BIM Guide 05 - Energy Performance

Executive Orders (EO), legislations, and Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) have all helped define the sustainability goals that federal agencies must meet each year.  To meet these goals, GSA is using building information modeling (BIM) for energy modeling to strengthen the reliability, consistency, and usability of predicted energy use and energy cost results.  Specific benefits to a project team may include: more complete and accurate energy estimates earlier in the design process, improved life-cycle costing analysis, increased opportunities for measurement and verification during building occupation, and improved processes for gathering lessons learned in high performance building.  As BIM tools continue to improve and the use of BIM becomes increasingly a standard of practice, use of BIM for energy modeling can enable more frequent energy simulations throughout design, construction, and building operations.  This greater availability and accuracy of information can help improve energy efficiency strategies for GSA buildings.

GSA is currently encouraging, documenting, and evaluating the implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies to assist energy performance analyses and operational practices on a project-by-project basis.

GSA Building Information Modeling Guide 05 - Energy Performance (6/2015) >> [PDF - 2 MB]