THE BUILDING SIMULATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD IN BRAZILIAN ENERGY EFFICIENCY LABELING OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS.

The energy power consumption in Brazil grows at rates similar to GDP. Aiming to promote the energy conservation in commercial buildings, the Brazilian Government developed a regulation to classify such buildings by their energy efficiency level. The regulation allows the energy efficiency level of a building to be rated by a prescriptive method, or alternatively, by building simulation method. This paper describes the methodology used to evaluate the energy efficiency level of a commercial building for the Brazilian classification process using the building simulation method. A commercial building has been selected to showcase the application of simulation method and its results.