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

[Philip Haves via Bldg-sim]

To all students and faculty interested in energy simulation and existing 
buildings:

The DOE-sponsored Virtual Building Triathlon (VBT) student 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 currently practicing engineering and 
architectural professionals will be announced shortly. 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 prizes will be:

First Place        - $5,000
Second Place   - $2,500
Third Place       - $1,000

The competition will be open to individuals or teams of up to five 
people, all of whom must be registered as full-time students of an 
accredited US college/university in the Fall 2016 semester. Winning 
teams will share the prize money equally. The role of faculty members 
and other non-students is to be limited to providing generic information 
and advice - contestants will be required to sign a declaration that 
ideas and analysis submitted are all their own work.

Contestants should send clarification questions to 
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).