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Industry News
Green Buildings with Bentley’s Energy Performance Series
By Susan Smith

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.

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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.

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.”

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.

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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.

Areas Analyzed and Simulated by the Energy Performance Series:

• Weather Data
• Solar Gains
• Heat Gain and Loss and Peak Loading
• Natural, Mechanical and Mixed-mode Ventilation
• Renewable Energy Contribution Calculations
• Day Lighting and Shadow Casting
• Lighting
• Temperature
• Humidity
• Air Flow
• Energy Consumption and Cost
• Duct, Pipe, and Plant Sizing
• CO2Emissions
• Building Composition

Codes, Standards, Methods Supported:

• UK Building Regulations, Part L2, Levels 3-5
• UK Building Regulations, Energy Performance Certificates
• U.K. British Standards
• CIBSE
• ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2004
• LEED Energy and Atmosphere Credit 1
• ASME
• ANSI

Case Studies

The following are case studies of buildings already using the Building Performance Series –

The Digital Media Centre, Leicester, UK is an 11-floor mixed use facility that utilizes Hevacomp for all phases of the design and allows them to identify problems in the planned natural ventilation system partially supplied by the landlord or the building owner and rectified in the design phase. This eliminates costly occupant comfort issues and retrofit.

[ Click to Enlarge ] London Gherkin building

At the Royal National Institute for the Blind, Hevacomp was used for full compliance from Part L of the UK Building Code for providing the required audit trail for quality assurance. One of the key outputs for Hevacomp was a required documentation for submission to building regulators. It is easy to use, accurate, comes out of the Hevacomp software and goes right to the government.

TAS was used in the design of the Heron Tower, London. At 46 stories, it will be the tallest building in London, incorporating and modeling some really innovative ideas: a double skin with active shading natural ventilation, photovoltaic panels, and thermal wheels. The result was a truly high performance building that could be next big icon of the London skyline.

The London Gherkin building, while not a traditional design, was designed with mixed mode ventilation, complex airflows, and unique daylighting. The resulting building consumes half the power of a typical office tower.

Energy Performance and Changing Roles

As the need for LEED certification and energy performance increases, so does the growth of a need for the role of energy assessor or energy design specialist, according to Roberts. These specialists are focusing on LEED and energy performance optimization.

Meeting performance goals is a primary criteria and requires precise analysis. Those owners and government agencies who demand LEED certification will be conscious of what they need to achieve energy performance on their buildings.

Top News of the Week

SPEC’s Application Performance Characterization (SPECapc) project group has released new performance evaluation software for systems running NewTek LightWave 3D v9.6 software. LightWave is a complete modeling, rendering and animation solution used worldwide for visual effects in television, film, broadcast graphics, games, visualization, print and web.

Oce announced an agreement with Advantage Sign Supply, Inc. (ASSI) for ASSI to become an authorized reseller of Oce Arizona Series of UV curable flatbed printers in the US. ASSI will be selling the Oce Arizona 200 GT, Oce Arizona 250 GT, Oce Arizona 350 GT and the Oce Arizona 350 XT printers. ASSI is the only authorized reseller of the Oce Arizona brand of printers in the US in addition to the Oce direct sales organization.

Oce Business Services announced that during the past 12 months it has won contracts totaling over $70 million to manage complex, high-volume document processing center operations. The multi-year agreements include managing document processing centers that support critical business processes for pre-eminent companies such as American Airlines, one of the world's largest airlines that contributes more than $150 billion per year to the U.S. economy. Other agreements include leaders in the insurance, retail, entertainment and technology industries.

Adapx announced record customer growth and the closing of $9 million in Series B financing. UV Partners led the new round which also included existing investors OVP Venture Partners (Kirkland, WA) and Paladin Capital Group (Washington, DC). The unique combination of enterprise and federal-related investors reflects strong uptake of Capturx software products in automating paper-based processes in both businesses and government agencies using digital pens. More than 500 organizations are using Capturx today -- ranging from large enterprises such as Holland America Line and EMCOR to agencies such as NASA and the Port of Seattle.

Acquisitions, Agreements, Alliances

Informative Graphics Corporation (IGC), a leader in viewing, collaboration and redaction technology, announced an integration partnership with Trinity Technologies. Trinity Technologies, a leader in configuring, integrating, customizing and implementing content management systems for EMC Documentum clients, has integrated IGC's Brava! and Redact-It Enterprise products into its Legal ISE suite.

Announcements

Meridian Systems announced new capital project oversight packs targeting public agencies and their construction business partners. These packs combine GSA schedule pricing with several value-added components to give government organizations a "jumpstart" on providing transparency on stimulus-funded projects.

Meridian Systems announced that its 2009 User Conference has been accepted as a Project Management Institute (PMI) Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) Program. Meridian was reviewed and approved as a provider of project management training by PMI in 2008.

Z Corporation unveiled a “3D Printer Stimulus Package” for schools in the United States and Canada, including grants of up to $10,000 for devices that have proven to engage students, enhance learning and foster career opportunities.

For the first time, Autodesk is making AutoCAD 2010 software, its flagship product for 2D and 3D design and documentation, available for free* to members of its global Student Engineering and Design Community. The Student Community is an online resource that offers numerous benefits to students and educators, including free design software, self-paced training, innovative curricula, global social networking, job listings and more.

Autodesk is launching the Autodesk Assistance Program. The Autodesk Assistance Program will provide Autodesk customers and partners with design software tools, education and resources that will help them to enhance, maintain and develop their 3D design technology skills and remain competitive in the marketplace. The program will offer free* student software term licenses, free online training and a path to certification to unemployed architects, designers and engineers in all industries.

As part of an ongoing initiative to keep partners and resellers updated on product developments and marketing efforts, Autodesk, Inc. has announced a new Partner Portal. The online destination is designed to help improve partners' effectiveness in selling Autodesk's 2D and 3D design and engineering software.

Autodesk Inc., launched “General Shadowfinger’s Benign Design Contest in 3D,” a design competition to support the online video series, The TeknoChronicles of Z.

All entries must be received by midnight on June 30, 2009. The winners will be determined by member voting on the AutoCAD Exchange. Voting will be open from July 1 through July 15, 2009 and will be announced on July 28, 2009. The contest is open to residents of the US. AutoCAD Exchange for additional details

New Products

LightWork Design announced the latest release of its flagship LightWorks product, LightWorks 8.0. Now in its 20th year, the Company continues to build on its LightWorks product to provide customers with improved performance and new technology. This release builds on previous versions and includes the release of some new, exciting features.

An award-winning author presents a detailed tutorial covering every feature of this popular program. Each year, Mastering AutoCAD appears at the top of the AutoCAD book sales charts. This revision thoroughly covers all the new features and gives you a complete education in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT.

Kyocera Mita America, Inc. announced the availability of three mid-range ECOSYS black and white desktop printers. Offering Kyocera’s signature low total cost of ownership (TCO), the FS-4020DN (47 pages-per-minute), FS-3920DN (42 ppm) and FS-2020D (37 ppm) deliver powerful document imaging output to address the strong demands of business printing.

Autodesk, Inc. announced that more than 300 members of its Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) are now shipping products and applications compatible with the Autodesk 2010 product family including AutoCAD 2010, Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 and Autodesk Inventor 2010 software. More than 600 specialized products developed on Autodesk design software for niche markets are currently available from ADN members who are providing Autodesk customers around the world with the ability to more efficiently create innovative and sustainable designs, increasing their return on investment in Autodesk technology.

Informative Graphics Corporation (IGC) announced that its web-based Brava! Enterprise is now integrated to IBM FileNet P8, enabling agile Enterprise Content Management (ECM) through multi-format viewing and collaboration for the enterprise. The newly integrated solution helps P8 users streamline document-related processes through fast, accurate viewing, convenient annotation and automated redaction features.

Around the Web

AUGI Tips and Tricks now Available - AutoCAD 2010 Tips and Tricks.

The New Autodesk Impression 3 is Now Available for Download (Between the Lines – blog)

Software Review: Photoshop CS4 Extended For Engineering Imaging, by Jeff Rowe, MCADWeekly, April 6, 2009

Industrial Sleek (a Park Runs Through It)  by Nicolai Ouroussoff, April 8, 2009, The New York Times (registration required)

Pritzker Prize Goes to Peter Zumthor , by Robin Pogrebin, April 12, 2009, The New York Times (registration required)

Open Design Alliance: What a mess (Evan on Engineering Software – blog)

Events