In 2008 Green Building Studio version 3.4 web service simulation results were evaluated and met the criteria, under ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140, Standard Method of Test for the Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs, and certified by the U.S. Department of Energy as a qualified computer software program for federal tax incentive requirements. The Green Building Studio version 3.4 results submitted to the Department of Energy can be reviewed here: Autodesk Green Building Studio Test Results. Autodesk Green Building Studio voluntarily complies with Standard 140 and continues to run the tests for each release, using GBS version 3.4 results as a benchmark.
The purpose of the standard, as stated in the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140 (Standard Method of Test for the Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs Standard):
This Standard Method of Test (SMOT) can be used for identifying and diagnosing predictive differences from whole building energy simulation software that may possibly be caused by algorithmic differences, modeling limitations, input differences, or coding errors. The current set of tests included herein consists of
- comparative tests that focus on building thermal envelope and fabric loads and
- analytical verification tests that focus on mechanical equipment performance.
These tests are part of an overall validation methodology described in Annex B18. This procedure tests software over a broad range of parametric interactions and for a number of different output types, thus minimizing the concealment of algorithmic differences by compensating errors. Different building energy simulation programs, representing different degrees of modeling complexity, can be tested. However, some of the tests may be incompatible with some building energy simulation programs.