On this page you'll find frequently asked questions pertaining to the Building Energy Data Exchange Specification (BEDES). If your question isn't answered on this page, please contact the BEDES team at BEDES@ee.doe.gov.

General

Access and Getting Involved

Relationships With Software Tools and Schemas

General

What is BEDES?
The Building Energy Data Exchange Specification (BEDES) provides a common set of terms, definitions and data field formats that can be used by public and private software tools, data schemas and databases working within the building energy performance sector. These shared terms and definitions make it possible for all of these different implementations to work in the same “language”; since they all utilize BEDES, data can be easily imported and exported, compared, and aggregated for analysis.

Why doesn’t BEDES define relationships or a hierarchy for its data fields and definitions?
By limiting itself to terms, definitions and data field formats, BEDES retains greater flexibility and can be adopted by a variety of different data schemas and software tools. Relationships and hierarchy are left to the various schemas that map to BEDES. If there a market demand and pathway for standardizing relationships, BEDES may take that up in the future.

Access and Getting Involved

How can I view the BEDES Dictionary?
The BEDES Dictionary can be viewed by following this link.

How can I contribute to the BEDES Working Group?
Contribute to the future evolution of the BEDES Dictionary and keep abreast of the latest developments by joining the BEDES Working Group here. BEDES would not exist without the expertise and input of Working Group members. As a member, you can not only help with updating the current BEDES dictionary, but also contribute to future strategic planning for the BEDES project.

What does it mean to be BEDES compliant?
Details on BEDES compliance can be found on the BEDES Related Applications page.

How can I become BEDES compliant?
Software developers and other entities that collect or distribute building energy performance data can either adopt an existing schema that uses BEDES terms, or develop their own. For more information, see the BEDES Related Projects page.

The BEDES team can provide limited assistance to answer questions, provide guidance and check compliance. If you have questions about using BEDES in your product or process, please email BEDES@ee.doe.gov.

What are the benefits of becoming BEDES compliant?
BEDES compliance facilitates the exchange of data with other BEDES compliant products, including commonly used federal tools such as Portfolio Manager and the Building Performance Database. Because the data does not need to be manually translated and reformatted, it can be exchanged between products with lower cost, greater speed and fewer potential errors. As the BEDES compliant ecosystem of software tools and schemas grows, the value of compliance will continue to increase.

Early adopters will play an important role in shaping the growth and development of BEDES. Additionally, BEDES compliant products can be recognized by DOE on the web site and featured in events, conferences, press releases, success stories, etc.

Relationship With Software Tools and Schemas

How does BEDES relate to existing building energy efficiency data implementations such as Green Button, Portfolio Manager or HP XML?
BEDES was developed to align as much as possible with existing data implementation that have substantial market traction, serve similar use cases to BEDES, and provide data terms and definitions. These data implementations, as well as others, have been “knitted together” in the BEDES Dictionary to ensure that BEDES uses established definitions wherever possible. In order to accommodate data fields from sometimes-conflicting implementations, BEDES uses generalized terminology and occasionally has multiple terms to define one implementation field. Although BEDES is in alignment with established implementations, it is impossible to maintain all fields exactly the same. For this reason, we are developing official mappings/translators between BEDES and these common data implementations, which will be posted on the LBNL site as they are completed.

What organizations or programs are likely to become BEDES compliant first?
BEDES pilot projects are moving forward through 2015, and will work with a variety of partners within four stakeholder groups: exchange schemas, software tools, standards, and entities that collect or distribute data. For more information, please see the BEDES Strategic Working Group Recommendations (PDF) and our list of BEDES-compliant tools and schemas.

Will BEDES work with existing federal software tools such as the Energy Asset Score, the Home Energy Score or the Building Performance Database?
Many stakeholders already rely on federal analytical tools such as the asset scoring tools, and the Buildings Performance Database (BPD). These tools have been mapped to the BEDES dictionary, and will soon be exchange-compliant as well. Aligning the data formats for all these tools and activities reduces the data management burden for external stakeholders and unlocks the full utility of data that is already collected. For a more complete list of these tools, see the BEDES Related Projects page.

Are there plans to use BEDES for energy simulation tools?
In the near term, BEDES is primarily focused on use cases pertaining to empirical analysis of whole building energy use and building characteristics, which overlaps with some of the data needed for simulation tools. In the next phase of development BEDES will consider expanding its scope to cover all of the detail required for building simulation tools.