The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a research institute of the University of Central Florida, today released EnergyGauge Summit Premier 3.15. FSEC will be exhibiting the software at the Greenbuild conference in Boston Nov. 19 – 21. This state-of-the-art software provides construction-industry professionals with the opportunity to substantially reduce the time required to complete energy modeling for the commercial construction LEED® rating system. It also offers a time-saving automatic federal tax deduction qualification feature.

Summit Premier was first released in November 2007 at Greenbuild Chicago.   The new version contains several improvements that make it more functional in its use for LEED and other calculations. They include:

• The required treatment of District Thermal Energy in LEED NC 2.2.  EnergyGauge Summit allows users to perform the steps required to incorporate district heating and cooling in their proposed building, as per requirements from USGBC.  EnergyGauge automatically models the typically time-consuming two-step calculation process required by the USGBC. Both step 1 and step 2 reports have been automated for saving additional time.

• Profiles and schedules are now editable. The user can modify, or create and assign, space and zone load profiles, and schedules for people, lighting equipment, etc. This will allow modeled building loads to be closer to actual load scenarios.

• TMY3 Weather data now available. The new TMY3 weather data set for numerous locations has been implemented. TMY3 represents a more recent weather data set and is understood to be a more accurate representation of current weather parameters than the old TMY2 weather data set. The user can select either dataset for analysis.

• Several new inputs now available to user. The user can now specify several new inputs, such as outdoor air quantities, thermostat type and range, number of people and/or area per person, and equipment loads. These inputs allow more accurate analysis of the building.

• New reports. EnergyGauge now has additional reports to help modelers understand those periods where the loads are not met by the HVAC system (unmet hours). Profiles and schedule reports have also been added. Additionally, the software includes a printable replica of the LEED online-report.

This easy-to-use new software product is an advancement of a product that is used in Florida for commercial building code compliance by more than 1,500 users.  The Premier edition includes nationwide climates and offers the automatic federal tax deduction qualification and LEED® energy optimization features.

The United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system is the leading green building rating system in the United States. The organization recently mandated that each project achieve at least two energy optimization points in their rating. EnergyGauge Summit Premier allows engineers to simply enter the design building characteristics and the software calculates everything else for these important point credits.

At Greenbuild’s expo booth 2450, FSEC will demonstrate the ability to complete and submit the LEED 2.2 EA Credit 1 template to the LEED-Online database.  This automatic baseline building-generation and template-completion feature will save the typical energy modeler many hours on each building submission.

The software automatically creates the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standard 2004 90.1 baseline building; performs the ASHRAE 2004 Appendix G rating procedure, and calculates the points achieved for LEED energy optimization. It also calculates ASHRAE Standard 90.1 compliance, based on the performance method, as called for in ASHRAE performance-based energy code compliance methodology.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has listed EnergyGauge Summit Premier as qualified software for calculating energy savings for the energy-efficient, commercial-building tax deduction under Internal Revenue Code §179D.

EnergyGauge Summit Premier performs an annual 8,760-hour simulation, taking just a few seconds on typical new computers. The Windows-based program uses a DOE2 engine, originally developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

A free, fully-functional trial version of the new EnergyGauge Summit Premier software can be downloaded at www.EnergyGauge.com. The software retails for $949 per annual license.

About EnergyGauge®
EnergyGauge energy analysis software is produced and distributed by the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a research institute of the University of Central Florida.  EnergyGauge is a registered trademark of FSEC.  FSEC has been conducting research on energy efficiency in buildings since 1980.  EnergyGauge software products include EnergyGauge Summit for commercial buildings, EnergyGauge USA for residential buildings nationwide and EnergyGauge FlaRes for Florida’s residential code compliance.  EnergyGauge is on display at the Greenbuild conference at booth 2450. More information at www.EnergyGauge.com.

About FSEC
The Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida, is the largest and most active state-supported energy research institute in the nation. Current divisions and their research activities include Advanced Energy Research: alternative transportation systems, hydrogen fuel and fuel cells; Buildings Research: energy-efficient buildings; and Solar Energy: solar water and pool heating and solar electric and distributed generation systems. For more information about the center, visit www.floridaenergycenter.org or call the FSEC Public Affairs Office at 321-638-1015.

About ASHRAE
ASHRAE creates standards used internationally for building energy and ventilation performance such as ASHRAE 90.1 for commercial building energy performance. More information is available at www.ashrae.org.

About LEED®
LEED is a registered trademark of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and represents The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. One of the key elements for earning points in the popular LEED rating system is the buildings energy performance. For new buildings, the applicant can earn one LEED credit point for each 3.5 percent improvement in performance relative to ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004 using the Building Performance Rating Method in Appendix G of the Standard. More information on LEED is available at www.usgbc.org/.

About Greenbuild
Greenbuild is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. Scheduled for November 19 – 21, 2009, more than 20,000 building professionals from around the world gather for three days of outstanding educational sessions, renowned speakers, green building tours, special seminars, networking events.

About the Energy Tax Deduction
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) is the first effort of the United States government to address U.S. energy policy since the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Among many other things, the 1,724-page law provides new tax incentives for a number of solar and energy efficiency measures including tax deductions for commercial buildings. This provision offers business taxpayers a deduction of $1.80 per square foot for commercial buildings that achieve a 50 percent reduction in annual energy cost to the user, compared to a reference building defined by the industry standard ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-2001. Energy costs refer only to heating, cooling, lighting and water heating, since only these uses are within the scope of the ASHRAE standard and within the control of the building designer. More information on the IRS procedure can be found at: www.irs.gov/irb/2006-26_IRB/ar11.html.

Each of the three energy-using systems of the building: the envelope, the heating, cooling and water heating system, and lighting system, is eligible for one third of the incentive if it meets its share of the whole-building savings goal. Explicit interim compliance procedures are provided for lighting.

New construction in an existing building is also eligible for the tax deduction, with one-third of the deduction amount for new construction that affects the new energy-using system (such as lighting or heating, cooling and water heating).

Compliance is determined by third-party inspectors who review the plans and the actual in-place construction. Energy savings are determined by software that must be certified by the Department of Energy as meeting criteria of consistency and accuracy. EnergyGauge Summit is listed as qualified software by the U.S. Department of Energy, visit: www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/qualified_software.html