Title: Green Building Studio and Standard 140
Who is this for: Architects, engineers, vendors and sustainable engineers involved with building energy analysis.
Takeaway: Explain what Standard 140 is and how the results of Green Building Studio (GBS) web service have been validated using the Standard 140 test.
Author: Barry Tsai – Software Development Manager, Autodesk, Inc.
Autodesk® Green Building Studio® (GBS) is a cloud-based energy analysis web service that can help architects and designers perform whole building performance analyses. GBS is used to improve the design by optimizing energy and water usage and getting to a carbon neutral design. The energy analysis is performed using DOE-2.2, the same engine as eQuest. One question (see our FAQ) users typically ask is have the results of GBS web service have been validated. In 2008 (yes, we have been around for a while) GBS version 3.4 web service simulation results were evaluated and met the criteria, under ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140, Standard Method of Test for Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs, and certified by the U.S. Department of Energy as a qualified computer software program for federal tax incentive requirements. GBS voluntarily complies with Standard 140 and continues to run the tests for each release. For any cases which fall outside the bounds of the comparison tools, GBS uses version 3.4 results as a benchmark. For the most recent and complete test results, please reference our wiki help page.
Standard 140 includes 4 sections that test various different building energy simulation scenarios:
- Sec5-2: Building Thermal Envelope and Fabric Load tests
- Sec5-3A: Space Cooling Equipment Performance
- Sec5-3B: Space Cooling Equipment Performance Comparative Tests
- Sec5-4: Space Heating Equipment Performance tests
Each test in the section is then compared with the sample simulation outputs from other simulation programs. As shown in this test for Section 5.2, GBS’s simulation results are within the range of min and max values of other computer programs.
| Computer Program (Abbrev.) | Authoring Organization | Example Results Produced by |
| BLAST-3.0 level 193 v.1 (BLAST-US/IT) |
CERL,a United States (U.S.) | NREL,b U.S. Politecnico Torino, Italy |
| DOE-2.1D 14 (DOE21D) |
LANL/LBNL,c U.S. | NREL, U.S. |
| ESP-RV8 (ESP-DMU) |
Strathclyde University, United Kingdom (U.K.) | De Montfort University, U.K. |
| SERIRES/SUNCODE 5.7 (SRES/SUN) |
NREL/Ecotope, U.S. | NREL, U.S. |
| SERIRES 1.2 (SRES-BRE) |
NREL/BRE,d U.S./U.K. | BRE, U.K. |
| S3PAS | University of Sevilla, Spain | University of Sevilla, Spain |
| TASE | Tampere University, Finland | Tampere University, Finland |
| TRNSYS 13.1 (TSYS-BEL/BRE) |
University of Wisconsin, U.S. | BRE, U.K. Vrije Universiteit (VUB) Brussels, Belgium |
What do you think? Do these Standard 140 test results look right to you? Are you interested in understanding more about GBS’s validation process? For any other GBS validation topics, please visit the validation section of our landing page. We will have more follow up articles about these topics in the near future.
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