COMNET Launches Energy Modeling Portal

Post date: Sep 07, 2012 4:18:5 PM

COMNET is a quality assurance initiative with a mission to standardize building energy modeling. Managed by the New Buildings Institute with support from the Architectural Energy Corporation, Institute for Market Transformation, and RESNET, COMNET developed a set of energy modeling guidelines and procedures (MGP) that governs this standardization to create consistent baselines relative to various energy codes. COMNET extends and supports existing systems for assessing and rating the energy efficiency of new commercial and multifamily buildings in the United States and offers quality assurance services to green building rating agencies, energy code authorities, utility energy efficiency programs, and other programs that rely on, or require, energy models.

In August, the COMNET team – along with its several committees that include ASHRAE, the U.S. Green Building Council, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the California Energy Commission – launched its first commercial product, which allows design teams to directly upload their building energy modeling information into LEED Online.

Free to use during its introductory phase, the COMNET Energy Modeling Portal can save substantial time and also offers basic quality assurance features to reduce errors in LEED submittals to GBCI. The portal supports two file types – legacy outputs from eQUEST (.sim files) and COMNET XML standard output files. Currently, Trane TRACE™ 700 and EnergySoft’s EnergyPro v5.1 have enabled COMNET XML outputs, and several other software vendors are developing this capacity.

Test the portal here. Download the COMNET Overview and COMNET Energy Modeling Portal fact sheets. For more information, visit comnet.org.