Source: ORNL-developed building efficiency software now available
OAK RIDGE, Tenn.—A set of automated calibration techniques for tuning residential and commercial building energy-efficiency software models to match measured data is now available as an open source code. The Autotune code, developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) by a team led by Joshua New, Ph.D., Member ASHRAE, is available on software source code repository GitHub. By cheaply producing calibrated building energy models, Autotune enables users to perform “no-touch” audits, optimal retrofits and other simulation-informed applications to be cost-effectively realized for buildings too small (less than 50,000 ft2 [4645 m2]) to warrant a traditional building audit. “Instead of having a human change the knobs, so to speak, the Autotune methodology does that for you,” said ORNL researcher Jibonananda Sanyal, Ph.D., Associate Member ASHRAE.
