The technical program has been set for the ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA SimBuild 2016: Building Performance Modeling Conference. The conference takes place Aug. 10-12 in Salt Lake City.
The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Building Performance Conference and Exhibition was dominated by talks on building management system (BMS) security and the influence of occupant behavior on building performance.
QA Graphics announced that it has launched an updated version of its Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard™ (EEED). In response to an industry shift away from plug-in applications, the new version uses HTML5 to build design features that allow for a better user experience with reduced security risks.
While many building rating programs exist, there is not anything in the industry that standardizes the contents of those programs, ensuring users are knowledgeable about what impacts their ratings. A proposed standard from ASHRAE, now open for public comment, would serve as the “backbone” of such rating systems.
The Atlanta City Council unanimously passed a building energy benchmarking and disclosure ordinance. Two days later, the Portland, Oregon, City Council unanimously adopted its own benchmarking ordinance, making Atlanta and Portland the 12th and 13th U.S. cities, respectively, to adopt such policies.
IBM has announced a new smarter buildings partnership with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the first higher education institution to pioneer use of a new cloud-based analytics system for reducing energy and facility operating costs.
Life sure is strange. I find myself appearing in the pages of this fine publication after more than 30 years of working for a competitive magazine. And, yet, it’s like a homecoming of sorts.
Contractors from all around the country recently traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the third annual Building Performance Forum, presented by ACCA and The NEWS.
Designing a building that simply meets local code requirements is not necessarily the optimal way to do it when you consider the long-term costs. Now, building professionals can use a new database developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to evaluate whether it pays to exceed code requirements for energy efficiency.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that its EnergyPlus™ software, which models whole-building energy and water use, has been rewritten in the C++ programming language for improved performance. EnergyPlus lets users model design and operation alternatives — including HVAC system changes — on building energy performance.