[Bldg-sim] White Box Technologies announces the establishment of a Center for Open Source Building Simulations

[Sam Mason]

Varkie,

Thank you for your very well composed thoughts on the use of energy
programs. I agree that improving the design process and architectural
and engineering integration is critical to reducing design costs while
still proving energy code and LEED compliance. 

The one point of disagreement with your argument is on the final page
where you state, "There is presently no group of forum of any kind
representing AEDs. Every group (IBPSA, IAI, ASHRAE energy research and
computer committees, etc.) are dominated by academia and research
institutions."

People from AED firms have been involved in IBPSA and ASHRAE for many
years across all disciplines.  While many research and academic
institutions are involved with these organizations, AED firms have
always been a part of the discussion and will have increased involvement
as energy use in buildings and related carbon emissions become more
important to reducing the built environment's impact on the natural
environment.  As you point out, communication and knowledge sharing
between the design community and research/academic community is the
logical next step. In many cases this is already happening, particularly
on the residential side, but maybe what we need is a conduit for
connecting these two groups on a larger scale.

Just my two cents. Again thank you for your thoughts.

Sam


--
Sam Mason
Atelier Ten


-----Original Message-----
From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Varkie C
Thomas
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 10:23 AM
To: Joe Huang
Cc: bldg-sim at onebuilding.org
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] White Box Technologies announces the
establishment of a Center for Open Source Building Simulations

Joe:


What would be the source of funding for the  Center for Open Source
Building Energy Simulations (COSBES) ?  A non-profit organization of
architectural engineering design firms (AEDs) could support this effort
since they are the main users of such programs. There isn't one.

DOE21E should be supported, maintained and enhanced by USDOE and LBNL
until AEDs accept Energy-Plus as the replacement program for DOE21E.
Several private firms have developed easy to use forms and graphics
interfaces to DOE21E.  If USDOE and LBNL were to abandon DOE21E, then
these private firms will lose their investment.  Either USDOE continues
developing and maintaining DOE21E, or it should compensate the private
firms for their losses.

Attached are my views on energy programs including suggested
enhancements to DOE21E.  The attachments have been omitted because of
their size.

Varkie Thomas


----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Huang <YJHuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com>
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010 2:52 pm
Subject: [Bldg-sim] White Box Technologies announces the establishment
of a Center for Open Source Building Simulations

> Dear Friends and Colleagues,
> 
> White Box Technologies wishes to announce its intention to establish a

> non-profit Center for Open Source Building Energy Simulations 
> (COSBES).
> I admit the title may sound a bit on the grandiose side, but it 
> capsulizes my thinking on what may help our little world of building 
> energy simulations - a non-profit non-commercial center on simulation 
> programs and resources that's in the public domain.
> 
> My initial goals are very modest, but my long-range vision is for the 
> Center to be capable of significant software development and support, 
> but always open source. My first steps are simply to maintain an 
> open-source version of DOE-2.1E. DOE-2.1E has been effectively 
> abandoned by LBNL and DOE for close to a decade. I have assurances 
> from LBNL that it's only a matter of paperwork for them to make the 
> program open source, and have communicated to them my intentions 
> without receiving any objections.
> 
> So what would this support consist of, besides making the program and 
> source code freely available? That would of course depend on the 
> public's (your) interest and need, which is one reason for this 
> announcement! But for starters, I have a backlog of completed work 
> that have never been incorporated into the public release version of 
> DOE-2.1E, such as two-dimensional and combined response factors for 
> composite walls, a decent foundation model, and an improved weather 
> file format.  In addition, I'm currently working on contract for ORNL 
> to incorporate AtticSim into 2.1E. Lastly, I have a license from LBNL 
> to continue working on my last major work there - a partially- 
> completed
> DOE-2 to EnergyPlus translator (doe2ep) that, funding pending, can be 
> updated to the current EnergyPlus release. Also in the works and soon 
> to be launched are (1)  VisualEPlus, a graphical user interface for 
> EnergyPlus done by colleagues in China, and (2) actual-year weather 
> data service accessing NCDC's massive International Surface Hourly
> (ISH) data
> base.
> 
> I had originally thought of calling a meeting at ASHRAE to make this 
> announcement, but then realized that finding a time to meet at ASHRAE 
> is an impossibility. However, I would be happy to entertain any 
> questions and comments while at the conference, where I'll typically 
> be found in TC 4.7 and 4.2 meetings. For course, I'm also open to 
> questions and comments posted on BLDG-SIM, although my responses will 
> be somewhat delayed.
> --
> 
> Joe Huang
> White Box Technologies, Inc.
> 346 Rheem Blvd. Suite 108D
> Moraga CA 94556
> (o) +925 388 0265
> (c) +510 928 2683
> yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
> www.whiteboxtechnologies.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Joe Huang
> White Box Technologies, Inc.
> 346 Rheem Blvd. Suite 108D
> Moraga CA 94556
> (o) +925 388 0265
> (c) +510 928 2683
> yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
> www.whiteboxtechnologies.com
> 
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