As the Midwest Energy Solutions Conference gets into full swing this week, Chicago’s The Weidt Group debuted the ECOnirman Whole Building Performance Tool, a Web-based simulation tool for energy code compliance with implications for the U.S. market.
The Weidt Group, with funding from USAID, developed the tool, which assists building designers and developers in demonstrating their performance-based compliance, with India’s Energy Conservation Building Code. Users of the tool need not have building science or simulation expertise. With a minimal learning curve, a user with knowledge equivalent to that of a fifth-year architecture student, with access to an hour of an HVAC engineer’s time, can use the tool to demonstrate compliance with ECBC. A total of 1,294 city locations in India are supported.
The tool shows great promise for energy efficiency in India by allowing building developers and designers to make trade-offs between building systems and to use innovative building materials to comply with the energy code.
