In California, EnergyPro is a state-approved energy simulation tool specifically to demonstrate performance compliance for new construction projects. This tool follows the Title 24 Alternative Calculation Method (ACM) Manual to determine the time dependent valuation of energy of standard and proposed buildings. EnergyPro also has been widely adopted by the Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) to simulate energy savings of new construction projects under the Savings By Design (SBD) program. The SBD program uses Title 24 and Title 20 or industry standard practice as its reference to determine energy savings. The differences between these two EnergyPro applications have contributed significant inconsistencies to the implementation and evaluation of the SBD program. At present, there is no document available to guide energy savings simulations for the SBD program. This void has led to confusion and discrepancies among program implementers and applicants. This paper clarifies the differences between the compliance and non-compliance applications as well as their impacts on energy savings simulations. Additionally this paper proposes a SBD simulation to estimate the energy savings of the SBD program. This method generates standard and proposed DOE2.1E input files by combining the input files created by EnergyPro and it runs both SBD input files with the DOE2.1E engine in the command prompt. A new construction example project is used to illustrate the application of the proposed SBD run. While these discussions focus on the California SBD program, they can provide useful insights for managers of new construction programs in other jurisdictions.
展开▼
