[Bldg-sim] Announcing the Virtual Building Triathlon practitioner design competition for integrated retrofits for commercial buildings

Philip Haves via Bldg-sim bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Tue Nov 29 14:55:04 PST 2016


(Apologies for cross-posting)

The DOE-sponsored Virtual Building Triathlon (VBT) practitioner design 
competition is now open - details and registration are at 
https://virtualbuildingtriathlon.lbl.gov/. The competition involves the 
identification and evaluation of integrated deep retrofit measures for a 
commercial building located in Cambridge, MA. The goal of the 
competition is to promote the use of building simulation and other tools 
in the analysis of integrated energy efficiency retrofit measures. A 
similar competition for students currently enrolled in US colleges and 
universities was announced earlier. The competitions are organized by 
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the Tech to Market team in the 
Building Technologies Office of the US Department of Energy, in 
conjunction with the International Building Performance Simulation 
Association (IBPSA-USA).

Key dates:

- 1/3/2017: Competition submissions due
- 1/17/2017: Selection of finalists
- 1/28/2017: Finalist presentations, judging and awards in conjunction 
with the IBPSA-USA meeting in Las Vegas, NV, which is co-located with 
the ASHRAE Winter Meeting.

A medium-sized, public commercial building (the City of Cambridge 
Citywide Senior Center) has been selected based on the availability of 
detailed as-built drawings, detailed energy consumption data, and 
synergy with the interests of the building owner.

The first stage of the triathlon involves generating a detailed 
simulation model of the building from the package of plans, 
specifications and data obtained on registering for the competition. A 
full year of 15 minute electricity consumption and monthly fuel 
consumption data, together with the corresponding weather data, is 
included in the briefing package. The contestants are expected to use 
this data to fine tune / calibrate their model, using a method of their 
choice, which could be a calibration method based on formal optimization 
(e.g., Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Autotune) or a 
‘human-in-the-loop’ reconciliation method (e.g., Hydro Quèbec’s VizBEM 
tool); however, contestants should clearly document their chosen method. 
Contestants are free to use the simulation tool of their choice.

The second stage of the triathlon will be to identify and analyze 
integrated retrofit measures along with their respective integrated 
energy consumption and energy demand impacts. Contestants should then 
select and document a set of the identified measures, based on energy 
savings, peak demand reduction and carbon emissions, including a 
scenario in which the carbon emissions associated with electricity 
generation are reduced by a factor of two by renewables.

The third stage will focus on the production of cohesive and thorough 
retrofit reporting and presentation materials, with the objective of 
efficiently conveying the information needed by decision making building 
owners and managers.

Three finalists will be selected based on written submissions. The final 
award selections will be based on a combination of the written 
submission and oral presentation by each finalist, including responses 
to questions from the judges. Assistance with expenses incurred for 
travel and overnight accommodation in Las Vegas will be made available. 
The winners will each receive a plaque and their achievements will be 
recognized by DOE and on relevant social media.

The competition will be open to individuals or teams of up to five 
people, all of whom must be employed by architectural and engineering 
firms in the US. Each member of the team must register with a current 
email address at an architectural or engineering firm based in the US.

For those outside the US, there will be a simulation-oriented design 
competition as part of the Building Simulation 2017 
<http://www.buildingsimulation2017.org> conference in San Francisco next 
August - details will be released in the next months. There will be a 
competition for students and it is anticipated that there will also be a 
competition for practitioners.

Contestants should send clarification questions to vbt-questions at lbl.gov 
<mailto:vbt-questions at lbl.gov>. Responses will be posted on the 
competition website and/or e-mailed to all registered contestants 
(without revealing the identity of the questioner).

-- 
Philip Haves
Staff Scientist / Mechanical Engineer
Building Technology and Urban Systems Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
One Cyclotron Road, MS 90R3145
Berkeley, CA 94720-8134
(510) 486 6512 (office)
(510) 486 4089 (fax)

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