Existing energy expertise for the design of commercial buildings could go largely unused because it is not available in a manageable form to building designers and owners. This report proposes making this expertise available to designers of commercial buildings as an energy component of the design tools that will be available in the 1990s. The energy component would be developed with Department of Energy funding and would be integrated with commercial design tools. The energy component would make it simpler to consider energy alternatives as the building is being designed. The report surveys this subject area, analyses potential applications for such tools, describes and analyses concepts and models of the energy component, and provides a phased feasibility plan for research and development work on the energy design component • i i i • He next selects the energy characterization mode, which can supply information on energy patterns for a typical office building of this configuration in the Sacramento region. The program automatically calculates expected energy and demand costs based on the local utility rates. It then describes the energy flows within the building in charts that depict lighting and HVAC system v oped software for use in the design of buildings. The result would be an integrated software package to aid the designer in the building design process and to provide expert insight into the energy related implications of a proposed design. The preface presents a scenario showing how the proposed software tool could work. Without such an effort, available energy expertise, which could presently result in significant long-term savings nationwide, will go largely unused by designers and owners who have shorter-term goals to meet and little time or incentive to become energy experts.