What next for building energy simulation: a glimpse of the future

The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense (DOE and DOD) are jointly developing EnergyBase, a new building energy simulation tool that builds on the capabilities of BLAST and DOE-2. EnergyBase will include innovative simulation features, including variable time steps, built-in template and external modular systems simulation modules integrated with a heat balance-based zone simulation, and input and output data structures tailored to facilitate third party interface development. To provide input to future planning efforts, we sponsored workshops in August 1995 and June 1996 on next-generation building energy simulation tools. We first describe the methods used and results from the two workshops. We then give a brief overview of the organization and anticipated capabilities of EnergyBase