Group 1: Creating a Streamlined BEM Process
This group’s Complexity of Compliance webinar series continues in 2022 with a set of discussion sessions aiming to generate well-defined problem statements about BEM and compliance in the current California energy code. You can register for the second discussion session, to be held Tuesday May 17, 11-12pm PT, here. You can view presentations from earlier WG1 Complexity of Compliance webinars here, which get everyone up to speed on the code development and adoption processes and describe current code compliance infrastructure, considerations, and popular streamlining options.
The Prototype Unification Technical Advisory Group led by Bryan Boyce (Energy Solutions) continues to meet, advancing its goal to develop a single set of prototypes for use by all California state agencies and other public research/policy purposes. Building definitions for this set of new, unified prototypes have been drafted and are currently being refined by the group.
Group 2: Developing BEM Education and Resources
Following the November 2021 release of the Recommendations for Building Energy Modeling Education in California Report, Working Group 2 Co-Chairs prepared four project proposal topics for stakeholder feedback. These possible projects include:
- A white paper on BEM use cases and practitioner types;
- Informational BEM videos for high school and undergraduate students, and various niches in the building industry at large; and
- Identifying best practices for building energy model review and quality assurance.
The group would love to get your feedback – You can review the ideas in more detail here.
Group 3: Advancing BEM Capabilities and Metrics
This spring Working Group 3 responded to a CEC request to coordinate early testing of the early release versions of CBECC 2022 Title 24 Software. Thirty-four volunteers (!) joined the group, meeting and performing independent tests in March and April. The group identified 22 issues including perceived bugs, user questions, and feature requests and submitted these to the CEC CBECC docket. The group intends to meet once more when the final CBECC 2022 software is released later this summer. If any other stakeholders in California BEM would like to join this group, they can email Elise Wall at elisewall@2050partners.com. You can review CalBEM’s submitted comment here.
In late 2021, thought leaders from the wider building research community provided ideas and information to help inform the future of energy modeling in California in presentations hosted by Working Group 3. You can view the presentations from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and New Buildings Institute here.