming language it was originally written in, Fortran, simply could not keep up with advances in the hardware and software computing environment. FORTRAN is a language aimed at scientific programs to be run by scientists for days and weeks on supercomputers, not by building designers running multiple iterations of a design idea in a matter of a few hours.
Because it wasn't well integrated with common architectural design software, EnergyPlus never gained widespread adoption by architects working in the conceptual stage of a project.
At Greenbuild 2013, Autodesk (working pro bono) turned over brand new engine source code to the DOE to create a completely rewritten EnergyPlus for a forthcoming version. The new code will be made available under the DOE’s open source license.
Autodesk’s software engineers translated EnergyPlus—more than 600,000 lines of code—to C++, a modern, object-oriented language that is better supported on mass-market hardware and software platforms.
As a result, a larger ecosystem of developers and vendors will be able to contribute updates to the code in order to improve performance and decrease the time required to run energy model simulations.
The forthcoming version will also work better with BIM applications, auditing tools, and energy dashboards after it is released and developers are able to work on improved integrations.
For more, visit: http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus.
Related Stories
| Jun 13, 2012
Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute to hold energy asset conference for property owners, senior real estate managers
Top-level real estate professionals have been ignored as the industry has pushed to get sustainability measures in place.
| Jun 12, 2012
SAC Federal Credit Union selects LEO A DALY to design corporate headquarters
LEO A DALY also provided site selection, programming and master planning services for the project over the past year.
| Jun 12, 2012
Restoration Millwork exterior trim achieves GreenCircle certification
Made from cellular polyvinyl chloride, the full line of Restoration Millwork trim, beadboard and accessories is engineered to look, feel and work like top-grade lumber.
| Jun 12, 2012
Piché joins C.W. Driver as director of business development
Piché will expand upon project opportunities for firm’s Southern California operations.
| Jun 12, 2012
BCA Architects transforms Anaheim schools into dynamic learning environments
BCA Architects was selected to update the district's long-range master plan.
| Jun 11, 2012
Survey reveals emerging trends in parking
Industry-transforming innovations are changing the way we park.
| Jun 11, 2012
Buro Hapold hires new principal Neil Porto
Porto brings a broad depth of expertise in civil and structural engineering to new and existing projects.
| Jun 11, 2012
Historic church gains energy efficiency, retains aesthetics with architecturally rated windows
New windows would need to not only stand the test of time, but also accommodate the aesthetics of an architecturally historic church.
| Jun 11, 2012
Genivar and WSP Group join forces
Genivar concurrently announces a $225 million public bought deal of subscription receipts, a $197 million private placement of subscription receipts and new credit facilities.
| Jun 11, 2012
SimplexGrinnell highlights integrated suite of web-based technologies at NFPA Expo
eservices platform uses the power of the Internet to deliver more value to customers.
