COMNET leveraged by CEC
The California Energy Commission (CEC) is building a software compliance engine for future use with Title-24 that leverages the COMNET Modeling Guidelines and Procedures. The CEC action extends COMNET's role as a force for standardizing and automating methods and procedures in building energy modeling.
In its March request for qualifications, the CEC noted on page 8 that "Through Energy Commission PIER research and 2013 Nonresidential Standards Technical Support contracts, the Energy Commission is extending the building energy design standard data dictionary included in the COMNET Commercial Buildings Energy Modeling Guidelines and Procedures1 manual so that this data dictionary can be used to define the Title-24 Nonresidential Performance Standards rules in computer software. The Energy Commission is currently developing a draft 2013 Nonresidential Standards ruleset using this Title-24 data dictionary.
"The Energy Commission is also partnering with U.S. DOE to fund a Standards Interface module in NREL’s OpenStudio open source software platform. OpenStudio provides a software interface to the EnergyPlus building energy simulation tool. The Standards Interface will provide software translations between building models described in the Title-24 data dictionary terms and the building model used in OpenStudio.
"The building energy modeling tools to be completed in this Agreement will leverage the current Standards implementation efforts described above. This Agreement will fund efforts to create, test and pilot building energy modeling tools that implement the nonresidential performance-based Standards compliance rules, using EnergyPlus to fulfill the energy analysis requirements. The Energy Commission calls the software planned to result from these efforts a “compliance engine” because it will combine the performance-based Standards compliance rules with energy simulation algorithms into a software application for use in energy modeling tools to check compliance with California’s nonresidential performance standards."
1http://www.comnet.org/mgp
COMNET Commercial Buildings Energy Modeling Guidelines and Procedures.
This manual offers guidance to building energy modelers, ensuring technically rigorous and credible assessment of energy performance of commercial and multifamily residential buildings. It provides a streamlined process that can be used with various existing modeling software and systems, across a range of programs.