Software Interoperability for Energy Efficient Building Operations Based on the IFC Data Model Standard

The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) object model as a standard data model which has a quite large scope is proposed as a standard approach (ISO-PAS 16730) to identify the specifications and enables interoperability between the AEC (Architecture Engineering and Construction) applications. Currently the majority of AEC software and system developers use IFC APIs (Application Protocols) that are capable of importing and exporting IFC/STEP files, however the IFC based applications in the energy efficiency domain has not yet well articulated. Current BEMS (Building Energy Management Systems) focus on energy performance rating of buildings is at best sporadic often consisting of an ad-hoc combination of off-the-shelf building energy management systems. This ad-hoc combination presents many difficulties as the BEMS is consist of a number of components utilizing various information exchange protocols that have to be integrated within the M&T software packages. However, even though various solutions have been proposed in the last years, a general approach based on an acknowledged standard is still missing. In this paper, a new integration methodology is presented, which comply with the data schema of the IFC standard. It allows for coherent integration of different information, helping to achieve the interoperability of the involved tools and services in collaborative working environments. The essence of the developed interoperability approach is in the consistent definition of partial IFC models for energy efficient building operations which have been tested in a demonstration test bed in Hanover – Germany.