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Oct. 14, 2015 — Team IES was announced the winner of the ASHRAE Lowdown Showdown competition in the "Best Energy Use Results" category at this year’s ASHRAE Energy Modeling Conference.
Liam Buckley of IES coached the team of engineers, architects, designers, and energy modelers to victory, fighting off competition from seven other teams representing software vendors: Autodesk, Carrier, DesignBuilder, eQUEST, OpenStudio, Sefaira, and Trane.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), The ASHRAE LowDown Showdown was introduced to showcase the work of these teams competing to model a net zero or below building.
The challenge was to design a three-story, 53,600-square-foot office building that includes a number of specific design challenges, but also encourages design creativity. Projects were judged on energy efficiency, design creativity, workflow innovation, teamwork, and collaboration.
“The IES team," the DOE wrote, "was recognized for producing the lowest-energy design, which included an innovative atrium that cools and ventilates the entire building. Uniquely, the team also projected their design 50 years into a presumably warmer future and planned for the addition of ventilation towers that would keep the building operating at zero net energy despite higher cooling loads.”
Buckley said, "I’m thrilled that our team won the award for best energy use results. The IESVE software is a very powerful software suite with vast capabilities. However, the tools are only as good as the people using them and we had an incredible group of team members. It was a real pleasure working with them and I am very proud of the job they did.”
The IES team members were: Ben Brannon (Arup), Anna Osborne (Integral Group), Greg Romanczyk (exp), Cory Duggin (TLC Engineering for Architecture), Shona O’Dea (DLR Group), Megan Gunther (Affiliated Engineers, Inc.), and Scott West (HKS Inc.).
The IES team members have created a video that reviews the winning entry in detail. Find it here.
IES' mission is to advance the sustainability of the world’s built environment through the use of integrated performance-modeling technology, delivering resource efficient, low-energy, zero-carbon buildings, and cities for future generations. For more information, visit www.iesve.com.
