Overview

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Energy Asset Scoring Tool (Asset Score) is a free, web-based tool that helps building owners, managers, and operators evaluate the energy performance of their buildings. Unlike tools that measure how a building is actually operated, Asset Score is built to assess the physical and structural energy efficiency of a building, focusing on elements like its envelope (roof, walls, windows) and major systems (lighting, HVAC, and hot water) rather than occupant behavior. This means it normalizes for how the building is operated and doesn't require users to input actual energy consumption data, making it useful for comparing buildings on a level playing field.

Under the hood, the tool runs on EnergyPlus, which simulates the user-specified building and analyzes the as-built building systems under standardized operating conditions.

Once a user enters their building data, the tool generates an Asset Score Report documenting the building's system evaluation and potential energy savings opportunities. The tool's recommendation engine draws upgrade options from a wide range of advanced energy retrofit guides and subject-matter experts, giving users dozens of possible improvements to explore.

For users who need a faster, lower-effort option, Asset Score also includes the Quick Building Assessment Tool (QBAT), a module built on Asset Score that requires fewer user inputs than the full tool. It's designed as a quick-start wizard for users with less time or experience than a qualified building energy professional. Rather than the dozens of inputs the full Asset Score tool requires, users only need to submit information on building vintage, total floor area, building shape, number of floors, type of HVAC system, and use type, with QBAT inferring remaining inputs using building energy codes and standards. Schools can use the School Energy Assessment (SEA) form to gather this information before entering it into QBAT to generate a report identifying energy improvement opportunities. 

For next steps, see Getting Started for the steps to create and analyze a building in the tool, and the Energy Asset Score Report guide for details on interpreting your results.

Intended use:

It's worth noting that DOE positions Asset Score as a complement to, not a replacement for, professional energy audits. Because the tool simulates buildings under standardized operating conditions and loads, the savings it reports are indicative rather than predictive. As such, Asset Score is not a substitute for calibrated building energy benchmarking or audits conducted by engineers.  

Minimum Browser Requirements

Asset Score is available for use with most web browsers, including Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc., however, Microsoft Internet Explorer is not currently supported. Safari is supported only on Mac OS. Users are encouraged to use Safari or Chrome.

The Audit Template feature of the Energy Asset Score tool is available to use on all browsers and platforms, including PC’s, and mobile devices.

Note: Following the release of version 3.4.0, Asset Score users are now able to view all of the ‘Full Input Mode’ interfaces on PC’s, tablets, and mobile devices. PNNL has replaced the Adobe Flash multimedia platform with JavaScript 3D with threeJS to provide 3-D display and interactions. The Flash replacement is to ensure that existing 3-D features and interactions are available across computing platforms using mouse-based interactions. We do not yet recommend interaction with the 3D feature using a touch-screen display because the “drag and drop” function to assign building characteristics to buildings blocks are limited to using mouse-based interactions. Currently, we do not expect the more complex 3-D editing features to be performed using a touch-screen display. As we move forward, we anticipate providing additional features that will make Asset Score a viable tool for mobile / touch-screen usage. The Asset Score team would appreciate your feedback on what tools and capabilities you would find useful to have on a mobile touch-screen device in the field.    

Help File Navigation Tip

Click on the help button at the top right corner of the scoring tool's popup editing and data entry windows to jump directly to the online help that addresses your current data entry task: