The GUI developed jointly by Infosys and LBNL will make it easier for architects and engineers to predict the energy and water consumption and peak electricity demand before beginning work on new construction or renovating buildings into green buildings.
The EnergyPlus with the new GUI will be compatible with Building Information Modeling standards and will assist designers with LEED certification, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers standards and California’s Title-24 building energy code.
The first version of EnergyPlus GUI, which is expected to enable reductions in the energy consumption of existing buildings and help achieve improvements in the energy efficiency of new buildings, will be released in the summer of 2011.
The project funded by the US DOE, the California Energy Commission and Infosys, is in line with LBNL’s vision is to transform the US commercial building sector in 15-20 years by saving more than four quadrillion BTUs of energy and reducing CO2 emissions by 400 million tons annually.
California Energy Commission vice chair, James Boyd said that building designers need new and advanced tools to meet net zero energy building goals and this project is a great example of using public/private partnerships to deliver advanced energy efficiency-enabling technologies to the marketplace.
