A group of commercial manufacturers supported by International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) and members of the Hydronics Industry Alliance, a Committee of the Radiant Professionals Alliance, have released BEST: The Building Efficiency System Tool.
Available free of charge, BEST allows users to accurately compare different styles of HVAC systems. HVAC systems are all tested to different standards, with various efficiency ratings (EER, IEER, SEER, COP, HSPF), as they are applied in an actual building.
BEST uses the Building Energy Efficiency Ratio (BEER), which takes certified AHRI data, manufacturers’ published performance data at multiple performance points, as-applied correction factors, performance curves for components, pipe and duct required in a typical system. It combines these elements to bridge the gap between certified equipment efficiencies and real-world building system efficiencies.
Users enter the square footage of the building, the number of stories, and the nearest city for local weather data, and then choose up to four types of HVAC systems to compare from more than 30 pre-loaded systems.
BEST features more than 100 default input settings, including system cost per square foot (provided by more than 50 contractors around the U.S.), each of which are adjustable to model any building in any location. BEST outputs estimated installation cost, replacement cost, maintenance cost, monthly energy cost, electrical and fossil fuel consumption costs, total life cycle cost, cumulative life cycle cost by year, system payback time (as compared with other modeled systems), pump and fan HP, system integrated energy efficiency ratio (IEER), coefficient of performance (COP), and more.
Related Stories
| Jul 12, 2012
OSHA launches campaign to prevent heat illness
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has launched its 2012 Heat Illness Prevention Campaign to educate employees and their employers about the hazards of working outdoors in heat, and how to prevent heat-related illnesses.
| Jul 12, 2012
Contractors have increasing concerns over new federal hiring quotas
A proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to increase disabled- and veteran-worker hiring quotas for federal contractors continues to raise deep concerns among contractors.
| Jul 5, 2012
Veterans Administration threatens to pull contract on new Orlando medical center
The Veterans Administration asked contractor Brasfield & Gorrie to get more workers on the job and figure out a way to get the job done faster, or the VA would pull the contract on the much-delayed Orlando VA Medical Center.
| Jul 5, 2012
Cost to contractors for new federal hiring quotas much higher than estimated, AGC says
Administration officials significantly underestimated the cost to construction employers of proposed new hiring quotas for federal contractors, according to analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America.
| Jul 5, 2012
Roof membrane could have prevented roof parking deck collapse, specialist says
The collapse of a section of a roof parking deck at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake in Ontario, Canada could have been prevented if the structure had a membrane, according to a concrete expert and specialist in structure analysis at McMaster University.
| Jul 5, 2012
New Joplin, Mo. hospital being built to withstand tornado that destroyed predecessor
After the May 22, 2011, EF-5 tornado destroyed St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., architects and engineers analyzed how the nine-story structure reacted to the storm.
| Jul 5, 2012
Continued tax breaks necessary for widespread adoption of net zero buildings
Tax breaks passed by the U.S. government to encourage construction of green buildings are set to expire in 2012 and 2013.
| Jun 28, 2012
Six buildings now recognized under Living Building Challenge
The Living Building Challenge (LBC), a green ratings system for design and construction that judges a building based on its actual performance, not just its projected performance at the design stage, has recognized six buildings to date.