AIRAH have released their Building Simulation Procurement Guide.
According to AIRAH’s website, the Guide provides advice for anyone intending to engage a consultant to perform a building simulation. The Guide itself states that developers, architects, building owners, facility managers and managing agents will all benefit from it.
The Guide defines a building simulation as “a computational model that approximates the performance of the actual building in practice be this for energy consumption, thermal comfort, daylight or ventilation.”
The Guide covers several key topics about building simulation, including but not limited to: what a building simulation is, getting a quality simulation, asking for a quote, what to look for in a consultant, informed required for a simulation, steps for a completing simulation and the what, why, how & when of building simulation.
The types of building simulations that the Guide covers are natural ventilation, facade optimisation, HVAC optimisation, NABERS Energy Base Building, NCC (National Construction Code) JV3 and Green Star energy, daylight and thermal comfort. The types of building simulations that the Guide does not cover are CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), tenancy energy consumption, water consumption modelling and NCC Class 1 or 2 residential modelling.
The Guide also contains the process for NABERS energy simulation for a commitment agreement, the process for NABERS energy simulation, the process for Green Star energy simulation, the process for Green Star daylight simulation, the process for Green Star thermal comfort simulation, the process for NCC JV3 simulation and the process for design simulation.
You can find the AIRAH Building Simulation Procurement Guide here.