The Working Groups have covered a lot of ground in the five months since the last update. Three Working Groups have developed and submitted three projects proposals which have been accepted with pending funding solutions. These projects sprung from the CalBEM 2019 Action Plans, focused in 2020 into full project scopes:
- Recommendations for Building Energy Modeling Education in California (Working Group 2)
- There is a wide array of great BEM educational resources relevant to California. Courses exist for pre-workforce training in BEM, skills enhancements for practicing BEMers, full BEM certifications, and more – but there is no centralized mapping of these offerings. A “top-down” exploration of BEM educational resources would go a long way to helping expose any gaps in the system, and where more support is necessary.
- The Recommendations for Building Energy Modeling Education in California project will:
- Identify education needed to increase the effective use of building energy modeling in designing new buildings and in improving performance of existing buildings.
- Identify the professional pathways that engage in energy modeling, the labor market data for these professions, and the types of educational programs that prepare these professionals. Collect information on the diversity in these professions, including race and gender.
- Develop recommendations for development of education programs and resources and their ongoing support in California.
- Compliance Modeling Quality Assistance Tools (Working Group 3)
- Code compliance modeling for nonresidential buildings has become a strenuous activity since the release of CBECC. While the engine may provide the capacity for greater accuracy and ability to reflect systems and technologies, the increased complexity of the software has made it difficult to realize these gains.
- The Compliance Modeling Quality Assistance Tools project aims to create a tool which utilizes CBECC-Com input and results files to perform a series of quality assurance checks, filling the gap between the errors, warning messages, and various .csv files created by CBECC-Com that are information-rich but difficult to use.
- California BEM Industry Analysis (Working Group 2)
- It is difficult to accurately assess the needs of the Building Energy Modeling industry in California without industry data. To date, no comprehensive study of this industry has been performed and thus many business and policy decisions must be made subjectively.
- The California BEM Industry Analysis project aims to:
- Assess the CA BEM industries potential for growth in California.
- Identify and classify the participants in this industry and their interrelationships.
- Understand industry dynamics of competition, market drivers, adoption barriers, and key enabling elements.
- Define supply, demand, and gaps for services, workers, research & development and education.
Beyond these projects, Working Groups have been using Update Meetings as a central hub to keep BEM stakeholders in California up to date with the many disparate efforts that are working in parallel to drive BEM forward.
Notes from the Update Meetings can be found in the CalBEM Collaborative Efforts Notebook, here. If you are an active CalBEM participant and do not have access to these notes, please email Elise Wall (elisewall@2050partners.com) for access.