LEED – The Energy Chronicle

EnergyGauge® Summit Premier 3.22 Features LEED® (Version 3) 2009 Energy Optimization Calculation

Sherri Shields Energy News, Press Release November 9, 2009ASHRAE, commercial construction, energy calculation, Energy Optimization Credit, EnergyGauge Summit, federal tax deduction, GreenBuild Expo, HVAC, LEED, Phoenix, PR-09-11, Premier, software, USBGC 0 Comment

EnergyGauge Summit Premier Version 3.22 Live at GreenBuild Expo.

EnergyGauge Summit is easy-to-use, state-of-the-art software that offers construction-industry professionals substantial time savings while completing required energy modeling calculations for LEED^® projects.

The Florida Solar Energy Center^® (FSEC^®), a research institute of the University of Central Florida, just released EnergyGauge Summit Premier 3.22. FSEC will be exhibiting the software at the GreenBuild Expo in Phoenix November 10 – 12, 2009. 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 federal tax deduction qualification feature.

The new version of Summit Premier contains several improvements and additional features that make it more functional in its use for LEED and other calculations. They include:

Addition of the LEED (version 3) 2009 calculation feature for Energy Optimization Credit
Updated federal tax deduction calculation as per IRS Notice 2008-40 (amplification to IRS Notice 2006-52)
New input fields for various building envelope and system components to allow for more accurate modeling
Additional schedules for HVAC system control
DOE-2 based system sizing feature (beta version)

Building Science Experts Offer Green Building Courses

Sherri Shields Energy News, Press Release January 21, 2009air conditioning, building, building code, building envelope, buildings, charrette, commercial, courses, design, Designing and Maintaining the High Performance Green Building, education, energy efficient, EnergyGauge, green building, humidity control, HVAC, indoor air quality, LEED, mold, pressure imbalances, research, Rob Vieira, Summit, training, vapor barriers, ventilation, window 3 Comments

The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a research institute of the University of Central Florida, is offering a series of five courses on “Designing and Maintaining the High Performance Green Building” for architects, engineers, mechanical contractors, building inspectors, facility managers and indoor air quality specialists. Initial course offerings will be held at FSEC in Cocoa starting Feb. 4.

This series of courses will demonstrate:

How to design and maintain a green building that has good indoor air quality
How to make a building durable, comfortable and energy efficient
How to protect buildings from mold
What types of air-conditioning systems will cause mold problems
What advanced dehumidification technologies are available for use in buildings.

“A recent study finds about 25 percent of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified green buildings use more energy than expected and about 12 percent use more energy than allowed by the building code. Our courses will provide the knowledge to address these issues,” said Rob Vieira, director of buildings research at FSEC.

The courses will focus on problems in commercial buildings, although the principles discussed will be applicable to all buildings. The FSEC buildings researchers will discuss such areas as ventilation requirements, humidity control, building envelope design, pressure imbalances, HVAC systems, window selection, vapor barriers and related issues.

Students who attend all five courses in the series and pass the exam in Courses one, two and three will earn an FSEC Green Commercial Building Design and Maintenance Certificate.

The courses and schedules are:

Course 1: “Designing Building Envelopes to Control Air and Moisture in High Performance Green Buildings,” Feb. 4

Course 2: “Designing and Maintaining Building Air Flows in High Performance Green Buildings,” Feb. 5

Course 3: “Designing and Maintaining HVAC Systems for High Performance Green Buildings,” Feb. 18

Course 4: “Design Charrette — Practice Design of a High Performance Green Building,” Feb. 19

Course 5: “Commercial Energy Code and Green Building Modeling Using EnergyGauge Summit,” Feb. 26

The cost of each course is $269. For more information about the courses or to register, visit: www.floridaenergycenter.org/go/courseschedule.

EnergyGauge® Summit Premier 3.15 Saves Energy Modelers Time

Sherri Shields Energy News, Press Release November 7, 2008ASHRAE, building analysis, building code, calculations, commercial, construction, DOE, energy, EnergyGauge, Florida, GreenBuild, LEED, modeling, professionals, software, Summit, tax deduction, University of Central Florida, USGBC 9 Comments

This easy-to-use, state-of-the-art software offers construction-industry professionals substantial time savings while completing required energy modeling calculations for LEED® projects.

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.

Florida Solar Energy Center releases EnergyGauge® Summit Premier 3.13

Sherri Shields Press Release November 7, 2007commercial construction, EnergyGauge Summit, GreenBuild, LEED

Easy-to-use, state-of-the-art software offers construction-industry professionals substantial time savings while completing required energy modeling calculations for LEED® projects.

Cocoa, FL – November 7, 2007 – The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a research institute of the University of Central Florida, today released EnergyGauge Summit Premier 3.13 at the Greenbuild conference in Chicago. 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.

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. Read more

New EnergyGauge® Summit Software Offers Easier Building Energy Calculation for Tax Deductions

Sherri Shields Press Release January 29, 2007ASHRAE, EnergyGauge, LEED

An easy-to-use new software product for calculating qualification for commercial building federal tax deductions, LEED® building Energy Performance, and energy code compliance was released today (January 29) at the AHR EXPO. This new software was developed by the University of Central Florida’s Florida Solar Energy Center.

EnergyGauge Summit Premier offers automatic ASHRAE 2001 and ASHRAE 2004 reference building creation including the Building Performance Rating Method in Appendix G of the 2004 Standard. Unlike other software that requires the user to create multiple building decks and make many changes to create a reference building according to code or IRS rules, EnergyGauge Summit allows users to simply enter basic information on the building they are evaluating. The software then automatically creates a reference building, performs the necessary simulations and analysis and provides a report indicating qualification for the U.S. Energy Policy Act tax deductions for whole building energy savings. The program will also determine if the building meets the IRS standard for partial envelope, equipment or lighting savings for those projects not seeking to meet the whole building performance level. Read more