ECOnirman Whole Building Performance Tool is an online tool to assess conformance with the ECBC using the Whole Building Performance (WBP) method. It enables building developers and designers to test their building design using the energy simulation protocol established in Appendix B of the code. The tool also predicts the performance of the building in terms of its annual energy consumption normalized to the building area. Being a web-based energy simulation tool, it can be made available to users over the Internet with minimal software requirements and building science or simulation expertise.
The tool runs the Standard Design (baseline parameters from the ECBC prescriptive requirements) and the Proposed Design (user specified inputs that allow the user to modify the ECBC prescriptive requirements) versions of the building and compares the Energy Performance Intensity (EPI) from the simulation results. A report that may be submitted to demonstrate conformance with the ECBC, can be generated. Key features of the tool are:
- Facilitates the users in assessing if a building meets the conformance requirements, keeping in view the five climatic zones in India as specified in the ECBC
- Generates a building’s conformance report that compiles the data provided by the user and also indicates if the systems and sub-systems of the building are conforming or not conforming with the code requirements
- Stores multiple building projects under a single user profile
- Stores the information in a central database for future reference, review, edit, and analysis purposes
- Keeps the information secured and confidential
- Is available in public domain for easy access to the users
- Bureau of Energy Efficiency
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- US Department of Energy
