Development of openBIM-based energy analysis software to improve the interoperability of energy performance assessment

Abstract

Energy performance assessments (EPAs) are widely conducted on buildings, which consume considerable energy and emit a significant amount of greenhouse gases. However, manual-based traditional EPA methods can cause serious problems, such as recurrent and error-prone data replication, data leaks, and redundant data processing and storage. Building information modeling (BIM), as an integrated repository of information about a particular building, has been applied to EPAs to overcome those problems. Although BIM has the potential to increase work efficiency in the assessment process, low interoperability between BIM data and energy simulation models raises huge barriers to reliable BIM-based EPAs. This research aims to improve the interoperability of BIM-based EPAs by developing an environment that contains a process, a materials library, and an EPA support system that connects BIM and energy modeling. To validate the suggested environment, we conducted a case study, and the results show that the proposed environment greatly contributes to increased accuracy and efficiency in the EPA with high interoperability. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.