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Industry News
Green Buildings with Bentley’s Energy Performance Series
In a recent webcast entitled “High Performance ‘Green Buildings’ Bentley Systems outlined their new Bentley Energy Performance Series, which encompasses technology derived from some recent acquisitions made in the energy performance space.
Huw Roberts spoke about Bentley’s position in the markets they serve: in building performance their global business earns 56 percent revenues internationally, and 44 percent from North America. The software is used by 90 percent of the top 500 firms in the world, according to Roberts, and the company has approximately 2800 colleagues in 50 countries, with revenues reported for 2008 at over $500 million, Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO says.
In previous articles on sustainable design some of the following statistics have been cited: the fact that in the U.S., the U.S. Energy Commission reports that buildings account for the majority of energy usage. Buildings account for 39 percent of energy use, 39 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, 65 percent waste and 71 percent of electricity consumption.
In addition building owners are putting increasing demand on the building industry to deliver high performance buildings.
The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) defines the criteria for such buildings in the following categories: cost effectiveness, safety and security, aesthetics, sustainability, historic preservation, accessibility, productivity and functionality.
In the webcast Bentley focused on the “sustainability criteria.” As the U.S. Green Building Council LEED program is becoming the standard by which we measure sustainability in buildings in the U.S., it is rapidly emerging as a reference standard around the world. It defines the sustainability of buildings in these five criteria: sustainable sites, indoor and environmental quality, energy and atmosphere, water efficiency and material resources. Bentley focused on energy and atmosphere and indoor environmental quality for this webcast.
Roberts noted that in the UK, through BREEM, the industry has been demanding more energy efficient and higher environmental quality for many years. “This is probably the world’s most demanding environment for high performance energy efficient sustainable buildings,” he said. Now the U.S. government mandates energy performance certificates for all new and remodeled buildings and is extending that for buildings when they make a significant change in ownership or use as well. This type of government requirement is being replicated in many other countries around the world.
As a result of some of the early efforts at energy efficiency and green buildings, Roberts warned that many of the tools and approaches that are available in the U.S. and Canada today have resulted in many green buildings, that when built, perform badly. “There’s a lot of greenwashing going on,” he said. “The impact can be worse than the design that was promised. And in fact the energy performance may not match the predictions even closely. Operating costs can exceed the estimates, and most apparent to the users, the buildings can be uncomfortable or unhealthy, which reduces their performance of the mission they serve for the occupants and the businesses they house.”
Living Green Roof: Vancouver Convention Centre – BC, Canada
In response to the need to avoid this type of occurrence, Bentley announced the Bentley Energy Performance Series, which consists of Hevacomp Simulator V8i and Hevacomp Mechanical Designer V8i, both optimized for typical projects and utilize the industry standard Energy Plus engine. Bentley TAS Simulator V8i is the tool for the most complex building design.
Noah Eckhouse, vice president of the Building Performance Group, said that the Bentley Energy Performance series takes input from a variety of sources – wind, weather, solar, usage patterns and brings all of this together for the design simulation and analysis of the building. This series utilizes input from a variety of sources including BIM models, drawings and data, which produce a better building with lower operating costs and a better environment for occupants.
What you get is real time analysis with your results informed and available during design to act upon as you design, according to Eckhouse. “Secondly, the analysis is detailed and precise; it’s certified by government agencies and supports key industry standards. Finally, the tools are integrated with a heterogeneous workflow and with each other.”
Jim Barr, director of product management, said that ultimately the building owner benefits from a better building and more favorable economic returns. However the Energy Performance Series is intended for use by engineers, architects and those in the emerging role of “energy assessors.”
65% of the UK’s building services consulting firms use this software plus it is used in 28 countries. So this software is already well accepted by those responsible for energy performance in buildings.