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This Fact Sheet provides an overview of the Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines project. The Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) are working with industry stakeholders to develop voluntary national guidelines that will improve the quality and consistency of commercial building workforce training and certification programs for five key energy-related jobs.

Appendices for the ENERGY STAR® Action Workbook for Congregations. Appendices were developed after reviewing results of energy audits of churches and identifying best savings opportunities. These opportunities are converted into actionable worksheets specifically geared to congregations and worship facilities.

While the availability of “big data” about building energy performance is increasing in response to market demands and public policies, the lack of standard data formats is a significant ongoing barrier to its full utilization. To overcome this barrier, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed the Building Energy Data Exchange Specification (BEDES).

BEDES is designed to enable the exchange, comparison, and combination of empirical information by providing common terms and definitions for data about commercial and residential building’s physical and operational characteristics, energy use, and efficiency measures.

This paper describes the BEDES development process, scope, structure, and plans for implementation and ongoing updates.

The Smart Monitoring and Diagnostic System (SMDS) is a low-cost technology that helps building owners and managers keep rooftop air conditioner and heat pump units (RTUs) operating properly at peak efficiency. The SMDS technology has the potential to significantly benefit small commercial buildings, which predominately use RTUs for space conditioning. Through the Better Buildings Alliance, a field demonstration was conducted at four sites using two SMDS prototypes. This case study provides a summary of the field demonstration results.

The full report is available at: https://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/1927

An object-oriented program that allows the user to quickly build models of complex physical processes by connecting equation-based calculation modules from an object library. SPARK (Simulation Problem Analysis and Research Kernel) creates an executable simulation program from this network ready to be run.

COMCheck addresses the enforceable provisions in commercial building energy codes based on ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1989/1999 and IECC 1998, 2000 and 2001 that are applicable to commercial and high-rise residential projects, including building envelope, lighting, HVAC, and service water heating requirements. The software is designed to streamline the energy code compliance and approval process and is focused on the needs of those who design, build, and enforce building codes for commercial and high-rise residential building projects. It is available in Windows, Mac, and Web versions.

The Outdoor Air Economizer (OAE) diagnostic module monitors the performance of air-handling units and can detect over 20 different basic operation problems with outside-air control and economizer operation.

The Building Controls Virtual Test Bed (BCVTB) is a software environment that allows expert users to couple different simulation programs for co-simulation, and to couple simulation programs with actual hardware. For example, the BCVTB allows to simulate a building in EnergyPlus and the HVAC and control system in Modelica, while exchanging data between the software as they simulate. The BCVTB allows expert users of simulation to expand the capabilities of individual programs by linking them to other programs. Due to the different programs that may be involved in distributed simulation, familiarity with configuring programs is essential.

The Commercial Building Energy Alliances sponsor supplier summits, which allow commercial building owners and operators to communicate their energy-efficiency needs directly to suppliers of building equipment.