Developing a Virtual Campus Model in an Interactive Game-Engine Environment for Building Energy Benchmarking

Energy benchmarking is a critical step of building-retrofit projects because it provides baseline energy information that could help building stakeholders understand energy performance and prioritize potential retrofit opportunities. The benefits of energy benchmarking are exponentially valuable for institutional building owners such as hospitals, universities, or public agencies. In light of the proliferation of building information modeling (BIM), building automation systems, and game engine technologies, campus-wide energy information can be linked through virtual three-dimensional (3D) models for interactive energy benchmarking. This paper discusses the development of a virtual campus model that integrates the theories and technologies with the process of developing workflows and implementation strategies that can be employed and adopted in campus-level building-retrofit practices. The result from a Proof of Concept project is summarized in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed virtual campus model. This paper also describes the technical requirements, system architecture, and functionality of the virtual campus model. Finally, some lessons learned and recommendations are highlighted to help develop future research and implementation.