District Energy Concept Adviser

Within the framework of the German research initiative EnEff:Stadt (launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology), Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP has developed a computer software to support actors in the field of urban planning during the first stages of planning energy-efficient district concepts. This software was developed in collaboration with international partners from IEA ECBCS Annex 51 "Energy Efficient Communities“ and comprises a set of individual supporting tools. The very heart of the software is a tool for the energy assessment of districts, which uses archetypes and other pre-set configurations to allow for a simple and quick data input mapping all the buildings in the district. Thus it takes the user just a few steps to identify the energy saving potential of various strategies in the areas of building construction, technical building systems, and centralized supply systems. Other included tools are a case study viewer with 19 exemplary energy efficient city quarters, information on energy efficient technologies and strategies and a benchmarking tool for measured energy use.

The development of the District Energy Concept Adviser was funded by the Germany Ministry of Economy and Technology under the project no. 0327400N.

 

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Tool sections:

 The following different tool sections are included in the District Energy Concept Adviser tool:

  • With the help of the Performance Rating tool the user can compare the energy use of a certain district with the national average of a similar district
  • The Case Studies of Energy Efficient Districts have been provided by the national representatives in the IEA ECBCS Annex 51. Studying the 19 included exemplary case studies of energy efficiently new built or renovated quarters will give inspirations for own projects but will also inform on lessons learned.
  • Various Strategies and Technologies can contribute to energy efficiency in quarters. This tool section gives a short overview on applicable measures and includes many links for further information, mostly to specific IEA annexes and tasks that deal in detail with certain technologies.
  • The Energy Assessment of Districts enables the user to calculate the energy performance of various energy concepts on the demand and the supply side. The supply can be centralised like for example a local district heating system or decentralised with boilers or heat pumps but also in combinations of both. Results are presented as delivered energy, primary energy and CO2 emissions.
  • In the section Basic a list of international and national reports dealing with energy efficient quarters can be downloaded.
  • The participating organisations of the IEA Annex 51 have been listed in the last section Contact.

 

For accessing the download area a login is needed. To register (see main menue on the right), limited personal data is asked for, which helps us to get an overview of the users and to provide you with information on updates, etc. Please register for free to get the login data by e-mail.

The District Energy Concept Adviser was designed for MS Windows. When running the application on alternative operating systems, the use of appropriate virtualization software or an MS Windows emulator is required.

Click here for the German version of the District Energy Concept Adviser (Energiekonzept-Berater für Stadtquartiere).