The Energy Navigator - A Web-Platform for Performance Design and Management

Over the last three decades comprehensive research has been carried out trying to improve commissioning processes with powerful modeling tools and methodologies for data analysis and visualization. Typically addressed application scenarios are facilities management, contracting, special consulting services and measurement & verification as part of a certification process. The results are all but convincing: Monitoring of building operation has so far not become a regular service for buildings. We have identified a lack of process integration as a significant barrier for market success. Most methodologies have so far caused additional initial invest and transaction cost: they added new services instead of improving existing ones. The Energy Navigator, developed by synavision GmbH in cooperation with leading research institutes of the Technical University Braunschweig and the RWTH Aachen University, presents a new methodology with several new approaches. Its software platform uses state graphs and a domain specific language to describe building functions offering an alternative to the software that is so far most widely used for this task: Microsoft Word. The Energy Navigators so called Active Functional Specification (AFS) is used for the technical specification of building services in the design phase. After construction it is completed by the supplier of the BMS (Building Management System) with the relevant sensors data as documentation of his service. Operation data can then automatically be checked for initial and continuous commissioning on whether it meets the criteria of the specification. First real life applications have shown that the Energy Navigator offers a software solution that can be applied by actually simplifying existing [FPPR12] M. N. Fisch, C. Pinkernell, S. Plesser and B. Rumpe The Energy Navigator – A Web-Platform for Performance Design and Management In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings (IEECB), Frankfurt a. M., Germany, April 2012. www.se-rwth.de/publications 2 building processes, by improving documentation of building services and by providing an automated control of building operations. Research shows that good operations are essential for sustainable buildings. By providing a standardized functional commissioning process and a state-of-the-art web platform for building services without significant additional cost the Energy Navigator promises to be a breakthrough for quality in building operations.