Energy-10™

ENERGY-10™ is a software tool that helps architects, builders, and engineers quickly identify the most cost-effective, energy-saving measures to take in designing a low-energy building. The simulation software is suitable for examining small commercial and residential buildings that are characterized by one, or two thermal zones (generally less than 10,000 ft².)

ENERGY-10™ can conduct a whole-building analysis, evaluating the energy and cost savings that can be achieved by applying energy-efficient strategies such as daylighting, passive solar heating, and high-performance windows and lighting systems. Using the software at the early phases of design can result in energy savings of 40% to 70%, with little or no increase in construction cost.

Developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) Center for Building and Thermal Systems, ENERGY-10™ can produce an initial estimate of energy performance in as little as 20 minutes by entering basic parameters such as geographic location of the building, total floor space, the type of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, and weather data recorded near the building site.

ENERGY-10™ is the result of a collaborative project of the NREL Center for Building and Thermal Systems, the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Berkeley Solar Group. The software is available through SBIC. For more information about the software please visit SBIC's ENERGY-10™ Web page.

The accuracy of ENERGY-10™ has been demonstrated using the BESTEST procedure, developed by NREL's Center for Building and Thermal Systems within the International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Program Task 12, which has been adopted by the U.S. Department of Energy and the international community as the accepted basis for verifying the credibility of computer simulation programs.