Comparison of energy simulation applications used in green building

The main goal of green building is to provide comfortable life for its residents, while encountering the negative impacts on the surrounding environment. This goal can be achieved by applying effective methodologies throughout the entire life cycle of the building and maintaining an efficient usage of the available energy resources. As part of “building information modeling (BIM),” there are numerous software simulation applications that can be used for analyzing, and modeling energy consumption in all stages of green building, starting from the initial stages of planning and design, up to the final stages of operation and maintenance. In this research work, we conduct a thorough investigation, analysis, and comparison of the performance of most common software applications used for simulating and modeling the energy consumption in green building, and subsequently, the best application is recognized based on unified selection criteria, which include various sets of design parameters and operating conditions.