Whether for a new building design, 179d certification or a rebate application, computer energy modeling is a big part of what we do here at Forward Engineers. ASHRAE recently featured a fantastic article in their most recent issue of ASHRAE Journal (May 2016) entitled ‘Modeled Performance Isn’t Actual Performance.” The best part of this article is that it describes what an energy model can do and what it cannot do. An energy model is not designed to estimate real world energy usage but instead to calculate relative savings between design alternatives or to compare a proposed design against a standard benchmark.
A final point made in the article is one we agree with entirely. Models are only as good as the person doing the modeling. We have over 10 years of combined experience in modeling many different sizes and types of buildings. We are also skilled at taking the output of the simulation and putting together a well polished report describing the findings, options and recommendations. If you have modeling needs or are interested in what modeling can do for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
If you would like to read the entire article, it is available here.
