Tools for Building Engineers, Designers, and Operators

U.S. Department of Commerce

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology, Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL), Office of Applied Economics website provides access to economic products and services created by BFRL through research and consulting to industry and government agencies in support of productivity enhancement, economic growth, and international competitiveness. Their focus is on improving the life-cycle quality and economy of constructed facilities. The website includes a variety of tools:
• • The Risk Mitigation Toolkit is a central source for risk assessment and risk management guidance documents, data on the frequency and consequences of natural and man-made hazards, procedures for performing economic evaluations, and software tools to assist with developing a cost-effective risk mitigation plan for constructed facilities.
  • The Life-Cycle Cost Analysis Tool for Chem/Bio Protection of Buildings can help users make consistent comparisons of chem/bio protection strategies based on established economic evaluation practices.
  • The Cost-Effectiveness Tool for Capital Asset Protection, Version 3.0 can help users make straightforward and consistent comparisons of risk mitigation strategies based on established economic evaluation practices.
  • CONTAM is a multizone indoor air quality and ventilation analysis computer program designed to help predict airflows, contaminant concentrations, and personal exposure.

U.S. Department of Energy

• The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Indoor Environment Department, Energy Performance of Buildings Group (EPB) website provides information on EPB’s work on problems associated with whole-building integration involving modeling, measurement, design, and operation. Included is the COMIS Multizone Air Flow Model, which models the air flow and contaminant distributions in buildings. It also can simulate several factors that influence air flow, including cracks, ducts, duct fittings, fans, flow controllers, vertical large openings (windows and/or doors), kitchen hoods, passive stacks, and "user-defined components."

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Offices of Air and Radioation (OAR) and Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA), Indoor Environments Division (IED) 

• The Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) website provides information on indoor air quality issues and EPA’s Indoor Environments Program, a voluntary (non-regulatory) program to address indoor air pollution. Also included is Indoor Air Quality in Large Buildings, Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM), designed to be a comprehensive state-of-the-art guidance tool for managing indoor air quality in commercial buildings.

Rhode Island Department of Public Health

• The Building Vulnerability Assessment Tool is designed to assist building owners/managers in locating air-handling system vulnerabilities to the introduction of biological agents and to help improve overall indoor air quality.