Building energy performance assessment: Comparison between ASHRAE standard 90.1 and Brazilian regulation

Abstract

This paper aims to focus on the comparison of the building energy performance assessment between ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 90.1—2007 and the Regulation for Energy Efficiency Labeling of Buildings in Brazil. A computational simulation using the EnergyPlus program has been conducted to evaluate the energy ratings of commercial and residential buildings located in three cities in Brazil: Brasília, Rio de Janeiro and Belém. The building energy ratings were determined based on the Regulation for Energy Efficiency Labeling of Commercial Buildings in Brazil, the Regulation for Energy Efficiency Labeling of Residential Buildings in Brazil and the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 90.1—2007. The results for the commercial buildings show that there is equivalence between levels A to C of the Brazilian regulation and the reference model from ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 90.1—2007, depending on the climate adopted. For residential buildings, the reference model from ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 90.1—2007 resulted in higher energy consumption than level C from the Brazilian regulation for all the climates analyzed. Meanwhile, the buildings energy ratings based on the Brazilian regulation were also compared with the minimum energy performance required for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.