Multi-Family

LBNL is currently partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to extend the Home Energy Saver methodologies to apply to multi-family buildings. The first user interface is known as the Multifamily Tool for Energy Auditing (MulTEA). A MulTEA Fact Sheet can be found here. This and related pages document the work in progress. The HES multi-family project features an expanded input set and restructured database; the intent is to make the system extensible and more flexible.

As stated in a technical paper by collaborators at ORNL, "as weatherization of multifamily buildings becomes more widespread, improvement is needed in energy audit tools for multifamily buildings. On the wish list of field experts is the capability to model multizone buildings (i.e., one thermal zone per dwelling unit) with simplified user input to improve analysis of decentralized and centralized HVAC and domestic hot water systems without creating detailed building models. To provide the desired capabilities, development of an enhanced energy audit tool was begun in 2011. The tool is a strategically structured, flexible, one-zone-per-unit DOE-2.1e model coupled with a simplified user interface to model small to large multifamily buildings with decentralized or centralized systems and associated energy measures. This paper describes the modeling concept and its implementation."  See Malhotra and Im (2012) for more information.

Currently the HES multi-family project is a private API, but you can view the documentation and class structure here. We will be extending this first with a user interface developed by ORNL, then a public GUI version, with the ultimate intent of applying the expanded and restructured model to the existing HES single family and Scoring Tool products.